Photax III

First Made: 1947
Lens: Boyer Série VIII
Shutter speeds: 1/100, 1/25, T
Film: 620
Image size: 6x9
This camera has a button for the shutter release rather than the release that has an option for a cable release.  This model is supposed to be rare.





Another camera that I got because I liked the way it looked.  Also it was made in France and I did not have a French camera at the time.  My Photax III is one in a series of Photax camera made by M.I.O.M., a plastics products manufacturer. Like a lot of companies at the time they apparently decided to try to get in on the market for easy to use family type cameras.  And they appear to have succeeded.    The Photax line stayed in production from the late 1930's until the 1960's.

The Agfa Clack would likely be competition for the Photax line in Europe.  By my experience the Clack is the better picture taker.  Although I think the Photax is better looking.









The Photax III is almost entirely made of Bakelite and does seem like it may be fragile.  So far I haven't dropped it to find out.  It does not seem like it would survive some of the careless handling that a camera like the Clack would shake off. And for me at least that seeming fragility does inhibit my shooting with the Photax III. That along with the need to rewind 120 film onto the 620 spool has limited me to just a couple of rolls of film through the Photax III.  For the present I am keeping the Photax III just because I like to look at it.