| Regula IP.a |
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Manufacturer: King Date of Production: 1953 Type of Camera: Viewfinder Film Type: 35mm Lens: Steinheil Munchen Cassar 45mm f/2.8 Shutter speed range: 1s-1/300th + Bulb Focus areas: 1m-Infinity Viewfinder: Yes ASA/ISO range: 6-200 Size (w*h*d): 130mm * 76mm * 65mm Weight: 405g |
The Regula IP.a was a 35mm viewfinder camera made at Bad Liebenzell in the Black Forest by King KG, starting in 1953 as a part of their King Regula brand.
Construction[]
The construction of the camera is mostly metal, the only plastic (maybe Bakelite) part is the film take-up; the camera feels very solid but not that heavy. 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 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 is under the film advance and will only count when there is 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 come off the spool. The counter is driven via a toothed wheel that sits in the film perforations; it is also connected to a latch and will prevent the shutter from firing until the counter has increased by one. 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 it 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 (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 through to f/16. Shutter speeds are in the one second to 1/300th second range with a bulb setting. The camera does have a 10 second self-timer that isn't obvious at first, if you set the V/X/M lever to V this activates the timer for the next shot. There is a PC flash sync point on the left side of the lens housing; it is capable of syncing in V, X and M modes; if you want to use a modern flash unit with it you will need one with a pc lead, or a hot shoe to pc adapter.