Hey all! It’s Sunday evening down here and I want to write to you about my cameras – I seem to be acquiring them at an alarming rate. The latest is a Balda Baldessa I. A bit of research has me wondering why I got this mint-condition beauty (with mint-condition case) for no cost whatsoever.
This thing is a wonder of design. A quick look at the top of the camera (which is quite often the business ends of things as far as cameras go) only reveals a shoe and a shutter-button. Where are the winders located you ask? Why, they’re on the bottom of it. The turn-key winder flips out, and a push of a switch (oddly labelled T/R) causes the rewind lever to pop up. Freaky stuff.
Aperture and shutter speed are controlled on the lens. Once you set them you can change the aperture and shutter speed at once – they lock together. Focusing is a bit of guesswork – you twist the lens to the corresponding distance. Because it’s a viewfinder you don’t know about the focusing until you get the film back. What a bugger!
The other big issue with it is that it’s not metered. I’ve purchased a Metrophot light meter off eBay – it should make taking photos easier than using another camera to meter (which is what I’m currently doing).
I don’t know if this thing works yet – I’ve got a roll of Ilford XP4 in it. Only 30 more photos to see if it works!
The camera front. The button under the lens is the rewind lever pop-up button.
Underneath the camera. Rewind and film advance levers are found here.
Back of the camera. You can just see two silver things on the right of the right are the case buttons. Press them together and the back of the camera quite literally falls off.
Top of the camera.
Top of the camera in the case. You can see the aperture, shutter speed and focusing rings on the lens. The button on the aperture ring is part of the locking mechanism for aperture/shutter combo.
The case. Plastic and leather, in pristine condition with ‘MADE IN WEST GERMANY’ stamped on it.
All in all I really like this camera. It looks and feels really nice in the hand. I will post some pictures on here when I get the film processed.
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