An now we await illustrations for this entertaining and informative text.
E. On Oct 21, 2009, at 7:18 AM, CarlosMFreaza wrote:
I have received yesterday a 1954/55 Diax IIa 35mm camera with Xenon Schneider 2/50 lens, manufactured in the Walter Voss factory at "Ulm an der Donau" city, southwestern Germany, a real mechanical beauty. My father had the newer model Diax IIb with the same Xenon lens plus a Tele-Xenar 3.5/90 and a Xenagon 3.5/35mm with the additional viewfinder, this was the camera system that made me to think, from teenager, there were no true reasons for the Leica cameras price (my father also had a Leica IIIf that he sold in 1964 when he decided to leave the photography hobby, he kept the Diax IIb outfit and the 2.8C I'm still using, he afterwards lent the Diax to a friend of him and we no longer saw the nice outfit, but I could shoot with the camera). My "new" camera has coupled rangefinder with built-in viewfinders for 45-50mm and 85-90mm lenses, a dedicated Diax lens mount for interchangeable lenses, central leaf Synchro-Compur shutter similar regarding the Synchro- Compur used for the 2.8C but CR 000 size: B 1s to 1/500, built-in self timer, MX flash synchro. The Diax IIa and IIb have a very compact design closer to the Rollei 35 than to contemporary Leica and Contax models, the main difference for the two models is that the IIb has an elegant quick lever stroke to advance the film designed by Hans Logé, the engineer that also designed the Rolleimeter and the Stereo TLR camera prototype and the Rolleimarin for this model working for F&H. The Xenon 2/50 is an excellent lens derived from the original Planar 6 elements design directly, the Xenon also has 6 elements with a very similar diagram regarding the original Rudolph's Planar diagram (it does not mean they are identical lenses, however the design concept is identical) and BTW it's excellent for color shots. I wrote to Peter Geisler, "Das DIAX-KAMERA-WERK Walter Voss Kleinbild-Kameras aus Ulm an der Donau 1947-1957" book author, that in spite of prices difference "... Diax cameras design look more compact and modern than some Leica and Contax contemporary models...", he answered: "I fully agree". Carlos --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
