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.
View profile →tlr-medium-format
The Microflex is a 6x6cm twin-lens reflex camera produced by MIOM (Manufacture d'Isolants et d'Objets Moulés) of France, introduced around 1955. MIOM was a French industrial manufacturer that diversified into cameras during the postwar period, producing a range of inexpensive amateur cameras under the Photax and Miom brand names. The Microflex represents the company's entry into the medium-format TLR segment at the extreme low end of the price range.
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.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
The cheapest French TLR of its era -- a bare-bones 6x6 from MIOM fitted with a Boyer Saphir lens and very little else.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 film, 6x6cm (12 exposures) |
| Mount | Fixed |
| Taking lens | Boyer Saphir 75mm f/3.5 |
| Viewing lens | Boyer Saphir 75mm f/3.5 |
| Year introduced | ~1955 |
| Shutter | Leaf: ~1s - 1/300s + B |
| Flash sync | ~ |
| Meter | None |
| Film advance | Side knob, red-window frame count |
| Viewfinder | Waist-level, ground glass |
| Battery | None |
MIOM entered camera production in the 1940s with the Photax -- a basic 6x9 camera on an equally industrial chassis. By the mid-1950s the company had expanded into a TLR format, presumably to compete with the flood of inexpensive Japanese models then entering the European market. The Microflex was priced to undercut even the cheaper Japanese competition.
French camera production in this period was small in scale compared to the Japanese industry, and MIOM was not a specialist camera manufacturer. The company's core business remained industrial moulding; cameras were a sideline. The Microflex does not appear to have been produced in large numbers or over a long period.
Badge-engineered variants -- Alsaflex, Royflex, and possibly others -- suggest that MIOM supplied the body to multiple distributors, a common practice among budget European camera makers of the era.
The Microflex is one of the few French-made medium-format TLRs and is of interest primarily as a national oddity in a segment thoroughly dominated by Japanese production. As a user camera it occupies the very bottom of the practical range: the Boyer Saphir lens is capable of producing acceptable results at f/8 and smaller, but it is not a refined optic, and the mechanical construction is correspondingly simple.
For collectors interested in European camera history or in the Boyer lens brand, the Microflex is an inexpensive and rare representative of French amateur camera manufacture of the 1950s. It turns up occasionally at European flea markets and camera fairs at very low prices.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →MIOM Microflex
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