Wenk
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| Wenka with Schneider 2.8/50 Xenar image by Mustafa Dogan (Image rights) |
Gebrüder Wenk (Wenk Brothers) was a camera maker in Nuremberg for a few years after the Second World War. The company address was Kopernikusstraße 26.[1] The company also made spectacles, safety goggles and sunglasses.
The company made three (or perhaps four - see below) models of the Wenka, a coupled-rangefinder camera for up to forty-five exposures of an almost-unique 24x30-mm format, on a standard roll of 35mm film. The Wenka was made for only a few years; the company continued in the business of spectacles, etc. until at least 1970.[2]
The Wenka camera has a metal-bladed shutter behind the lens, with speeds 1/25-1/800 second (1/500 in model II), plus 'B', which is synchronised for flash.[3] Wenk filed patents describing the designs of the shutter,[4] the combined view- and rangefinder,[5] and even the unusual picture format itself (the patent notes that, when printed on paper sizes 9x12, 13x18, 18x24 or 24x30cm, a picture in the well-known 24x36mm format 'must' be cropped, and states that only the postcard format favours the long frame).[6] There is a cold shoe near the left end of the top plate, and a synchronisation socket on the front of the body (to the right of the lens). The standard lens is a 50mm f/2.8 Xenar, stopping down to f/16 and focusing to 0.7m, with a 40mm threaded mount. McKeown states that an ISCO Göttingen 100mm f/4.5 Westar was also made with this mount for the camera, but is rare.[3] A page on the camera at Novacon shows both this lens and a 36mm f/3.5 Westar.[7]
All models have a slim winding lever placed for the right thumb. The shutter release button is very close by the hub of this (surely inconveniently so). Beside this is a knurled wheel which sets the shutter speed.
- Model 0a:[8][9] The first model of the Wenka is distinguishable by having two large rectangular RF windows. This is to serve the patented rangefinder/viewfinder. The patent states that in existing combined VF/RF systems, with a small RF spot, it is necessary to seek out sharp lines in the scene, and arrange the RF spot over them for range-finding. Meanwhile, the bright RF spot in the centre of the image is said to be unhelpful for composition. Wenk's patented RF overlays two full-frame images in the viewfinder: any part of the VF image can be used to focus. So that the two images are precisely the same size, the image from each window must travel through an identical distance between the window and the eyepiece. Thus the eyepiece is not in line with either of the windows, but midway between them, and both the VF and RF images are deflected by mirrors. This RF uses two extra mirrors relative to the familiar design used in most 35mm RF cameras. It seems likely that many users would find the VF image confusing (because the double images of unfocused items in the VF would not coincide). The model 0a camera has the frame size '24x30' engraved on the top plate.
- Model 0b: Scarcely a different camera; McKeown notes that on this model, the RF windows have bezels (absent before), and the cold shoe is screwed on (previously riveted). The camera is not engraved with '24x30'.
- Model I: The left RF window is small and round on this model (and the model II, below); that is, the RF spot is no longer full-frame in these cameras. The eyepiece is still central, between the two front windows.
- Model II:[10] This model has a press-button by the lens to select X-synchronisation, and the top shutter speed is only 1/500 second.
Notes
- ↑ Given in several of the company's patents, cited below.
- ↑ The company filed patents as late as August 1970; cited below.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 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). p995.
- ↑ German Patent 1600969, Metallschlitzverschluss mit verdecktem Aufzug und verstellbarer Schlitzbreite (Metal slit shutter, self-capping and with adjustable slit width), filed 11 May 1949 and granted 9 February 1950 to Gebrüder Wenk, describing the shutter mechanism. Archived at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent Office.
- ↑ German Patent 1600971, Entfernungsmesser mit Bildsucher (Rangefinder with viewfinder), also filed 11 May 1949 and granted 9 February 1950 to Gebrüder Wenk, and describing the combined view- and rangefinder used in the Wenka.
- ↑ German Patent 1600970, Bildformat für Kleinbild-Film (35mm) (Picture format for miniature film (35mm)), also filed 11 May 1949 and granted 9 February 1950 to Gebrüder Wenk, describing only the picture dimensions 24x30mm.
- ↑ Wenka cameras in the 'Oddity Cameras' page at Novacon
- ↑ As with some other cameras (for example the Zenit), the first Wenka cameras were not given a model number; McKeown and some auctioneers use the designations 0A and 0b, attributed to Ulrich Schlieffer.
- ↑ Wenka 0a sold at the auction Photographica & Film, 20 March 2010 by Auction Team Breker.
- ↑ Wenka II with 50mm f/2.8 Xenar; lot 463 in the 30th Westlicht Photographica Auction (now Leitz Photographica Auction), 19 November 2016.
Links
- Other patents, also at Espacenet:
- German Patents 1602663 (filed 20 December 1948 and granted 2 March 1950) and 809721 (granted 2 August 1951; apparently a re-issue of the same patent, for legal reasons concerned with changes in post-War Germany; now acknowledges Friedrich Pfoertsch as the inventor), both titled Transport- und Sperrvorrichtung für automatische Dia-Betrachter und Projektoren (Transport- and locking mechanisms for automatic slide viewers and projectors).
- Several non-photographic patents: a list of more than a dozen patents relating to spectacle frames, grinding jigs for spectacle lenses, polarised lenses for sunglasses etc., with filing dates up to August 1970, and one describing moulded plastic Christmas-tree decorations.
- Wenk is included in a list of Nuremberg companies that used forced labour during the War (as is Bolta): German- or English-language versions at Rijo Research.
