Focaflex
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| Focaflex image by Romuald Swieconek (Image rights) |
The Focaflex and Focaflex Automatique are a series of three unusual leaf shutter 35mm SLR cameras which were produced by OPL-Foca (France) from 1959-63. They are uncommon outside Francophone countries. A fourth Foca Reflex focal plane shutter model was planned but shelved before release.
They use a unique viewfinder design which employs a genuine viewfinder prism as well as mirrors. NOT a porrofinder or mirror style arrangement like the Olympus Pen F or digital E-300 with their side swinging reflex mirrors - or many digital SLR's which used a porrofinder (mirror based pentaprism substitute) to save weight and cost. The Olympus Pen F may have been inspired by the flat top design but was able to cram the mechanism into a slightly smaller body as it was a half-frame camera, as was the E-300(EVOLT) with its half frame Four Thirds sensor. The Focaflex in contrast is a full 35mm frame camera using a behind the lens leaf shutter.
To achieve the camera's flat rangefinder style top profile, the image coming through the lens is reflected first down to the floor of the mirror box rather than upwards, by means of a 45deg.semi-silvered reflex mirror (pellicle type). There is a silvered focussing screen in the floor which reflects the image back upwards through the reflex mirror to a simple solid prism in the top of the body and out through the viewfinder. The prism can be simple and smaller than a conventional prism as the image has already been inverted by the bottom and reflex mirrors.
So when the camera is triggered, the semi-silvered reflex mirror flips down to the floor of the mirror box. Unfortunately this means that the film is potentially exposed to light coming back in through the viewfinder so an automatic finder shutter blade is employed to seal the eyepiece when the camera is fired. It is a complex arrangement which is probably why it was never used again. The eyepiece shutter is a common failure point.
Note that the first Focaflex was fixed lens, the model II interchangeable lens and the Automatique, fixed lens and metered.
MODELS
Focaflex 1 - 1959. Fixed Oplar-Color 5cm f2.8 lens (later Oplex) in ATOS reflex (ATOMS) synchro shutter B, 1-250.
Focaflex Automatique - 1961-3 Metered version of the Focaflex I. Coupled meter - selenium cell above lens.
Focaflex II - 1961 Interchangeable lens model. Standard - Neoplex 5cm f2.8 lens in Prontor Reflex shutter B, 1-300
Foca Reflex - discontinued prototype focal plane model, never released.
LENSES for Focaflex II
The mount is similar to leaf shutter SLR's in that the shutter is mounted on the body and the lenses mount into the behind the lens shutter body, as with Deckel mounts. The typical lens set was a slowish 3.5cm. 5cm and 9cm. Longer and faster lenses were to be offered but the line was discontinued in 1963 before they could be marketed effectively.
Rétroplex 3.5cm f4. 7-element, 5 groups
Néoplex 5cm f2.8 3-element.
Oplarex 5cm f1.9 - unreleased prototype for Foca Reflex
Téléoplex 9cm f4 - 4-element, 4 groups
Supertéléoplex 15cm f4 - late and rare.
Links
- OPL Focaflex page at Roland Weber's OPL Foca website (in French)
https://collection.click-clack.fr/opl-foca-appareils-photo-focaflex/
