Opema

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The Opema is a 24×32mm camera made by the Czech company Meopta in the 1950s. It has a focal-plane shutter with speeds B, 25–500 and interchangeable lenses, and existed in two versions.

The Opema I has a viewfinder only, and the Opema II has a coupled rangefinder combined with the viewfinder.

The lens mount is a 38mm diameter screw mount that may look the same as the 39mm Leica screw mount but is crucially different and unique to the Opema. Attempting to mate a 39mm screw lens with an Opema (or a Meopta lens with a Leica or other screw-mount body) risks stripping one or both threads. This does not stop some would-be sellers from misdescribing Meopta lenses as "Leica mount", whether unscrupulously or (more likely) out of simple ignorance.

The lenses designed for the Opema include:

  • 30/6.8 Largor (not rangefinder-coupled)
  • 45/2 Openar collapsible
  • 45/2.8 Belar collapsible
  • 45/3.5 Belar collapsible
  • 90/4.5 Tele-Mirar
  • 135/4.5 Tele-Mirar
  • 180/6 Telex (not rangefinder-coupled)

An Opema I was sold at Westlicht, with an f/1.5 Sonnar, apparently adapted by Meopta from Leica mount for the Opema.[1]


All the camera top housings and lenses are in chrome finish. All the lenses other than the 45mm were sold with a dedicated accessory finder.


Notes

  1. Opema with 6 cm (described thus in the auctioneer's notes) f/1.5 'Leica Sonnar' sold at the fifth Westlicht Photographica Auction; the auctioneer's notes state that the lens barrel was certainly made by Meopta themselves, to adapt the lens for the camera. It seems very likely that the focal length is in fact 5 cm; this is the length of the known Leica-mount Sonnar; see Zeiss 39mm screw lenses.


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