C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Balda Super Baldax (c. 1954) is Dresden manufacturer Balda's top-of-line 6x6 folder, adding a **coupled rangefinder** to the standard Baldax folder body. The lens fitting varied by market and batch: the most common is the **Balda Trinar 75mm f/2.9**, a three-element triplet, though examples with Isco Westanar, Schneider Radionar, or Steinheil Cassar glass also exist. The shutter is typically the **Prontor SVS** running 1s to 1/300s with full flash sync.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the — format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →C41
Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
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About this camera
German 6x6 folding camera with coupled rangefinder and fast Trinar 75/2.9, circa 1954.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 film (6x6, 12 exposures) |
| Lens | Trinar 75mm f/2.9 (or Westanar/Radionar/Cassar) - fixed |
| Shutter | 1s - 1/300s + B, Prontor SVS leaf |
| Flash sync | All speeds (leaf shutter) |
| Rangefinder | Coupled |
| Meter | None |
| Battery | None |
Balda-Werk was established in Dresden in the early 1900s and produced a range of folding cameras through the interwar period. After World War II the Dresden plant continued under East German ownership while a West German Balda operation was established in Bunde. The Super Baldax was produced by the West German entity in the early-to-mid 1950s. It sat above the standard Baldax (zone focus or uncoupled scale focus) in the product line.
The folder market declined rapidly after 1957-1958 as the Japanese SLR industry matured and West German consumers shifted preferences. Balda transitioned toward simpler point-and-shoot cameras and the Super Baldax line was discontinued.
The Super Baldax is a minor but solid entry in the German folder tradition. It is less widely known than the Zeiss Super Ikonta or Voigtlander Bessa lines, and rarer than the Agfa Isolettes, which makes it modestly collectible without commanding premium prices. The Trinar 75/2.9 lens, as a triplet, is optically inferior to a four-element Tessar-type but acceptable for contact prints and moderate enlargements at smaller apertures.
For medium-format folder collectors the Super Baldax is of interest as a representative of the mid-tier Dresden folder tradition that produced dozens of mechanically similar cameras across multiple brands. The coupled rangefinder is its primary practical advantage over simpler siblings.
BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →Balda Super Baldax
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