Welta Belmira1957

History

VEB Welta-Werk traced its origins to the pre-war Welta-Kamera-Werk, a Freital manufacturer with a history dating to the 1910s. After 1945, the factory was nationalised within the East German VEB system and assigned to produce cameras for the domestic market and Eastern Bloc export. Throughout the 1950s, Welta produced a range of cameras from the simple Perle folding camera to more capable models.

The Belmira represents the upper end of Welta's 35mm output in the late 1950s. The decision to fit a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar -- rather than the Meyer-Optik Meritar used on economy models -- placed it in a different market tier, aimed at more demanding amateur photographers. The Tessar 50mm f/2.8 was produced at the Zeiss Jena factory (VEB Carl Zeiss Jena) and was widely distributed across East German camera manufacturers, appearing also on various Pentacon and Exakta-system cameras.

Production of the Belmira appears to have been relatively limited, and the camera is less commonly encountered on the used market than the more numerous Welta folders or the better-known VEB Pentacon products.

Why It Matters

The Belmira is historically interesting as an example of the East German camera industry's attempt to produce a capable, coupled-rangefinder 35mm camera using domestically sourced components under the VEB system. The Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 is one of the better lenses to appear on a Welta camera and gives the Belmira a meaningful optical advantage over the Meritar-equipped models.

The four-element Tessar formula, in its Zeiss Jena variant, produces sharp, contrasty results when stopped down to f/5.6 or f/8, with characteristic Tessar-style rendering: slightly harder at the edges wide open, consolidating toward the centre, with good microcontrast in the mid-tones. This makes the Belmira a practical shooting camera rather than a purely collectible one.

Within the East German camera landscape, Welta occupies a secondary position to the larger VEB Pentacon Dresden operation, which produced the Praktica SLR line and had more systematic development resources. The Belmira did not spawn an extended model family, and Welta's 35mm rangefinder output is not well documented in English-language sources.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Welta Belmira -- primary English-language reference for identification and basic specification.