New Dancing Partner? A "Walz Wide"

I had a table at our local camera swap-meet yesterday, and during the

usual lull in the last hour managed to get around to see what

interesting stuff the other stall-holders had. Well, there were no

unusual Diax variants or Duo-620s with s/nos close to Amelia

Earhart's, but I did spot something I'd never heard of before -

a "Walz Wide". Honestly, I didn't even know that Walz made

cameras - I thought they were just a manufacturer of filters and

other accessories. This Walz Wide took my attention not only

because of that aspect, but its very nice "quality" feel plus its

unusual standard wide-angle f2.8 35mm lens. The only other 35mm

full-frame camera with such a wide-angle set up that I have, is an

Ilford Advocate, so I thought I'd buy this one too to give it some

company in the trophy cupboard.

 

When I got home and had some time to do a bit of research in

McK's and in Google, things got more interesting. McK's revealed

that the Walz Camera Co of Tokyo did indeed have quite a varied range

of cameras in the 50s, but all of 'em appear to be rebadged items

from other Japanese makers. So, who could have actually made this

Walz Wide, I wonder? The curiously bent wind lever and

general "look" is a bit reminiscent of some Aries stuff, so that

might be a possible clue. However, Aries don't seem to have made a

wide-angle 35mm camera. Maybe they just made the bodies and Walz

supplied the f2.8 Walzer lenses from another source?

 

Some other interesting stuff that came up via Google is that

apparently this Walz Wide produces excellent images, despite being

almost 50 years old. So, I think I'm going to have to try a film

out in it, to compare with earlier results from the Advocate. Has

anybody got any useful snippets of advice or background on this new

dancing partner of mine? ~~PN~~

Mr. Naylor,

 

You must invest in a digital camera so we can view this Wonderful Wide Walz on this here internet!

For this '50's 'wide' rangefinder era, I have Minolta's AutoWide and it's a camera I enjoy shooting. Controls are different than other Minoltas I use, makes me slow down and process what I'm doing as I'm using it.

 

In the mid-late 1950's a number of Japanese companies brought out fixed lens rangefinders with wide angle lenses (shorter than the 40mm-45mm-50mm normal lens setups of that time), seemed kind of like a 'wide' phase the industry went through. For this era, looked up the Kallo W and WF, Mamiya 35 Wide and Wide-E, Minolta AutoWide, Olympus Wide I, Wide-E, Wide Super and Wide II (early and late), then Ricoh Wide 2.4 and Welmy Wide. There was a Mamiya Sketch that was a 'wide' RF but shot in a 24mm square format. Then there was a 1973 Yashica 35 ME auto-exposure 'wide' RF that postdates this earlier phase.

 

The Walz rangefinder cameras all seemed to use Copal shutters: your Walz Wide should also have a Copal shutter. Most of the 50's 'wide' RFs above had Seikoshas (the Minolta had a Citizen), including all the regular 45mm-lensed Aires fixed RFs. Only the Olympus Wide I, Wide-E and early Wide II used Copal shutters (and also that 70's Yashica that's out of the running) like the Walz's.

 

Looking at all of these '50's 'wide' RFs, the Walz Wide really doesn't match any of the ones listed above. Externally your Walz Wide looks a LITTLE like the Olympus early Wide II: top covers look slightly similar but body castings are really different. Why couldn't Walz have built this Wide on their own?

Wanted to add that Walz Trading Co. was the marketing arm of Okada Optical Works. Walz/Okada made cameras from 1936 to 1961, when it went bankrupt (along with a half-dozen or so other Japanese photo makers at that time). First camera Okada made as a Walz was the 1936 Baby; they made Semi-format folders, MF TLRs, then a line of 35mm fixed RFs. Okada folded its name into simply Walz Trading Co. in the early 1950's, then simplified that to Walz Co. in the late 50's. And there seems to be some cross-over association also with Dai-Ichi Optical Works (the Zenobias) in the early 50's.

 

In its 1955 Walz 35, Walz/Okada is credited with making the first shutter that could be adjusted for the three different types of flashes (electronic flash, filament flash and bulb flash) used in the 50's. Konica later improved on the mechanism. This Walz 35 was the first of 6-or-so different fixed RFs that show a clear evolution; within the 6 models there were variations so that Walz sold about 10 different fixed RF models through the late 50's. One really neat piece was the 1959 Walz Envoy M 1.9. So, Walz did make its own cameras along with all those accessories.

You Walz right in, and then Walz right out.

I've got three of these fixed-lens "wide" cameras. The fad seems to only have lasted a few years --between about 1957 and 1959, I'm guessing. I don't recall seeing any other cameras that closely resemble the Walz models, so I'm assuming they were actually made by the Walz company, and not just re-badged.

 

The Walz Wide is a wonderfully-basic and easy to use camera. No surprises, and a good (I'm assuming) 4-element Tessar-design lens. Nice, smooth winding action.

