Fun with an Ultraflex

<p >The Ultraflex was made by Montanus, the same company who made the Delmonta I featured in an earlier post:</p>

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<p ><a href="/classic-cameras-forum/00UFzt">http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00UFzt</a></p>

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<p >I think it dates from the mid 1950's. There were two versions, one with lever wind and automatic shutter cocking – the Rocca Automatic, also sold as the Edixa 66. The other with knob wind and manual shutter cocking was sold as the Montiflex and Ultraflex. There's some confusion on the web about these variants, and there's not much information about them at all.</p>

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<p >Well the Ultraflex, although there are family resemblances with the Delmonta, was a real heavyweight (literally) entry into the TLR market. It has Steinheil Cassar F/2,8 viewing and taking lenses, and a Prontor SVS shutter. Some cameras had Rodenstock Trinars. It's a curious mixture of futuristic design and primitive operation. I though at first it was a display item only - the manual shutter cocking lever on the right hand side, which has a travel of about two inches, flapped uselessly up and down, so I wasn't very optimistic about getting it working. And there's some signs of fungus in the taking lens.</p><div></div>

<p >The ebay seller couldn't understand why the top came off. Actually its very nicely implemented, you press a button on the side, and the whole viewing hood pops off.</p>

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<p >After cleaning it up and cosmetically restoring it, I plucked up the courage to remove the two screws at the front. Bingo! The front escutcheon came off in one piece, revealing at least some of the secrets of its operation. The reason for the shutter not operating was that a lever which should have linked the shutter release to the mechanism was bent, and it wasn't moving things far enough to trip the shutter. It was easy to bend it back to the correct position. Then the shutter worked, rather unreliably at first but eventually it came good, apart from the one second and 1/10 second speeds not working..</p>

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<p >It has a flash socket at the bottom, with X and M synch, and a remote socket above the shutter release.</p><div></div>

<p >The lenses rotate in focusing helices to focus, however there aren't geared together as in, for example, a Super Ricohflex. Instead there is what I would describe as a coupling rod, in locomotive engineering terms, joining the taking lens to the viewing lens. A clever piece of design.</p>

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<p >There is a thumbwheel you can turn to focus, but its just as easy to turn the taking lens itself. Focusing is smooth and light. The lenses take 40.5mm screw accessories, luckily I've got a good supply of these including a vented Leica type hood. Inside the lower roller is oversized to reduce the film flatness problems which can ocur with the 90 degree bend in TLR's – Rollei, please note!</p>

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<p >There are all of six grub screws around the lens tube, which you have to loosen to set the focus. When I did it the lenses seemed to co completely out of synch, and jam. Scary! But I managed to screw the taking lens out again into its correct position. (actually I was trying to find out how to open up the taking lens to clean off the fungus, but I had to abort this. I'll leave it on a sunny windowsill, when we eventually get some sun, to try and kill the fungus which isn't too bad).</p><div></div>

<p>Oh and it came with a rather nice original plastic double lens hood. I'm not sure which way up is best. The lovely leather ever ready case is marked "Hand Stitched in England".</p>

<p >There's no film winding mechanism, just a red window. I think it has double exposure prevention but only works occasionally. In use it's an infuriating mixture of nice features and frustrating problems. Its easy to knock the aperture and speed levers of their settings, and easy to grab the speed setting lever instead of the cocking lever. Film winding is a pain because the red window with its sliding cover is rather small. The plain ground glass screen is not the worst I've used as its an F/2.8 lens. I took off the screen and found the large mirror in excellent shape. The magnifier works reasonably well with my eyesight.</p>

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<p >I forgot to mention that the half silvered mirror on the hood, with ULTRAFLEX written on it, is actually the sports finder.</p><div></div>

<p >I loaded it with Ilford 400 ISO black and white film. It was a dull day at the Abbey Pumping Station Museum, but I put on a yellow filter and decided to see how the Cassar would perform in dull conditions.</p><div></div>

<p>The film was commercially developed and scanned at 1200DPI on my Epson 4870.</p><div></div>

<p>The lens hood has caused a little vignetting.</p><div></div>

<p>Inside I had to reduce the shutter speed and open the lens up from F11 to F5.6.</p><div></div>

Looks like you invested a lot of time and energy in figuring out how to make this thing work. Taht is a

strange bird .. there exists another TLR with a fast 2./8 lens? I'm shocked at my ignorance! I ahve two

project TLRs the one went really south with the lens both the shutter blades and the glass needing

cleaning from too much naphta and helical grease diluting and foulng the shutter and the glass.. Do post

any results you can make with it.

