Optineta

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The Optineta is a viewfinder camera for 35 mm film, with a fixed lens and leaf shutter, made by Meopta in Czechoslovakia from about 1959. It is metal-bodied with khaki-coloured leatherette covering [1] and a plated metal top housing, in which a reverse-galilean viewfinder is set. Notes on Meopta cameras at Novacon state that the camera body was made using dies from the recently-discontinued first model of the Voigtländer Prominent, and it is certainly very similar, though the Prominent is a much better-specified camera, with interchangeable lenses and a coupled rangefinder.[2] The raised part of the top housing would house the rangefinder in the Prominent, and takes up most of the free area of the top plate. The name 'Optineta' is engraved on the front of it in script letters. The lens, Meopta's own 45 mm f/3.5 Belar, with scale focusing down to about 1 metre, is mounted in a distinctive panel on the front, the front section of which has corners chamfered at 45 degrees. The shutter is a Metax, with speeds 1-1/500 second, plus 'B', and with a delayed-action control.[3] Film advance is by a knob on the right of the top housing, with a frame-counter dial on top of the knob. Rewind is by a similar knob at the other end of the top housing, with a film-speed reminder dial (from 10-320 ASA, or 8-27 DIN); the rewind release is a button by the advance knob. The shutter release is a simple button, threaded for a cable release, on the right of the top housing. There is a cold shoe on the raised central part of the housing, and a PC socket on the bottom left corner of the lens mount panel.

The camera does not appear to have been made in large numbers.[4][5][6][7]


Notes

  1. Also in black leatherette, according to McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). Page 664.
  2. Notes on Optikotechna and Meopta cameras at Novacon.
  3. Most examples seen have a delayed action (self-timer); Optineta serial no. 5234 (lens serial no. 3077), shown at the Czech-language blog Staré fotoaparáty ('Old cameras') by 'Mira' does not appear to have one, but it is possible it is simply missing.
  4. The four examples cited here all have four-digit lens serial numbers; the body serial numbers, visible only on two of them, are also four-digit.
  5. Optineta serial no. 6849, with lens serial no. 5469, offered for sale on eBay (item 221547261123, September 2014).
  6. Optineta, lens serial no. 2657 at Japanese blog 'Choi furudōgu raifu' (ちょい古道具ライフ; perhaps 'Thrifty life joy').
  7. Optineta, lens serial no. 4509 at Michael Bláha's Czech-language site flexarety.cz.