Dacora Super Dignette (Flashcube)
In the mid-1960s, Dacora made a stylistic redesign of all their Dignette and Super Dignette models. The new body style was squarer and boxier; and in place of the former circular, front-mounted shutter release the new cameras used an angular plastic slider. A hot shoe replaced the former "cold" accessory shoe.
For the metered Super Dignette models, another change was the switch from selenium to much smaller CdS photocells, a significant change in the appearance of the cameras.
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| electric-SR image by Uwe Kulick (Image rights) |
From time to time the German Dacora Kamerawerk surprised the market with an unusual feature. In the case of the later Dacora Super Dignette models, it was including two flash-type options. In addition to the regular hot shoe for electronic flash, the camera offered a socket for flashcubes—unusual to find in a 35mm camera.
The highest-spec model in the range was the Super Dignette Electric S-R. The "Electric" models featured a BEWI-branded CdS meter cell in a small rectangular plastic housing above the lens. The Super Dignette Electric-SR and the Super Dignette 500 S-R were versions including a coupled rangefinder. (In the Electric-S, any apparent rangefinder window is a dummy.)
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| Dacora Universa CD 35; a renamed Super Dignette 300 L image by Bernard Faure (Image rights) |
Specifications of Dacora Super Dignette electric-SR
- Type: rangefinder camera with fixed lens
- Manufacturer: Dacora Kamerawerk
- Year of launch: ca. 1968
- Film: 35mm with speeds 25 to 400 ASA
- Lens: Rodenstock Color Trinon-Lanthan 1:2.8/45mm
- Shutter: Prontor 500 S-E with speeds 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 and 1/500 sec. plus B
- Meter: BEWI CdS sensor between viewfinder and rangefinder window, match-needle meter visible through the finder, coupled to shutter speed and aperture selectors
- Viewfinder: optical bright frame finder with vertical parallax marks and +/- marks for meter needle, and superimposed coupled rangefinder
- Flash: synchronized for all speeds, except when using flash cubes (only 1/30 possible)
- Batteries: 2×type 825 for flash cube firing, one PX 13 for the meter
