Foldex 20!

[Mos6502]

Here's a funny one:


I got it for the flash -I have a Foldex 30 which has a Steinheil Cassar lens and vario shutter. I thought it might be fun to play around with a flash with it.

The flash was attached to the Foldex 20 though - so now I have that version too. This was a really cheap folder, more of a folding box camera. Single speed shutter, single element lens, fixed focus. Thick gauge steel construction. It might be fun to run a roll through.

Anybody have one of these?

Oh yeah -and its chief claim to fame was its ability to use either 120 or 620 film. The spindles for the spools are stepped so either will fit.

[Attila]

Flash is impressive camera looks to me very basic, I don't have experience with it.

[luisalegria]

I have been thinking that one of these would be a good body for remounting a nice lens, like a Tessar or Skopar in Compur.

The body was very well made. Better than Franka or Agfa, usually.

[Mos6502]

They're apparently popular for pinhole conversion. This particular example does not seem to have the lensboard perfectly parallel to the film plane though - so that would be something to watch for when considering swapping in a better lens and shutter. The other thing is that the early (more common) version of the 20 uses an 86mm lens mounted behind the shutter, and so the viewfinder gives a wider view. This later version uses a 105mm lens in front of the shutter.

[Mos6502]

Here's the 30 and 20 next to each other. One interesting bit of Trivia, the 20 was discontinued in 1962 some three years after the last American made Kodak Tourist folder. It could perhaps be the last American made folder. I don't know when Spartus killed their 120 folder, but I think it was around the same time. If anything made it to 1963 it would have been killed dead by the instamatic anyway.

[dof]

^ If you count Graflex press cameras as folding cameras, they were made into the early 1970s.

[Nesster]

^ and Polaroid I think made folders for a while longer... this nit picking doesn't change the interesting fact. Foldex, eh?


I see they diversified into folding cats
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/catbreed/foldex.htm

[Mos6502]

When did Polaroid make their last rollfilm folder? They switched to pack film in 1963 I know that - but did they discontinue their roll film cameras at the same time?

Graflex have a bellows but they're not really the same type of camera...