Publica
The Publica is a 35 mm rangefinder camera made briefly in about 1947 by Hensoldt in Wetzlar, Germany. Few were made; some sources state fewer than 100 copies.
The camera is almost a basic Leica II copy, except that it has the rangefinder combined with the viewfinder. It has a focal-plane shutter, with speeds 1/25 to 1/500 second, plus 'B'. Film is advanced with a winding knob, and there is a frame counter arranged around the knob. There is no rewind knob; the film is passed from one cassette into another. The shutter release is on the front of the body, at the top. The back and base of the camera detach as one piece for loading.
The lens on some of the few examples is a collapsible 5 cm f/3.5 'Xenar' (engraved with this name on the front, but not Schneider's name or a serial number). Some sources refer to a collapsible Trixar. There is also a rigid 50 mm f/1.9 Proto, made by Hensoldt.
Some sources state that Hensoldt stopped producing the camera because of objections from Leitz, and that Hensoldt's collaboration with ISO in Italy was easier because the patents which the Publica broke did not apply outside Germany (in any case, ISO's cameras are much less similar to Leitz' than the Publica).
Links
Examples on the web:
- Publica No. 114 was sold (for €10,575) at the ninth Westlicht Photographica Auction, on 20 May 2006.
- An article about the Publica (and also the ISO Reporter) at Novacon also shows pictures of Publica No. 114 (the text states that this has a Trixar lens, but it is clearly a 'Xenar' as described above), and No. 102 with a Proto; the article states that this is the same lens later made as the Arion for the ISO and Henso Reporter. Both of these examples have a rather crude shutter release button, not threaded for a cable release.
