Welta Welti I

[tgh]

In a previous thread, Raid Amin & I began comparing notes on our

Welta Welti I cameras. Sort of a good-natured, "Bet my Welti's newer

than your's" comparison. He suggested I post photos both of and from

my Welti after I finished the first roll.

 

So the technical stuff about the camera first. Meyer-Optik Trioplan

50mm f/2.9 lens set in a Vebur shutter, with speeds from 1 - 1/250th,

plus B. "Welti I" is embossed on the front leather, and the back is

embossed with a "Made in Germany" and a Triangle-1 with the numbers

37/378/1001 below that. It's also stamped in greenish ink, "Germany

USSR Occupied". The DOF table on the back is in English and the

distances are marked in feet only - obviously made for an export

model.

Otherwise it's apparently pretty much like every other Welti I made

from 1939 until 1950. It's a pretty basic functioning, 35mm folder.

Not quite as smooth in operation as my Kodak Retina IIA since it's

scale focusing, has a film advance release button and a separate

lever to tension the shutter and the aperture setting lever is a

little awkward to get at by reaching in around the front door, but

overall it's a pretty decent user.

 

Now that I've assured myself that it's light-tight, I may try it with

color film next.<div></div>

[tgh]

I couldn't get the details from the back to show up very well from a Canon digital P&S, but a direct scan from a flatbed scanner caught them.<div></div>

[tgh]

Now a few images. None are anything terribly dramatic. Most were made on an overcast day, and given that the three-element Meyer-Optik lens isn't exactly oozing with contrast, and my flatbed scanner with film adapter isn't known for grabbing the subtlest details of a negative either, so none of them really jumps off the screen. They were made on AgfaPan APX 100, developed in HC-110 dilution B for 7 minutes.

 

I included a wide scan of two negatives to show both the irregular frame spacing, and the distinctive bumps on the corners of the negatives from the shape around the channels at the top and bottom of the film gate.

[tgh]

Then more traditionally cropped images from a few negatives.

 

An old combine harvestor - not quite field-ready.<div></div>

[tgh]

A few hay bales sitting at the edge of a field.<div></div>

[tgh]

Someone lost a glove at the edge of the road which ended up on a fence post.<div></div>

[tgh]

A detailed view of an old tractor which was probably made about the same year as the Welti was. I wanted to test slower speeds and closer focusing than the outdoor shots.<div></div>

[tgh]

A not-very-fair test for a camera with only a 1/250th top shutter speed, but a shot through the windshield, going down the highway. The motion blur in the ditch is obvious, but the details of the hillside held up.<div></div>

[tgh]

And finally, since it has a standard PC-type flash connector post, it will work with an electronic flash unit with a connection cord. I presume it synchs at all speeds. This one was at 1/100th, f/5.6 with a Honeywell Auto Strobonar 110 flash unit. OK, that part isn't pre-1970.<div></div>

[charles_stobbs3]

I'm no farmer but those are hay rolls, not bales. Baled hay, or even stacked hay sheds water relatively well but rolled hay must be wrapped in plastic to keep it from rotting in rainy weather. Nice pictures.

[benjamin_cochrane]

Great photos Todd. Thanks for sharing those with us. After I find a Certo Super, a Welta like yours will be next up. I understand these cameras came with a wealth of lens/shutter options too. Look forward to the color images.

[tgh]

Charles - I'm technically not a farmer any more, though I was one for years. Spent many hours on a tractor making a good many of these. Might be a regional thing, but around here they're called, "bales". Originally they were called "big round bales" to distinguish them from the small square bales which were more common before about 1980.

Actually, because they're rolled in layers and rounded on top, these shed water much better than small square bales, or even the more recent big square bales. They're usually ricked up in rows, end to end, and if they're left on high ground, they may keep for two or more years without spoiling. The very ends of the end bales on the row will deteriorate, and the top and bottom most inch or two on each bale, but for the most part they keep really well out in the weather.

 

In the last couple of years they've begun making big round balers which wrap the bale in a single sheet of heavy plastic instead of the more common multiple wraps of plastic baler twine. These bales should keep almost indefintely, but I'd hate to think of getting one unwrapped so it can be fed on a cold morning if they're covered with ice and snow.

[mike_elek]

Todd, nice work on the presentation and photos.

 

Ivor Mantanle did a nice writeup just a couple of weeks ago for the UK magazine Amateur Photographer. Almost made me want to go out and buy one. But then, most of his articles have that effect on me.

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

The Welti1 did not have too many shutter/lens options, at least the post-war versions did not. They come with the Meyer Trioplan or the Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar. While the Meyer Trioplan lens easily competes with other three element lenses, the Tessar is an excellent lens. I have seen the (post war) Welti1 with Vebur shutter only. The Welti1c was an improved model with integrated view finder.

