Optineta
The Optineta is a viewfinder camera for 35 mm film, with a fixed lens and leaf shutter, made by Meopta in Czechoslovakia from about 1959. It is metal-bodied with khaki-coloured leatherette covering and a plated metal top housing, in which a reverse-galilean viewfinder is set. Notes on Meopta cameras at Novacon state that the camera body was made using dies from the recently-discontinued first model of the Voigtländer Prominent, and it is certainly rather similar.[1] The raised part of the top housing would house a rangefinder in the Prominent, and takes up most of the free area of the top plate. The lens, Meopta's own 45 mm f/3.5 Belar, with scale focusing down to about 1 metre, is mounted in a distinctive panel on the front, the front section of which has corners chamfered at 45 degrees. The shutter is a Metax, with speeds 1-1/500 second, plus 'B', and with a delayed-action control.[2] Film advance is by a knob on the right of the top housing, with a frame-counter dial on top of the knob. Rewind is by a similar knob at the other end of the top housing, with a film-speed reminder dial (from 10-320 ASA, or 8-27 DIN); the rewind release is a button by the advance knob. The shutter release is a simple button, threaded for a cable release, on the right of the top housing. There is a cold shoe on the raised central part of the housing, and a PC socket on the bottom left corner of the lens mount panel.
The camera does not appear to have been made in large numbers.[3][4][5][6]
Notes
- ↑ Notes on Optikotechna and Meopta cameras at Novacon.
- ↑ Most examples seen have a delayed action (self-timer); Optineta serial no. 5234 (lens serial no. 3077), shown at the Czech-language blog Staré fotoaparáty ('Old cameras') by 'Mira' does not appear to have one, but it is possible it is simply missing.
- ↑ The four examples cited here all have four-digit lens serial numbers; the body serial numbers, visible only on two of them, are also four-digit.
- ↑ Optineta serial no. 6849, with lens serial no. 5469, offered for sale on eBay (item 221547261123, September 2014).
- ↑ Optineta, lens serial no. 2657 at Japanese blog 'Choi furudōgu raifu' (ちょい古道具ライフ; perhaps 'Thrifty life joy').
- ↑ Optineta, lens serial no. 4509 at Michael Bláha's Czech-language site flexarety.cz.