What Make of Camera Is This??!!

[french frank]

Brilliant, FF. There's another video which does feature Dad's version: http://youtu.be/nM7rrvTA6HQ

Amazing! We all become instant experts on Werra cameras! And loads of them to be had on ebay now if one's interested ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is the M9 not a pretty recent digital model introduced in 2009?

I definitely got that wrong.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Oh, gor blimey! I've only just gawn and bawt one!!

It's in very good cosmetic condition but there's no guarantee it may not work well. Stiil, at just over £38 it's a price Im happy to pay out of sentiment.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-German-former-GDR-Carl-Zeiss-Jena-VF-camera-WERRA-1-black-/171374888760?pt=US_Vintage_Cameras&hash=item27e6bd4738

More expensive will be the day trip to Paris to be photographed on the very same spot in Montparnasse 50 years after after the event!

[Stillhomewardbound]

This is a story that just keeps on growing. From the start I had been confused about what was appearing at the top of the viewfinder window. I can now reveal that certain models of the Verra 1 had what is known these days as a 'hotshoe'. The anchor point on which to fix an external flash gun. As can be seen in this picture it rests back from the viewfinder but in the original pic it appears to be on top of / a part of the viewfinder.

Not so.



The other development is this account, almost heart rending, of how there came to be a Werra and how, so cruelly, a very neat camera idea was dropped. Too sad!

"After the Second World War, Carl Zeiss was divided into a West German and an East German division. The East German division, Carl Zeiss Jena, lost a lot of personnel to the Russians, who deported them to create cameras for the Motherland. When they slowly started trickling back in the early 1950's, Zeiss Jena didn't have an immediate use for their expertise. They realised however that it would be a tremendous loss to the company and the country if their experience went to waste, so they gave them a project of their own: the Werra cameras. Manufactured in the Ernst Abbe Werk of Eisfeld, they were named after the river that runs near that town.

The main idea behind the whole Werra series, its unique selling point, was the rapid film advance ring. This ring, which is the big Vulcanite-covered ring near the body, cocks the shutter, and advances the film and the frame counter all in one twist. A very rapid, very sure, very smooth twist.

Despite good sales, the Werra series was discontinued in 1966 after Carl Zeiss Jena was assimilated by VEB Pentacon in 1964. Pentacon's director Siegfried Böhm felt that a highly specialised company like Zeiss should stick to its core business (optics) and abandon its simple viewfinder cameras. Other companies in the Pentacon group were making viewfinder cameras too, and Böhm foresaw that the future lay in SLRs – of course, history proved him right.!" (Source: The Leitz Museum and Opitcal Collection).

[french frank]

Good find, SHB. I thought it might be a hot-shoe because there was one just there on other Werra models, but I couldn't find a picture of one on that particular model. Interesting story of the Carl Zeiss workers being deported to Russia. I suggested the Feds because there was a mention that they made 'copies' (versions) of Leicas.

[Richard Tarleton]

posted by SHB
"After the Second World War, Carl Zeiss was divided into a West German and an East German division. The East German division, Carl Zeiss Jena, lost a lot of personnel to the Russians, who deported them to create cameras for the Motherland. When they slowly started trickling back in the early 1950's, Zeiss Jena didn't have an immediate use for their expertise. They realised however that it would be a tremendous loss to the company and the country if their experience went to waste, so they gave them a project of their own: the Werra cameras. Manufactured in the Ernst Abbe Werk of Eisfeld, they were named after the river that runs near that town.

Footnote from a birdwatcher: the same went for their binoculars. After the war the technicians fled west, leaving the presses and jigs in the east. "Carl Zeiss Jena" continued to make traditional pattern porroprism binoculars, their 10x50 Jenoptems and Dekarems, and their 8x30s, being the staple for many birders up to the 1980s. The technicians in the West had to start again from scratch, and came up with the "twin loo roll" roof prism design which is standard today.

[Don Petter]

Footnote from a birdwatcher: the same went for their binoculars. After the war the technicians fled west, leaving the presses and jigs in the east. "Carl Zeiss Jena" continued to make traditional pattern porroprism binoculars, their 10x50 Jenoptems and Dekarems, and their 8x30s, being the staple for many birders up to the 1980s. The technicians in the West had to start again from scratch, and came up with the "twin loo roll" roof prism design which is standard today.

Still using my 10x50 'Jenas' most days. No-one told me I was out of fashion.

[Richard Tarleton]

Still using my 10x50 'Jenas' most days. No-one told me I was out of fashion.

(apologies for OT diversion) I used my 10x50 Zeiss Jenoptems from 1978 to 2009. By then I had spent far more on having them cleaned and re-aligned every few years than they cost in the first place, but they were superb binoculars. Their great weaknesses were lack of waterproofing (mine were forever misting up) and tendency to go out of alignment at the slightest knock. Plus their weight - at 2½ lbs a non-starter on an Alpine trek, for example. I switched to modern 10x40 Zeiss (list price £800+, not that I had to pay that) and life has improved immeasurably.

[Don Petter]

(apologies for OT diversion) I used my 10x50 Zeiss Jenoptems from 1978 to 2009. By then I had spent far more on having them cleaned and re-aligned every few years than they cost in the first place, but they were superb binoculars. Their great weaknesses were lack of waterproofing (mine were forever misting up) and tendency to go out of alignment at the slightest knock. Plus their weight - at 2½ lbs a non-starter on an Alpine trek, for example. I switched to modern 10x40 Zeiss (list price £800+, not that I had to pay that) and life has improved immeasurably.

I've only had one outlay since buying mine (in the early 70s?), a realignment after a knock. They have never figured much on mountain treks because of weight, as you point out. More of a keep in, and use near, the car, so never had misting problems, either.

[Richard Tarleton]

I needed to use mine professionally, rather a lot.....the expensive Zeiss ideal for retirement birding!

[Stillhomewardbound]

Here's a brief tale from the family archives and a few examples of how Daddy went to work with his Werra:

http://tpmckgallery.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/ralph-by-tp-tp-by-ralph.html

[Stillhomewardbound]

Technology then and now:

Then:

This is the Werra. The only camera to have been made by the renowned Carl Zeiss Jana lens maker and manufactured by the company from the early 50s.

Across a number of variants over half a million Werras were produced out of East Germany until the company decided to refocus on their core business of producing lenses.

Now:

This photograph of the Werra was taken today on the camera function of an iPhone 5c. A truly impressivley sharp and well rendered image for a mobile device.

Photographer: Stephen McKenna

ps. Apologies. Not sure where the compression is being applied but this shot is nowhere as mushy as it is appearing here.