FOTAX Plate Camera

[Scheimpflug]

Here is an odd one- a vintage FOTAX plate camera.

In all of my searching, I haven't found a single reference to this camera, or the company, so I would greatly appreciate any information or leads that you folks can provide.







The shutter is a Compur, and the lens markings are as follows:
L. O. Bittner & Co. Munchen
LOB-DOPPEL-ANASTIGMAT
1:6,3 f=13,5cm







I should also note that the name plate reads "FOTAX" exactly... that isn't a typo, so this is not a "Fotex" camera (http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Fotex), nor is it a "Photax" camera (http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Photax). The plate also reads "HAAG Wagenstr. 73".





Thanks.

[RioRico]

I just did some quick gargling for FOTAX CAMERA OR KAMERA and found references to a super-small 35mm FOTAX MINI (various versions) and a TLR, the FOTAX FLEXO. Some of the referernce are in Swedish and weren't well translated. A Fotax Mini just sold on eBay.uk for around US$18, so they're not unknown. But try that search and see what you discover. Good luck!

[luisalegria]

That sort of identification plate was common on this type of cameras from this period. This was usually added by a camera shop or distributor. This one has a street address so it is almost certainly from a camera shop.

Often these were placed on cameras with no other markings so the camera shop could sell a house brand.

Maybe you can find what city the shop was in - well, maybe not, as I expect there are a lot of "Wagenstrasse" in Germany.

Actual camera makers marks would usually have been embossed on the leather cover in front or on the back, on the strap, or engraved on the bed or rail frame.

Bittner was a small and short-lived lens and camera maker in Munich apparently from 1919-1925. Both lens and camera could have been made by Bittner, though it seems that among the smaller German makers there was plenty of subcontracting, so the parts were to a degree mix-and-match.

I have a very similar otherwise unmarked camera (though different in many details) with a "Rodenstock Munchen" plate. Now, Rodenstock didn't make cameras, but did sometimes buy in cameras from Welta and others and rebranded them. Is mine really a Welta ? I don't know. I suspect it is.

Yours also has some features typical of Weltas, like the handle hardware, the focusing knob and the structure around it. But other parts like the bed struts and opening grips are different.

Yours has got a double extension bellows and both rise and shift knobs, as well as the Compur shutter, so it was something of a higher end product.

The lens is a doppel anastigmat, almost certainly four elements in four groups, like the Rodenstock Eurynar. It has two focus scales so the lens is convertible, you should get a lens of longer focal length by unscrewing the front cell. Good ones could easily be as sharp a a Tessar with similar coverage, but maybe less contrast. I had a 18cm Eurynar and still have a Kodak 203mm Ektar that were extremely sharp.

Sadly, the Compur shutter here is missing the cocking lever. You could make a replacement out of brass stock most likely, but it may not be so easy to get replacement screws.

[luisalegria]

It seems that there was a Swedish Fotax camera maker founded in either 1941 or 1946.