| Regula IIa |
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Date of Production: early 1950's Type of Camera: Viewfinder Film Type: 35mm Lens: Steinheil Munchen Cassar 45mm f/3.5 Shutter speed range: 1/25-1/200th + B Focus areas: 1m-Infinity Viewfinder: Yes ASA/ISO range: 8-200 |
The Regula IIa was a 35mm viewfinder camera made at Bad Liebenzell in the Black Forest by King KG in the early 1950's as a part of their King Regula brand. There are two versions of this model; they have slight cosmetic differences and minor functionality differences.
Construction[]
The construction of the camera is mostly metal, the only plastic (maybe Bakelite) part is the film take-up. The film is advanced with a lever on the top of the camera, you have to move it about 120 degrees to fully advance; advancing the lever also cocks the shutter for the next shot, this is an advancement as with early and more basic Regula's you had to manually re-cock the shutter. If you remove the exposure window from inside the camera you can see this is achieved by a watch chain connected just above the film take-up to a spring loaded ratchet on the other side of the camera. The film counter will advance without film in the camera film in the camera, when rewinding film it also goes backwards and this is a good way to tell if the film has been fully rewound as it will stop clicking once it has comes off the spool. A toothed wheel that sits in the film perforations is connected to a latch and will prevent the shutter from firing until the film has advanced enough. The film is rewound with a knob on the other side, you need to hold down a switch on the bottom of the camera whilst doing this.
Functionality[]
The camera has no light meter but one version does have a built in extinction meter that is viewed through a separate window on the rear of the camera. The viewfinder itself is collimated but with no frame lines to help guide you. The camera has a film speed reminder for film speeds between DIN 10°-24° or ASA/ISO 6-200 that you set with a dial under the film rewind knob. The lens is good Cassar type and goes from f/2.8 or f/3.5 through to f/16. The shutter is a bit more basic with only 4 speeds and a bulb setting. The camera does have a 10 second self-timer using a lever under the lens.