Uniflex (Schmitz & Thienemann)
The Uniflex is an SLR camera for 4.5x6cm plates.[1] It was made by Schmitz & Thienemann in about 1932. The company also made similar cameras in larger plate sizes. The camera body is wooden, with leather covering, and with a metal front plate. It has some of the features of larger box-form SLRs like the Soho Reflex: it has a folding hood on the top, through which the reflex focusing screen is viewed, and it can also be used as a view camera, with a ground-glass screen mounted at the back and with the mirror raised. However, the camera has a lens shutter, not a cloth focal-plane one like those larger SLRs, and so cannot offer such fast shutter speeds. As with larger SLRs, pressing the exposure lever on the right side first raises the mirror; then, at the end of its stroke, further pressure actuates the shutter, cushioned by the spring design of the lever. The shutter is an everset one. The camera also has front-element focusing, not rack-and-pinion. Plates are held in single metal dark-slides. The camera has loops for a neck-strap, and a hinged cover for the lens which acts as a shade when open.
Notes
- ↑ Uniflex camera with 7.5cm f/3.5 Meyer Trioplan and Ibsor shutter with speeds 1 to 1/150 second, sold at the 42nd Leitz Photographica Auction, in June 2023.
