Suevia

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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

  1. The name presumably refers to Schwaben, a region of south-western Germany, named for the Suebi, an ancient group of Germanic peoples.
  2. 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.
  3. All the catalogue entries reproduced at Camaras sin Fronteras from 1925 onward show illustrations of the camera with two knobs on the lens carriage.
  4. Pages from the 'Omnium-Photo' Catalogue showing the Suevia and other cameras, at Sylvain Halgand's Collection Appareils.
  5. 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.
  6. Camera offered for sale at Ebay, August 2013 (item 111024646785).
  7. 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.
  8. Camera offered for sale at the LeicaShop web-shop operated by Westlicht Photographica Auction.


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