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<p>Another one:</p>

<p>Chuck, I'm being as quick as I can. I've had failures too, I don't tell anyone about them. Actually the Ultraflex is rather rare and there's very little about them on the internet.</p>

<p>Another picture:</p><div></div>

<p>Last one for now at least, thanks for looking.</p><div></div>

<p>Might win some kind of prize for the "most numbers engraved on the camera".<br>

Interesting camera, and nice images of an appropriate nature for the 'style' of the camera.</p>

<p>Never, ever heard of it before, so especially appreciate the post.</p>

 

<p>I've just realised that the "turbine" reminds me of the Martian spacecraft in "Quatermass and the Pit".</p>

<p>I found a magazine ad for the automatic version:</p><div></div>

<p>Very interesting, and the boiler picture really illustrated that the camera can deliver excellent results. Thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>That's not a camera I've ever seen in the flesh, but I'd read that they are capable of quality work; your images establish that, <strong>John</strong>. Definitely a collectible. Thanks for the excellent presentation of the camera, and an interesting read.</p>

Very nice images and informative post. Thanks.

<p>very nice</p>

<p>Thanks for the post John, as I have never heard of, let alone seen, this camera. The fact that it sports a 4 element F2.8 lens makes it more than a little interesting. I am constantly amazed at the variety of TLR's that were built. You could base a whole collection on just TLR's and probably never get them all!<br>

Nice pics from what looks to be an interesting place, good sharpness with a hint of "Leica" glow....just what you want in a vintage camera.</p>

<p>Thanks again for the comments. Tony I'm not sure if the Cassar is three- or four-element. The glow is probably down to fungus, which I'm hoping to have cleaned up when I get it to a local repairer, who I'll ask to service the shutter as well.</p>

<p>"You could base a whole collection on just TLR's and probably never get them all!"</p>

<p>Someone did! http://www.tlr-cameras.com/</p>

I've done this guide to operating the Ultraflex in response to a member's query:

 

Film Loading

Open the back by sliding the bar at the top towards the right and hinge the back downwards. There should be an empty 120 spool in the space at the top – you have to pull out the knobs on both sides to get it in. The film goes in the space at the bottom, again by pulling out both knobs. Draw the film leader paper upwards and over the rollers, and engage it with the slot in the empty spool. Turn the knob as you keep the film tight with a finger until it's securely rolled on to the spool. Then close and lock the back by sliding the bar left, and advance the film until you see the number 1 in the red window. Note that the knob below the red window opens and closes a little cover, which you should only open when advancing the film, to prevent fogging. After taking the first picture, advance it to number 2 and so on up to 12, then continue winding until the exposed film is fully on the take up spool. It's exactly the same procedure as for many box cameras and other simple cameras without a film counting mechanism, which is, to be honest, one more thing to go wrong.

 

Taking Pictures

There is no interlock between film wind and shutter on these. Winding the film, and cocking and firing the shutter, are quite separate operations.

 

You have to cock the shutter by raising the lever to the bottom left as you look at the front. This should come up around two inches in its slot, and drop down again once the shutter is cocked. Then trip the shutter by depressing the lever to the top left. You should hear a click (and a whirring sound at slow speeds) and see the shutter blades open and close. Unfortunately shutters are often the weak point on old cameras, be prepared for the slow speeds in particular to be sticky and unreliable.

 

Set the aperture via the lever to the left of the lower (taking) lens, and the shutter speed via the lever to the right. It's probably better to change the shutter speed before cocking the shutter on these.

 

Make sure the selector below the taking lens is set to “X” which is for electronic flash (the flash socket is below the bottom front). Don't set it to “M” which is for flash bulbs, or “V” which is the self timer, very likely sticky or jammed on old cameras.

 

Viewing and Focusing

Lift the hood and compose and focus the picture on the ground glass, flipping up the magnifier for precise focusing. Focus by turning the thumb wheel to the left of the upper lens as you hold it, when the two lenses will both turn together. You can also look through the square hole at the back of the hood which forms a sports finder with the half silvered glass at the front – marked “Ultraflex”.

 

You can remove the viewing hood by pressing the little button above the film advance knob.

 

Upon re-reading my original post I'm not sure now whether it has, or should have, double exposure prevention.