 

The '1 in a triangle' on the bodies/lenses of east german cameras means that this item is 'top quality'. These items were mostly exported and hardly available in their own country. The Tessar lenses even have the '1 Q' mark which means that they are 'competitive with top quality products of the whole world'.

 

The Certo Super (Dollina II or S.-35) also was continued post-war in eastern Germany. Most of these come with the Tessar lens and the Tempor shutter (a Compur clone). Focussing with their rangefinder (they have a true split image and avoid the half-silvered mirrors which fade away in most other cameras of that era) rather feels like operating an instrument, it's probably the most precise focussing mechanism found on a 35mm camera.

[benjamin_cochrane]

Winfried, didn't they come with Schneiders, Steinheils and others too? or was that the other Welta models? Would you recommend the 1c over the others, as a reliable shooter?

[ole_tjugen]

Ah - the Welti! That was the first camera I ever used, apart from a Kodak Instamatic. My father bought it in Germany in 1948... Mine has a Tessar lens, and is very sharp. But unfortunately the film advance is slipping a bit, after 50 years of heavy use. I'll see if I can find some old pictures taken with it.

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

I was referring to the post-war Welti only. I assume the pre-war ones had a wider selection of lenses. However, if you once shot with an east german post-war Tessar you know why they did not feel the need to equip this camera with any western lens... Maybe the pre-war Welti was available with the f/2.0 Xenon, too, the post-war ones are limited to f/2.8 lenses.

 

The Welti1c is quite reliable - there is not too much that can go wrong except for gummed shutters, but the Vebur is not more prone to that disease than any other shutter. The shutter release button goes a bit rough, you can try to improve it by lubricating the release mechanism a bit.

[pensacolaphoto]

Nice job, Todd. Now I need to do the same ... one day.

[silent1]

Remarkably similar to my Jubilette, right down to the triplet lens (which is quite okay when stopped down to f/5.6 or smaller) and very tight frame spacing. My Jubilette doesn't have the "bump" on the image frame, however; nor does it have an accessory shoe or flash sync (it's a pre-War model, I'm pretty sure).

[pensacolaphoto]

How come my Welta 1 is no "Welti"? Which Welta models are classified as Welti and which are not and does this have to do with age of camera or any other factors?

[glenn_thoreson]

That's a cute little camera! I love the tractor shot. Very nice! And the glove, though I use a different finger. Around here, those hay things are called bales (or maybe giant shredded wheat).

[tgh]

Winfried - Thank you for the markings info. I thought the triangle-1 had something to do with a quality label. I've seen the 1-Q mark, also on a Praktica Super TL body, though this does seem to strain the credibility of things a bit.

 

Raid - looking closely at the photos of your's it does appear to be labeled a Welti I. Only place the Welti I name appears is embossed in the leather on the front. From what I've been able to find, there were apparently three levels of Welti's. The most basic was the Weltix, the mid-range was the Welti and the high-end was the Weltini.

[pensacolaphoto]

Todd, You are correct; I have a Welti 1.

[j_cooper]

I have a Welti with the 3.5 Tessar (ser # 3238490 ) and a 1 to 1/500 Compur Rapid shutter. The lens is coated, so I'm thinking that it's post war. The camera has no self-timer, and no provision for a cable release, even though it has a tripod socket and that little folding foot on front of the lens protector to let the camera rest on a table. I don't recall the Compur Rapid name being used in German commie cameras. Might this camera be some immediate post war model built using left-over parts?

 

Joe

[tgh]

Joe - thanks for adding another example to compare. Mine doesn't have a self-timer, but does have a threaded cable release hole in the middle of the shutter release button on top.

 

Does your Welti have a number inside the film chamber? Mine is 33440 and in a previous thread Raid said his has 5336. Since your lens s/n is about 50,000 less than the one on Raid's camera, if this film chamber number is a meaningful number like a s/n, I'd expect your's to be just a little less than 5336.

 

Since my Welti has a Vebur shutter and Meyer-Optik lens, there's nothing to directly compare there, but I do have two other cameras with a Compur shutter, one of which also has a CZ Tessar lens. Both of these Compur shutters (not Compur-Rapid) have their own s/n on the shutter housing. One is a Balda Jubilette, which I believe was only made in 1938-1939. It's shutter s/n is 3893138. The other camera is a 4x5 pre-anniversary Speed Graphic, which due to having a tube type viewfinder could only have been made in 1938 or 1939. Its Compur shutter has a s/n of 717030. It also has a CZ-Jena Tessar 15cm lens s/n 2074122. Available Zeiss s/n tables put this lens as made in 1937. So yes, there apparently were pre-war CZ lenses with the "Jena" label! This same Zeiss s/n table stops at 2799599 in 1942. So it's quite likely both your and Raid's Welti were made just shortly after the war.

 

I'm even more convinced now that mine was made near the end of the Welti production run around 1950.