Post #2405336

New camera came in this week. I’ve been hunting for “my perfect medium format folder”. Last summer I bought a tiny Voigtlander Perkeo II, I’ve really enjoyed using it and I’ve had some good to excellent results, but I’ve also had a number of shots that are just too soft for me to use. I suspect a combination of front focus aberrations and bad focus distance guessing due to zone focusing. In a group I’m in folks were hyping the Kodak Monitor 6x9 and I was getting excited until I remembered my issues with the Perkeo. But it got me thinking about this junker Welta Weltur 6x4.5 I have and how sharp everything it shot was. It’s relatively small, unit focused (the lens moves as a unit forward and backward rather than adjusting cell spacing like many folders do) and it’s got a coupled rangefinder. I mostly don’t use it because the shutter trigger is broken (well come back to that next week). But what if the shutter trigger worked? What if it was 6x9? So I stumbled on an affordable 6x9 welta weltur and grabbed it. It came with some minor issues, generally dirty, super fogged viewfinder, rangefinder not operational, shutter firing at all speeds but slow. But… it was the right price. This weekend I fixed all the issues, viewfinder just needed cleaning, rangefinder had sticky grease under a lever and needed cleaning, the shutter … this is going to shock you: Greasy… needed cleaning. But today we’ve got a nice operational camera and I’m ready to give it a go!