Direto da Česká Republika - Meopta Flexaret

Flexaret is a brand of

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

s manufactured from 1939 to 1970 in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

by the company

Meopta Meopta - optika, s.r.o. is a Czech Republic based company that manufactures various products mainly in the field of optics. The company was once well-known for its still and movie cameras, although it no longer manufactures such products. Histo ...

. All models of Flexaret are

twin-lens reflex camera A twin-lens reflex camera (TLR) is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" (the lens that takes the picture), while the other is used for the viewfind ...

s with

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

body, taking square "6×6" format photographs on a

120 120 may refer to: *120 (number), the number * AD 120, a year in the 2nd century AD *120 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *120 film, a film format for still photography * ''120'' (film), a 2008 film * 120 (MBTA bus) * 120 (New Jersey bus) * 120 (Ken ...

roll film Roll film or rollfilm is any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from white light exposure by a paper backing. The term originated in contrast to sheet film. Confusingly, roll film was originally often referred to as "cartridge" film ...

. Some models were also capable of using 35 mm film with the help of a special adapter.

History

In 1939, the company Optikotechna bought a factory producing photographic equipment in Přerov. Optikotechna initially developed and improved older models (known as Autoflex and Flexette). The development of a new camera called Flexaret started in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

years in the Meopta company, founded in 1946. The camera was intended rather for amateur photography; the handling was easy and technical parameters were simple. The Flexaret rapidly became popular in Czechoslovak households and its popularity lasted until the 1960s. However, the strategy of the

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along wit ...

among communist states demanded subordination of national interests to the central planning process dictated by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The tradition and competition were suppressed by political interests. The last cameras were produced after the 1968 Soviet invasion and in 1970 when the production was cancelled due to lack of parts from

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, after which the brand was replaced by the inferior Soviet ''Lubitel'' camera line. The Czech photographer Jan Saudek called Flexaret ''"our''

zech Julius August Christoph Zech (24 February 1821 Stuttgart, Germany − 13 July 1864 Berg) was a German astronomer and mathematician. In 1849, Zech published a table of logarithms; as a result, Zech's logarithm, Zech logarithms for finite fields ...

!-- Or Czechoslovak? --> ''national pride"''.

References

Literature

* Einhorn, Erich: ''Fotografujeme zrcadlovkou Flexaret'', Prague: SNTL, 1960 * Einhorn, Erich: ''Flexaret v praxi: Příručka o jeho obsluze a příslušenství i o možnostech jeho využití v jednotlivých oborech fotografické práce'', Prague: SNTL, 1968

External links

Flexaret - Fotografovani.cz

České fotoaparáty - Vratislav Noha collection
{{camera-stub 120 film cameras