Arca Swiss Reflex

Diagram from Swiss Patent 387436 Note the focusing screen, angled slightly backward. (Image rights)

Arca Swiss Reflex cameras are medium- and large-format SLR cameras, made by Gebrüder Oschwald (later renamed Arca Swiss) from about 1960 until perhaps 1980. They exist in two sizes, for 2¼x3¼-inch (6x9cm) and for 4x5-inch (or 9x12cm) film. The body of the camera is a box containing the mirror and reflex viewing screen; the screen is angled backward a little, for more convenient viewing. It may have either a conventional folding hood, or a completely-enclosed magnifying hood (with a swivelling eyepiece, for use either at standing height or low down: see the patent cited below). Some cameras have a focal-plane shutter; this seems to have been replaced with an electrically-activated leaf shutter in the lens at some time, and in some versions of the camera. The FP shutter, when present, has speeds only to 1/500 second, so perhaps little was lost in replacing it with a leaf shutter, whereas the cost saved in making the camera with a commercially-available leaf shutter rather than manufacturing FP shutters in small numbers would be significant.

In most examples seen, the rear body and the front standard are mounted separately on a substantial monorail, as in the diagram here, so the camera is a hybrid between a box-form SLR and a monorail camera. In this it resembles the Plaubel Pecoflex, except that the mounting of the rear body allows some movements (apparently tilt, swing and rise), whereas the Pecoflex has movements only on the front standard.

Not all examples are mounted on a monorail, however. For at least some of the time the cameras were made, this appears to have been an option. A Swiss catalogue (undated) offers the monorail configuration, but also offers a version without. The rear body is instead provided with a bellows that racks conventionally with a knob on the right, at the front of the body (so the camera operates just like a Makiflex, instead of a Pecoflex). The body is then still mounted in a yoke allowing vertical travel. The catalogue even shows this version of the camera mounted on a left-hand grip (fastened to the yoke) and with a neck-strap.

A German catalogue from about 1977 shows both of the same cameras, and emphasises the modular nature of the cameras; many different sets of components could be purchased and assembled into a camera. A separate model is named the Reflex 25, described as new, which has built-in shutter speeds 1/25 second and ‘B’, presumably with a simplified FP shutter. The catalogue states that this version of the camera can be used with shuttered or unshuttered lenses. The single-speed built-in shutter was presumably intended to be used mostly with flash.

A 1968 catalogue by the New York dealer Willoughby Peerless shows four models: 'ORB-23' and 'ORB-45' are the 6x9cm and 4x5-inch cameras, on a monorail; 'RH-23' and 'RH-45' are the cameras without. The catalogue makes no mention of the FP shutter, even in the simple form of the Reflex 25 described above. It only mentions a lens shutter with speeds to 1/400 second, and with automatic aperture. This is presumably a shutter mounted in the patented housing described below. Of course, it may have been Willoughby’s choice not to offer focal-plane cameras. It seems unlikely that features would be withdrawn from the camera by Arca Swiss in 1968, and made available again by 1977.

Relevant patents

Viewfinder hood described in Patent 432229. (Image rights)

All at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent Office:

• Swiss Patent 387436 Photographische Spiegelreflexkamera (Reflex camera) filed July 1960 and granted January 1965 to Max Oschwald and Gebrüder Oschwald, describing the overall design of the camera. The patent states that the camera may have a focal-plane shutter; it also allows for the reflex housing being detachable from the rear of the bellows, allowing the use of a conventional view-camera back (and conversely allows for the production of a reflex housing as an accessory for existing monorail cameras).
• Swiss Patent 432229 Einrichtung zum Betrachten einer Mattscheibe einer Photokamera (Device for viewing the focusing screen of a camera), filed February 1966 and granted March 1967 to Gebrüder Oschwald, describing a viewfinder hood exchangeable for the standard folding hood around the reflex ground glass. It is a totally-enclosed hood, with an eyepiece lens on a short tube at the top, which can swivel in one plane. The eyepiece can look straight on to the screen to let the user view it from directly above (if the camera is low enough that this is convenient) or it can be swiveled to an angle, in which case a mirror is automatically swung into place so the eyepiece views the screen through it, allowing the screen to be conveniently viewed when the camera is mounted at near shoulder height on a tripod. With the mirror, the image on the screen is seen the right way up (though still reversed left-right). This hood is also offered in the catalogues for use with view cameras (that is, non-reflex monorails); its use is then 'the other way around'; the eyepiece is used straight if the camera is mounted high enough, or angled and with the mirror when the camera is low down.
• Swiss Patent 441985 Photographische Mattscheibenkamera mit einem Zentralverschluss und einer verstellbaren Irisblende (View camera with a central shutter and adjustable iris diaphragm), filed May 1966 and granted August 1967 to Max Oschwald and Gebrüder Oschwald, describing a housing in which a commercially-available lens mounted in a shutter may be set. It is in a recessed board, but with a linkage to relay the aperture control to the side of the board for ease of use, and has controls that simplify the combination of opening the shutter and iris for focusing, and afterward closing the shutter,stopping down and cocking the shutter for exposure. It also has an electromagnetic device to allow the use of an electric cable release.

Examples

• 4x5-inch Reflex monorail camera, focal-plane shutter with speeds 1/10 - 1/500 second, with 13.5cm f/4.5 and 21cm f/4.5 Congo lenses and many accessories: three different bellows, alternate/extension rails, a sliding back, roll-film back, magnifying finder hood and compendium hood. Body in pale-green hammer-finish paint, and with red bellows. Sold at LP Foto Auktioner in April 2018.
• 6x9cm Reflex without monorail, focal-plane shutter again 1/10 - 1/500 second. Later style with black paint and leatherette. Cable-socket on the base for electric shutter. Sold by LP Foto Auktioner in April 2013.
• 4x5-inch Reflex without monorail, dated c1965 by the auctioneer, sold at the 9th Westlicht Auction, in May 2006.