 

The Welmy has some strange design features, but makes decent exposures. It has a front-element focusing lens (possibly a optical design similar to the Skopar and Solinar?), and something I have never seen inside a camera before --a chain that connects the shutter-speed selecting lever to a wheel inside the top cover that shows the selected speed in a window.

 

The Minolta seems to be over-engineered to the point of being almost unusable, so I have never used it. It suffers from an primitive selenium-cell auto-exposure feature that prevents manual settings.

 

Here's a link to what looks like a complete collection of the late 50s "wide" models:

 

http://www.cameraguild.jp/nekosan/widecamera.html<div></div>

Here's a photo taken with the Welmy Wide. (Stairway up to Zi Shan Temple, Shi Lin district, Taipei City, Taiwan)<div></div>

<p>The lens of the Walz Wide has four elements in three groups; I

suppose that everything else that's written about its design in a book I

have here is obvious when you look at it. It was announced as a new

product in the "April 1958" issues of various Japanese photo magazines

and advertised until "December 1958": all in quotes as I believe that in

those days the mags came out over one full month earlier (so "April

1958" mags would have come out at the end of February).</p><p>Walzflex TLRs go for quite a bit these

days, and I think not only because some have lenses from Zunow.</p><p>The book I used is a large Japanese-language compendium of annotated camera ads from 1935 to 1965. It's very informative, but J Hopper's source is, or sources are, more informative. I'd be most interested to know what that source is (those sources are).</p>

For Scott, yeah that AutoWide is a strange bird. I like it because Minolta seemed to have 'experimented' with where to put all the controls (not enough room under the top cover for normal placements). Makes me slow down and appreciate the process of taking photos with it. Its selenium cell metering is coupled, but doesn't control exposure.

 

There's another early RF, a Japanese 'first', that did have some rudimentary electronic exposure control by meter. That's the Mamiya Elca which beat the Minolta to market as the first Japanese camera with permanent metering by a couple of weeks in February 1957. Don't see a lot of Elcas now, but the Autowides just go on and on.

 

For Peter Evans, the books I use are mainly Sugiyama/Naoi's "Collectors Guide to Japanese Cameras", Eastman House/Condax's "Evolution of Japanese Cameras" and JCII's "History of Japanese Cameras". Amazingly all 3 of these books are now on eb*y with reasonable BIN's (i.e., the out-of-print Sugiyama book usually goes for $300+plus, found a listing at $89).

 

Anyway, all these 'wide' RFs are neat. I'll keep my AutoWide because Minolta returned to the 'wide' format for its little AF-C (another favorite); like comparing those two side-by-side for the progress they illustrate.

I have a camera that sounds very similar. Mine, however is called a "WELMY WIDE". I have not tried it out because the shutter is erratic.<div></div>

Thanks for the book tips, J Hopper!

Guys - the level of expertise in this forum is amazing. A big thank you to everybody who's contributed! I've learnt more about this "Walz Wide", not to mention the Walz Camera Co and its antecedents, than I could have found out in a week of intense googling or yahooing.

 

Clearly this Walz Co was not another Hanimex, ie just paying various camera makers to produce a rebadged model with their name on it. I've been doing some research and dug up an Oz 1960 trade catalog which includes an advert from "Camera Distributors Pty Ltd", who were apparently the distributors here for Walz. This full-page ad is a bit ambiguous, because it has "WALZ Filters, Lenses, Meters & Cameras" as a headline, but not a mention of a single camera below amongst all the pics of accessory items like cine editors, filters, meters, etc.

 

I've also been looking at BJPA Almanacs for the late 50s/early 60s period, and there's nothing there either about Walz cameras. So, the obvious question is - just where were they sold? Mine has metric scale focussing only, so that suggests Continental Europe maybe.

 

I have to agree with the other guys about its relatively simple features, ie no CRF or metering. However, it's a very solid item at around 700 gms and very nicely finished, even down to a crinkle matt-black finish inside to minimise light reflections. This one of mine is the sort of classic that we collectors just love to grab, ie looking totally unused since Day # 1 back in 1958. I can see there's no alternative but to give it a workout! BTW, no cheap shots about "Walzing Matildas" please ...... ~~PN~~

I love those Walz cameras. I have 2 Envoy 35s that are fantastic cameras. Nice contrasty RF and a great f/1.9 tessar-ish lens.

 

I didn't see it above, but I could have missed it, but I should mention that the Walz Wide is not an RF camera. The window is only for composing as it doesn't have coupled focusing. It's scale focus.

Just a note to say that I bought a Walz 35 last week at a second hand shop. It's in unmarked condition, but the shutter speeds were a bit sticky. After applying a drop of Ronsonol, as is usual, and exercising the shutter quite a few times it seemed to work OK. But it has since turned into a double stroke winder, for some reason. Earlier it only needed a single stroke to wind on and cock the shutter. Does anyone have any ideas about it? Overall it is a beautifully made camera and I am hoping that things settle down. I have put a film in it today, so fingers crossed! The rangefinder is spot-on. Cyril Lowe