Skyflex

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Wow! didn't know there were so many 'flexes. Shame that Reinholdt Heidecke didn't keep his patent.

 

The muscle flex in no.1 is probably the most impressive.

 

Also, the Firstflex is actually third on your shelf, you may need to re-arrange that.

 

Cheers, Tony

I want a Herco-Flex - who would mess with a camera named after the son of Zeus :p Obviously the toughest of the bunch...

Nice shots, Gene. That's a pretty decent lens on that camera.

I agree with Tony that the muscle-flex might be older but still looks stronger than most of those camera, and the picture of the muscle-flex looks better than the skyflex. Best regards, Minh

Note that the GeneFlex has the 2-stop ND or Brown filter installed on the two viewing lenses, and an interesting set of close up lenses on a convenient aftermarket lanyard around the neck of the camera body. Looks like a tough camera that can take a lot of abuse and still produce results.

 

On the SkyFlex, do I have this right, the taking lens is a Tri-Lausar ? Sounds like a three legged dinasaur.

 

Nice collection. Where's the CiroFlex, later bought and continued to be produced by Graflex? I gotoneto play around with 'cause it was cheap. It's OK actually, but no where near as good as the Rolleicord or Yashica flexes which have high quality tessar taking lenses. I am still amazed how good some of my images return form the 75mm Xenar on the Rolleicord.

Regardless, an impressive collection you have there.

I don't suppose I could ever get away with being seen holding a Beautyflex....

"Focus and film advance knobs should never be on the same side of the camera."

You mean there's another way??? I only have the Yashica A, and that's the way it is. Imagine that. I've seen many of the others shown, and few that are not, but some of the guys here are right, I've never seen the "Hercoflex" either.

nice images, i didnt know there were so many flexes either. great lens on that one.

Gene: Thge fire tower that at the Quabbin Resev: and if you get Tired

of the Rolliflex , I'll send you the Postage: running for cover Lauren

 

Happy Vets Day:

"Wow! didn't know there were so many 'flexes. Shame that Reinholdt Heidecke didn't keep his patent."

 

Rollei did NOT invent the TLR. The first TLR cameras were manufactured towards the end of the 19th century.

 

Also, all german patents were no longer valid internationally after 1945.

Well, Gene, I knew your camera collection was the stuff of legend, but that Metascoflex just blows me away. The name was good enough, but the camera itself looks like it was cannibalized from a number of TLR wrecks by a dyslexic camera-Frankenstein-type operative. I guess it's one to only use during thunderstorms.

Metascoflex...there's a name that just falls off one's tongue.

Gene, excellent TLRs collection as well as the pictures from the Tri-Lausar.

 

Ian Parker wrote in his book: "The 1950's were considered the golden years of the TLR with many manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon. Collating all known TLRs took me many months. Somehow I managed to lose the list. The number exceeded a staggering 500 with 294 made in Japan alone. Nearly all the cameras had, I remember, an f3.5 lens with only 22 with the f2.8" -Rollei T.L.R. - The History- pg.113

Quite right Winfried, I guess we just associate TLR's with Rollei. Also didn't know that about the patents, learn something new every day!

 

Tony

Gene,

 

You find the darndest cameras I have ever seen even in my 6 decades of photography experience.

 

For people who wondered about flexes, some of us counted up around 80 Rolleiflex/cord copies back in the late 50's or early 60's.

 

Also when I obviously didn't have anything better to do, I counted up 95 different tessar type lenses and finally said to heck with it, there are still some of them out there.

 

Lynn

The Lausar was a prewar Tessar type produced by Tomioka who later made excellent lenses for Yashica, the Tri-Lausar is probably Triplet by the same company and should be very capable - especially in Gene's hands.