Meopta

image by Dries van den Elzen (Image rights)

Meopta was a Czech manufacturer of still and movie cameras, and is currently making darkroom and enlarging equipment, among other things.

The company was founded as Optotechnica in 1933 in Prerov, in what was then Czechoslovakia. It started producing enlargers and darkroom equipment and even its own lenses. During the war, all sorts of optical equipment was being produced for the German military, since the factory found itself in the occupied zone. The first camera was produced in 1939, the Flexette, a 6×6 TLR that was the startoff for what was to become a long line of TLRs. In 1946 the company was nationalized and renamed Meopta. After the fall of communism, it was privatized again in 1992.

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Cameras

120 film

TLR

• Kamarad I
• Kamarad II
• Autoflex
• Optiflex
• Flexette
• Flexaret I
• Flexaret II (3 types exist, type 2 is very rare)
• Flexaret IIa ( the old name (Optikotechna) on the top was changed to Meopta)
• Flexaret III
• Flexaret IIIa (same as the III but with a Flash Synchro Shutter)
• Flexaret IV
• Flexaret IVa (can take 35mm insert)
• Flexaret V
• Flexaret Va (extra winding knob added to rewind 35mm film)
• Flexaret VI (early version in black skin, later version in grey skin)
• Flexaret Standard (most commonly in black skin but also exists in grey skin)
• Flexaret VII (grey skin only, can also use 6x4.5 mask and has double exposure option)

Folding

• Milona

35mm

Interchangeable lens (viewfinder/rangefinder)

• Opema I/II

Fixed lens

• Optineta
• Etareta

Stereo

• Stereo 35

16mm subminiature

• Mikroma
• Mikroma II

Stereo

• Stereo-Mikroma
• Stereo-Mikroma II

Large format

• Magnola (13x18cm)

Enlargers

• Agrand
• Axomat Ia
• Axomat II
• Axomat 3
• Axomat 4
• Axomat 4a
• Axomat 5
• Axomat 5a
• Colombo
• Ideal
• Laborant
• Magnitarus 13 x 18
• Magnitarus 10 x 15
• Multifax
• Magnifax II
• Magnifax 3
• Magnifax 3a
• Magnifax 4
• Meogrand
• Opemus 4 x 4
• Opemus 6 x 6
• Opemus IIa
• Opemus III
• Opemus 4
• Opemus 5
• Opemus 6
• Opemus 6a
• Opemus 7
• Opemus Standard
• Opemus Standard 2
• Proximus
• Proximus 2

Links

• The History page on the company's site
• An interesting Flexaret and Meopta history in French
• Cameras at www.collection-appareils.fr
• Meopta page at Collection G. Even's site