Balilla

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The Balilla is a box camera for 4.5x6cm exposures, made by Zeiss Ikon for supply to the Italian Fascist boys' club, the Opera Nazionale Balilla (active 1926-37), named after a Genoese boy who supposedly began a revolt against Austro-Hungarian occupation of Genoa in the eighteenth century. The camera is very similar indeed to the Baldur used by the Hitler Youth, except for the name pressed into the metal of the lens surround.

Like the Baldur, the Balilla has a Goerz Frontar, an f/11; it has horizontal and vertical brilliant finders (instead of the Baby Box Tengor's wire frame). It has a leather hand-strap on the top.

The corresponding Box Tengor 54/2 has three fixed apertures, a portrait auxiliary lens, a tripod bush and cable release socket: the Balilla (and Baldur) lack these. It has about the same specification as the Erabox.

Links

• Balilla sold with leather case and original instructions (for a Box Tengor 54/2) at the eighteenth Westlicht Photographica Auction, in December 2010. Mis-labelled as a 3x4cm camera.
• Opera Nazionale Balilla at Wikipedia