Plaubel Makina

The Makina was a long-lived strut folding camera made by the German company Plaubel from around 1911 to around 1960.

The original Makina (sometimes called Baby Makina by today's collectors) was launched in 1911 or 1912, and was a strut folding camera taking 4.5×6cm film plates. It had a central Compur dial-set shutter. The lens was a Plaubel Anticomar 7.5cm f/4.2, f/3 or f/2.8. The diaphragm selector was on the side of the front plate. The focusing was made by a small wheel on the other side of the front plate, as for all later Makinas. The camera was quite similar to other strut folding baby cameras of the time, like the Goerz Tenax or the Gaumont Block-Notes, but it would have more descendants.

The Makina I was launched in 1920, and was a strut folding film plate camera with a Compur dial-set leaf shutter to 1/200, very similar to the Baby Makina except for its size. The very first model had a simple folding finder on the rear, and a fixed Plaubel Anticomar 10cm f/4.2 or f/3.2 lens. Then it gained an off-center folding finder, with one lens on the front plate and the eyepiece on the rear, with the addition of a folding frame finder. Later the eyepiece became larger, with a blue-toned glass. The lens was an interchangeable Plaubel Anticomar 10cm f/3.2 or f/2.9.

The next step was the introduction of the Compur rim-set shutter to 1/200 on the Makina I. At about this time, the Anticomar lens switched from 3 to 4 elements. The viewfinder Makina I was stopped around 1935. All the viewfinder Makinas were in black finish. The Makina II, launched in 1933, was like the rim-set Makina I with the addition of a coupled rangefinder, separate from the viewfinder. Plaubel would mount the same rangefinder unit on its folding Roll-Op II camera. A manual parallax corrector for the eyepiece was available as an option. This camera could take all the lenses available for the Makina I. At some point, the diaphragm selector was moved from the side of the front plate to a more usual location around the lens. Later the finish of the Makina II switched from black to chrome.

In 1936, the Makina IIS replaced the Makina II, with a behind-the-lens Compur shutter to 1/200. With it came a new range of lenses. The previous lenses had to be interchanged in two parts, one in front of the shutter and the other at the rear. This was quite inconvenient, and the new model had lenses interchangeable as single units. One can tell a Makina IIS from a Makina II by the bulkier lens, and the two square rangefinder windows (the II had one square and one round window). After World War II, production of the Makina IIS was resumed, with flash synchro for a Plaubel magnesium flash unit, and coated lenses.

In 1949, the Makina III replaced the Makina IIS, with the full flash synchro (electronic and magnesic), a shutter locking button, no self-timer and two holding plates attached to the front plate. In 1953 was launched the last version Makina IIIR, with a synchro contact on the bottom right corner of the front plate, and a Compur-Rapid shutter to 1/400.

There were two uncommon variants with a rangefinder and a fixed lens, both made just after the war. Two stereo models of the Makina existed - Stereo Makina 45×107 from 1911-1912, and Stereo Makina 6×13 from 1926. Both are very rare.

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