<p>Flexarets are great machines, the Flexaret VI was the first TLR I ever owned and it still works like a charm. They have very good lenses. Flexarets are often seen as a kind of underdog and many think they are crap because many people just bought one that had been sitting in a cupboard for 3 decades and because of that it had been frozen. If you buy a Flexaret you have to buy one that has been recently serviced. Camera's are pretty much like a car, you wouldn't drive a care straight away when it has been sitting in a barn for over 30 years, you first give it a good service and make sure everything works like it should. Many seem to forget this and are frustrated when they get the camera and see it won't work. The Flexaret II's are quite simple in design and indeed lack the automated transport which is a plus sometimes because it can't go wrong there. The lenses however are only a Triplet in most cases (although there exist Flexaret II's with Tessar (Belar) lenses) but that is of course a matter of taste. The Tessar lenses preform even better than this, these machines are nifty and cheap little buggers that never have let me down on a trip.</p>