Suevia
Suevia image by Gilles Péris y Saborit (Image rights) |
The Suevia[1] is a single-extension folding camera for 6.5x9 cm plates and film-packs, made by Contessa-Nettel from 1919-26. Notes at Pacific Rim Camera state that production of the camera ceased upon the merger to form Zeiss Ikon, though existing stock was branded for Zeiss Ikon, and sold.[2] It has a wooden body with black leather covering, and is vertically oriented (that is, arranged to take portrait-format photographs most conveniently). The lens standard simply pulls forward to focus, with a scale on the left side of the bed (and of course, ground-glass focusing could be used). Earlier examples of the camera have a single, central knob to pull the lens carriage; later ones have two.[3] Despite the modest specification of the camera, it has front rise and shift, according to a contemporary catalogue.[4] The camera has a brilliant finder that rotates for horizontal or vertical pictures.
As most folding cameras, the Suevia is seen with several different lenses. At any time, the camera was offered with an f/11 periscopic lens, an f/6.3 anastigmat or double-anastigmat, and in some catalogues an f/6.8 alternative too:
- f/11 Periskop or Periskop Alpha: Camaras sin Fronteras shows an example with the simplest lens, an f/11 Periskop (though not named as such on the bezel) and a Gauthier Peri everset shutter.[5] It has a single knob on the lens carriage. Another example seen at Ebay has an f/11 Periskop Alpha and Derval everset shutter (the shutter seen on almost all examples), and again a single knob on the lens carriage.[6]
- f/6.8 Nettar anastigmat: McKeown only lists the Suevia with a 10.5 cm f/6.3 Nettar anastigmat and a Derval everset shutter with speeds 1/25-1/100 second, plus 'B' and 'T', as on the example pictured here.[7]
- f/6.8 Trinastigmat: this is listed in a 1927-8 English-language catalogue reproduced at Camaras sin Fronteras.[5]
- f/6.3 Nettar: offered in the same catalogue; the Periskop is also listed.
- f/6.3 Novar anastigmat: this is offered (as the only alternative to the f/11 Periskop) in a 1927 German Zeiss Ikon catalogue entry reproduced at Camaras sin Fronteras. A 1929 catalogue also offers only these two lenses.[5]
- f/6.3 Citonar double-anastigmat: an example has been seen with a 10.5 cm f/6.3 Citonar double-anastigmat;[8] that camera also has a single central knob at the front of the lens carriage instead of the two knobs on the example pictured here, and there is a screw-clamp to control the front rise, unlike the example pictured here. The Citonar and Nettar, either with a Derval shutter, are the only lenses offered in a 1925 catalogue entry reproduced at Camaras sin Fronteras.[5]
Notes
- ↑ The name presumably refers to Schwaben, a region of south-western Germany, named for the Suebi, an ancient group of Germanic peoples.
- ↑ Notes on the Suevia at Pacific Rim Camera, where there is also the whole 1927 Zeiss Ikon catalogue (260-MB pdf, in German, but with Czech prices) with the Suevia on p19.
- ↑ All the catalogue entries reproduced at Camaras sin Fronteras from 1925 onward show illustrations of the camera with two knobs on the lens carriage.
- ↑ Pages from the 'Omnium-Photo' Catalogue showing the Suevia and other cameras, at Sylvain Halgand's Collection Appareils.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Suevia (notes in Spanish, many pictures of the camera, and reproductions of several catalogue pages) at Danial Sanchez Torres' Camaras sin Fronteras.
- ↑ Camera offered for sale at Ebay, August 2013 (item 111024646785).
- ↑ 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). p216.
- ↑ Camera offered for sale at the LeicaShop web-shop operated by Westlicht Photographica Auction.
Links
- Auction lot of Contessa-Nettel cameras including a Suevia (at the left of the picture), sold at the fourth Photographica auction by Rahn AG, on 11 November 2006.