Dehel

4.5x6 model

Dehel (spoken in French: De-el) seems to be a kind of abbreviation for Demaria-Lapierre, maker of a camera known as Dehel. It is a self-erecting folding camera for rollfilm of type 120. Dehels were available for three different exposure formats: 6x9cm, 6x6cm and 4.5x6cm.

The 4.5x6 version is a light handsome metal construction, the plated metal surface's flat parts all covered with a durable type of black leatherette. On top it has the opening button and a collapsible reverse galilean optical viewfinder. At one side it has a leather grip. Rewind crank and tripod thread are on the bottom.

The lens/shutter-unit has a special feature: The outer ring is the sefl-cocking shutter's speed setting ring. Its front is masked. The mask has four windows, named "gris", "sombre", "brillant", and "clair". One or more of the windows show an aperture setting suggestion, the other window(s) the French word "non". Thus this is the camera's special exposure setting aid. It's not coupled to aperture setting which is possible from f4.5 to f23. The lens is a Demaria Lapierre-Anastigmat F-75m/m1.4,5 and has a front element which is turnable for focusing. Film advance is controlled through two red windows. Two are needed since they are placed on the side of the film back were the numbers of 6x9 exposures appear. The described item is just one of several variants of the 4.5x6 version of the Dehel. More can be found under the link to the 4.5x6 model at Sysvain Halgand's collection, as well as many variants for the other formats. Many variants had just a collapsible two-frame viewfinder instead of the optical one.

6x9 model

Links

• discussion on photo.net [1]
• 6x9 model of 1936 on Photographica by D.O. Hennig [2]
• a different 6x9 model of 1936 at Sylvain Halgand's collection [3]
• 4.5x6 model of 1936] at Sylvain Halgand's collection [4], plus links to further Dehel variants
• advertisement for Dehel series at Sylvain Halgand's collection [5]