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| Edixa II c.1952 with characteristic frontside image by Süleyman Demir (Image rights) |
Edixa series models are 35mm film viewfinder and rangefinder cameras made by Wirgin and produced between 1952-65.
In 1952 Wirgin began to replace its successful Edinex viewfinder cameras by the new Edina viewfinder camera series. The new cameras were not as compact as their predecessors. The concept was to have just one body version for both the viewfinder camera Edina I and the rangefinder camera Edina II. The sides of the body were rounded like those of a Leica. But copyright troubles were not made by Leitz but by Kodak AG. The competitor complained about the similarity of the name Edina to Kodak AG's camera type name Retina. In 1954 the cameras were renamed to Edixa I and Edixa II. The name was chosen as compromise between Edinex and Edina by Wirgin's British sales representative Charles G. Strasser.
The most characteristic style element of the Edixas is the metal part that is a mask for the shutter speed scale as well as depth-of-field scale and tube side stabilization element. This part helped to make the lens tube a little more robust than other constructions. The rangefinder of the Edina II and Edixa II was coupled but separate from the viewfinder. It showed a smaller split image. When the image parts matched to give one image the front lens element was adjusted properly for the measured distance. Some of the old Edixas have a more conventional frontside, maybe needed to get another shutter mounted. The most of the cameras had a shutter with mechanical self-timer (red lever on the lens tube), and all had a flash shoe on top.
The Edixa cameras were the base on which the Edixa Stereo rangefinder camera was developed.
Edixa viewfinder and rangefinder models[]
Model list is as to McKeown's pp.1001-1003.
- Edina I (1953)
- Edina II (1953)
- Edixa I (1953-57)
- Edixa I-L (c.1956)
- Edixa I-LM (1956)
- Edixa II (1953-57)
- Edixa II-L (c.1956-57)
- Edixa 125 (c.1965)
- Edixa 125L (c.1965)
- Edixa 250L (c.1966)
- Edixa 250S (c.1965)
- Edixa 250SL (c.1964)
- Edixa 500LK (c.1965)
- Edixa C (c.1962)
- Edixa D (c.1962)
Links[]
- original manual for Edina I and II at Michael Butkus Jr.'s [1]
- manual for Edina I and II, HTML version, at F. and S. Marriott's [2]
- manual for Edixa I and II, HTML version, at Michael Butkus Jr.'s [3]
- Edixa II at Klaus-Eckard Riess's pages [4] (Danish source)
- Edixa Vero at Kurt Tauber's [5] (German source)
- On www.collection-appareils.com by Sylvain Halgand :