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Welta Weltini II coming
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:43 pm    Post subject: Welta Weltini II coming Reply with quote

Despite having decided to not buy any new cameras I "accidentally" bought a Weltini. Two years ago I tried to get one at a reasonable price, but never succeeded. Now I bumped to one a couple of hours before the end of bidding. The highest bid was still quite low, and I decided to follow the bidding. One minute before the end the highest bid was still something like 27 Euros so I thought I might get it cheap if lucky. Well, just before the end, I submitted a bid of 40 Euros not really expecting to win, but this time I was lucky(?) and got it for 37 Euros, see Click here to see on Ebay

Welta Weltini II was one of the better rangefinder cameras just before WWII, comparable to the contemporary Kodak Retina II, with an inflation corrected price between USD 1000 and 1500, depending on the lens - it was the only non-Leitz 35mm camera available with a Leitz lens, a 50mm Elmar. My Weltini has an S-K Xenon 2/50, which was the most expensive other alternative.

According to the tracking information, I may get it tomorrow. However, I've got no idea when I'll be able to test it, there are other cameras still in the queue.

Veijo


PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow! Congratulations. Sometimes you can be lucky on *BAY.


PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Congrats, Veijo!

Weltas are nice cameras and well built.
Is it 35mm as my Welti I?.

Jes.


PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jesito wrote:
Congrats, Veijo!

Thanks.

Quote:
Weltas are nice cameras and well built.
Is it 35mm as my Welti I?.


Yes, I've also got a Welti Ic. If you look carefully, you can see that basically the Weltini is just a Welti turned upside down with the range finder added on what used to be the bottom. Consequently, the film moves from the right to the left.

Veijo


PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Weltini arrived a week ago, and I'm half-way through the first roll of film. The camera is almost like new despite being 71 years old (the lens was manufactured in October/November 1936, the camera in 1937). The viewfinder is clear but small, and the rangefinder seems to work as expected, but the contrast is somewhat low, even compared to the rangefinder of my FED-2. The shutter is very quiet, this is a nice street camera, only one must remember to cock the shutter before taking a shot.

Here it is beside a Minolta Hi-Matic 9 from 1967, which is defunct with a stuck aperture/shutter:



The DOF table on top of the Weltini is somewhat optimistic, about 1 stop. The shutter release button is on the left. When the camera is closed also the button retracts to be almost flush with the top. When a button under the bottom is pushed, the camera opens with a very reassuring, rather quiet plop, the sound resembles the slap of a well-damped MF SLR mirror. The lens resets to infinity when the camera is closed. The depth of the closed camera is about 46mm only.

Here is a frontal shot of the cameras:



The Weltini with the retracting 2/50 Xenon can rather comfortably be carried in a pocket whereas the Minolta with the non-retracting 1.7/45 Rokkor-PF would be rather awkward.

This will probably be my favourite RF camera for the moments when the Robot Royal or even the FED-2 would be too noisy.

Veijo