Flexaret VII

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Flexaret VII

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Introduction

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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 has lots of features not normally found on TLR cameras.

For example: you can set the light value 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.


Lens and focus

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The lens is a Belar 80/3.5, made by Meopta itself. It has a reputation of having rather soft coatings. It always gave me very nice results, though. I'd use a lens hood on any TLR. Focusing is done by a sort of anchor on the bottom of the taking lens, just like on the Minolta Autocord. This anchor can be set to operate steplessly or with "clicks" on 1m, 2m, 10m distance and infinity. Choosing between these two modes is done by a small metal switch on the left of the camera.


Images

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