Welmy Six Info

I have the chance to buy a Welmy Six folding camera from a neighbor.

It seems like a very well made camera. I wondered if anyone had any

experience using one. Specifically I'd like to find out what the

optical quality of the lens is. It has a 75mm f3.5 terionar lens.

Any info on how many elements it has? I also saw a Welmy Six online

with a 75mm f4.5 terionar lens. Is it much different? Thanks.

I have one of these, a rather late model with square viewfinder windows.

The camera in general is well-made and basically one of the many japanese imitations of the Zeiss 6x6 Nettar cameras, plus a right-angle viewfinder (the second window is NOT a waist-level reflex finder!). Mine has the f/3.5 lens which seems to perform quite well (I can't remember having used it fully open but otherwise I found no flaws - I have seen worse lenses on other cameras). It is a standard triplet design, so you should not expect too much edge sharpness fully open.

The shutter is a bit primitive and does not allow for changing from the 'high speed' range (1/25 - 1/200) to the 'low speed' range (1 to 1/10). The shutter is synchronised but has an obsolete Kodak flash sync connector, and no self timer.

The right-angle viewfinder sometimes is useful for making sneaky shots but you have to get used to it... hardly any shot I took this way is exactly vertical, all movements of the camera appear reversed in the finder.

The bottom line is, the Welmy Six may be a good and affordable entry to 6x6 photography.

"The shutter is a bit primitive and does not allow for changing from the 'high speed' range (1/25 - 1/200) to the 'low speed' range (1 to 1/10)."

This hardly makes sense - just add 'when cocked' to this phrase.