Meopta

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

History

The company was founded as Optotechnica. It was established in 1933 in the Prerov city 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.

120 film

TLR

• Flexette
• Autoflex
• Optiflex
• Flexaret II
• Flexaret III
• Flexaret IV
• Flexaret V
• Flexaret Standart
• Flexaret VI
• Flexaret VII

folder

• Milona

35mm

Interchangeable lens (viewfinder/rangefinder)

• Opema I/II

Fixed lens

• Optineta
• Etareta

stereo

• Stereo 35

16mm submini

• Mikroma series

large format

• Magnola (13x18cm)

Links

• The History page on the company's site
• An interesting Flexaret and Meopta history in French