03.18
I got the Baldessa from my father when I was about 12 years old, and used it, together with the Time-Life Photography book series, to learn the basics of apertures, shutter speeds, etc. The Baldessa used standard 35mm film, had a f/2.8 45mm lens and shutter speeds ranged from 1/300s to 1s.
It was a solid camera with some quirks: Both the shutter speed and aperture were adjusted with rungs around the lens, the film winding was a the bottom and the release button was at the front of the camera.
This was also my father’s first camera: His parents, my grandparents, bought it for him when he was 15 years old.
The image above is from Dmitri Krasnokutski’s Flickr set. Dominic’s Classic Cameras has more information about the Baldessa.
After the Baldessa I have been a Nikon man:
- Nikon F-301 (N2000 in the US)
- Nikon FA + MD-15
- Nikon F-801 and F-801s with MF-21 data back (N8008 and N8008s in the US)
- Nikon D200 + MB-D200
- Nikon D300 + MB-D10
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Christian, our experience with Baldessa is the same. I got mine about about age 12, a step up from Kodak and from a folding 120 camera from the 1930’s…
I remember some of the BW photos I took, processed and printed from those days but don’t have even one now…
Bill
Vero Beach FL
I have a Baldessa I like new, in a leather case. But mine is written in german on the lens:
Balda-Werk Bunde Baldanar and does not say Pronto anywhere.
The case says Balda on the leather top. There is not a scratch on it.