Near Mint! 1949 Welta Weltax 6x6 camera with “T” Coated Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, CLAd, Freshly Serviced!

Cleaned, Lubricated & Adjusted. Ready for immediate use!

This camera is a freshly serviced Welta Weltax. Prior to WWII Welta was a renowned German camera producer and the quality of its products easily placed it on equal footing with Zeiss-Ikon and Voigtlander. The Welta Weltax was a particularly fine model because of its dependable high performance and high quality build. In contrast to other folding cameras of the era which used folded sheet metal, the Weltax was constructed of die-cast alloy which was carefully machined to provide a dimensionally stable camera body with a nice heft to it that helped stabilize the camera when shooting at slow shutter speeds. Another nice feature it that the viewfinder also adjusts for parallax correction during close quarter shooting so that you don’t crop off anyone’s head accidently.  It also has a body mounted shutter release that keeps you from fumbling around and getting finger prints all over the lens.  

If you’ve been looking a quality medium format camera that folds into a small manageable size, then you’ve just found it. It’s a great traveling companion. It slips easily into a pocket and yet folds out to take 12 large 6x6 exposures on normal 120 roll film. It can also produce 16 6x4.5 exposures if you have a reduction mask in your camera collection. (Mask not included.)

It comes complete with a brown leather case.

When it comes to picture quality, bigger is better... and this camera can produce a negative that’s more than four times larger than the average 35mm snap shot. The real appeal is that all of this is produced by a camera that folds up into an unusually small package and slides easily into an unused corner of your camera bag, your backpack or the inside pocket of your jacket. So whether you're interesting in fine grain, rich tonal values, lovely colors or big enlargements, this camera can do it all and its compact size will never give you a reason to leave it at home.    

This camera is an early postwar example which were produced using the surviving inventory of prewar Welta parts. As such, it has many of the characteristics of a prewar Welta camera, among other things it has a better body covering, real leather bellows and a stronger lens door & folding struts. Additionally it has the top of the line Compur-Rapid and a coated Carl Zeiss Tessar lens.  

This camera has been carefully cleaned, lubricated and adjusted by us. The shutter works smoothly and all speeds (T,B, 1 sec - 1/400th) are appropriate.    

The lens is the superb T Coated Carl Zeiss 3.5/75mm Tessar. The serial number dates it to late 1949 / early 1950.  It’s a superb design with four elements in three groups. (It’s nearly identical to the one used for decades on the Rolleiflex TLR cameras.) The lens is exceptionally clean and looks virtually like new. There are no separated elements, crystallization or other problems. There are no scratches, no cleaning marks and it’s capable of producing lovely photos with modern color and black & white.    

All in all a very lovely collectable classic camera. Load it with your favorite film and keep it with you for that perfect shot you’ve been looking for. You know the one... the one with the perfect Ansel Adams light breaking through the dark storm clouds that leaves you wishing that you had a medium format camera with you.