Alfa
The Alfa cameras were cast alloy 35mm viewfinder cameras made by WZFO in Warsaw, Poland, in the early 1960s.
The Alfa had an odd vertical format, with the portrait-format viewfinder in a curved, cream-coloured surround at the top, the lens barrel below that, and the film running vertically from bottom to top. There were cream plastic controls around the lens, and wind-on knob on the user's left, just above an accessory shoe. The shutter release was a large button on the front, below the lens on the user's right. The frame counter was also on the front, below the lens opposite the release. It had a leaf shutter with speeds 1/30 - 1/125 + B (top speed seems to be different on some examples) and a WZFO Euktar 45mm / f4.5 lens. The Alfa seems to have been available in red, dark blue, light blue, light green, cream, grey or brown, each with a striped chrome front panel.
The Alfa 2 was a slight upgrade, with parallax marks in the viewfinder (obvious from the front, as small points on the cream surround), a separate cable release socket and an Emitar lens.
Links
- Photo of Grey model on PBase.com larger, image-only version
- Blue Alfa on Michał R. Adamczyk's Gallery
- Dark blue Alfa on the Gdansk Fotomuzeum site (in Polish)
