I am surprised it’s taken me soo long to get around to using another Balda rangefinder. My one and only encounter was with a Baldinette, review found here, and it was a very positive and enjoyable experience. So lets correct this glaring omission.
Balda-Werk were clearly pleased with this late 1950’s coupled rangefinder, as seen from the manual’s opening pages:
” When you take the Baldessa in your hands you will immediately notice how snugly it fits into the palm. Observe all the details of this new camera:- Compact, handy and streamlined body. Most up-to-date Prontor svs shutter with exposure value scale and depth of focus setting. Famous 1:2.8/45mm lens, hard coated and colour corrected. Newly designed quick transport key. Film transport and shutter speeds are coupled and set in one movement. Newly designed rewind handle. Large viewfinder window shows excellent and clear picture. Newly designed body release, enables smooth shake free release. Besides these features the camera has everything a modern camera should offer…”
The marketing department must have felt that this was the easiest job they’d had. But lets have a look and see if it deserves all this praise.
Weighing just over 1lb or 500gm the Baldessa 1a does indeed sit snugly in the hand. The focus dial, which can be seen in the image below with the red 30 on it, is exactly in the right place for forefinger operation. You can choose to keep the camera fixed to your eye as there is a focus aid in the viewfinder or you can choose to look at the focus dial in combination with the aperture value guide etched above the dial.
Since there is no light meter in the 1a, whatever light meter you do use needs to use Exposure Values which can then be set on the aperture dial that couples with the shutter speed. Of course you can go solo if you wish and choose whatever combination you want. Nice!
The film wind on is on the base. I had serious misgivings bout the location for this film wind on, it didn’t feel quite right. But hey time to embrace new ideas. In addition to the film wind on, the ‘new’ film rewind is in its customary place, however to use it you must first move a lever from T to R.
This causes the rewind lever to pop up
Everything seems to have been though of on the Baldessa 1a. You may just notice the film counter on the outside of the film wind on along with film memo around the outside of the tripod mount.😲😲
The whole of the film door pulls off
Lets just take you around the camera along with putting a film in the camera with the video below.
I took the Baldessa 1a out with me to a preserved railway who were having an autumn gala.
I had a couple of rolls of Rollei Retro 400S left to use. To make things more interesting I had a new developer, Adox FX 39 which was diluted 1:9. The film was deloped for 13 minutes 10 seconds, agitated for the first 30 seconds and then for 10 seconds every minute thereafter. It was stopped and fixed in my normal way.
I have to say the FX 39 does render my images with a little less grain than would be present if I had used Fomadon R09.
The image above is a good example of how sharp the Baldanar 2.8/45mm lens is.
Even though I was using a hand held light meter, I had very little post processing to do. Very nice.
I mentioned earlier how I was a little skeptical of the location of the film wind on. I had the opportunity to try it out when an engine pulled out of the station. I focused and chose an aperture that would allow me to fire off a series of images without having to worry about refocusing.
However the shutter speed was too slow. But the experiment helped to allay my misgivings. In fact what a great place to locate the film wind on when you want to take quick images. Note to self- just remember to ensure the shutter speed is fast enough.😮
I am really impressed with this little gem. Yes that’s what it is , a gem of a camera that does indeed have “everything a modern camera should offer…”
Coupled with my trusty Lightmaster III light meter the Balda Baldessa 1a made for a most enjoyable day out.
arhphotographic 