Flexaret VII

Flexaret VII

The Flexaret VII is the last in a series of TLR cameras made by Meopta (and its predecessors)in the former Czechoslowakia. It's a fully mechanical camera with an all-metal body. It has a solid feel to it and offers lots of features not normally found on TLR cameras.

For example: you can set the lightvalue on a mechanical ring. This sets a series combinations of shutter speeds and diaphragms. When you decide you need to stop down the lens a little more, there's no need to choose the shutterspeed any more. So far, the only time I've encountered this feature was on a Hasselblad lens.

Transport and shutter

Winding the camera transports the film and cocks the shutter at the same time. It takes quite a lot of force to wind this camera. In principle, there's no danger of double exposures with this system. There is however, a way to make double exposures: On the right hand side of the camera it has a button that glides up to cock the shutter without transporting the film.

One of the few ways to distinguish an Flexaret VII from a Flexaret VI is the maker of the shutter: the VII has a pentacon prestor shutter with a top speed of 1/500s whereas the VI has a metax shutter with a top speed of 1/400s.