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.

Coming Attractions

Since I started this blog I have had the goal of posting on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Now I have decided to be more spontaneous and no longer will follow a regular schedule.  Although I do plan to make at least a couple of posts a week.  I have some posts in mind, however none are in a finished state.  

I am working on a post about the Sears 28mm f/2.8 m42 mount.  The shot on the left was taken wide-open. This lens was re-branded by Sears and no one seems to know for sure who actually made it.

 Ordered some Xtol this morning to see how that works with the Kentmere 400 film. Also ordered some of a new one-shot liquid developer by Arista.  Will be talking about both of these once I have some results.  The photo on the left is taken with a Zorki 4 using the Jupiter 8 lens.  The film was Kentmere 400 developed in HCC-110 dilution G.

The Photax III is the only French camera that I have.  Hope to do a post on it soon.

I had forgotten that I had this camera until I was looking for pictures of the Photax III and saw this photo.  I seem to remember that it has something not working well with the film winding.  Maybe I can get it working and tell about it.  The camera is a Balda Baldessa 1b.