A Walk with the Welti (and Baldinette)

Back in June I took in a long, hot summer walk with my Welta Welti and Balda Baldinette. Both are pretty similar cameras that would have sold to similar users and a fairly similar price point. You probably get the idea by now: They're a lot alike. Both are viewfinders, function the same way, have comparable lenses (or so it might seem from the focal distance and aperture range), and are of the same vintage. I'd always wanted to try them both, with the same film, on the same day, and decided to give it a go a couple of months ago. Here are the results.

Welta Welti I

Trees and turkeys. Given that PanF 50 is a very high-contrast film, this shot caught a lot of shadow and highlight detail. It also shows that this little lens has considerable sharpness.


A high-key tree with some sun glare (or maybe drying rings.)


Wide-open shot looking up through some flowers. Check out the swirly bokeh and say "oooooh."


This shot is just in here because it's the only shot where I took identical photos with each camera.

Balda Baldinette

To my eye, the Welti image is much sharper with better edge sharpness, deeper contrast, and better detail in general. In this shot, the hills are almost lost to the sky, but in the Welti shot there's a subtle but perceptible division.


Again here the sharpness drops off very quickly away from the center.


Stopped down considerably, the lens is much sharper.


And for some uses the edge softness can be appealing.

In sum, I like both for different reasons. I'd be more inclined to take the Welti with me if I were to choose either, but both are pretty nice cameras given their original cost (My Baldinette sold for around $40 on release [more for the nicer lenses] and the Welti for a bit more at around $50.) The $10 in the 1930s would have been significant -- the difference between $672 and $839. Yes. These cameras sold back them for as much as low-to-mid amateur range DSLR bodies and kit lenses sell for today.

Good Camera, Terrible Weather

The Balda Baldinette was an early-50s camera (1951 is the only certain manufacturing year.) It's tiny, and heavy, and substantial. It's also very easy to use. But it's backwards. Film goes in on the wrong side, the shutter release is on the left, and the winder is also on the left. This was a camera made for southpaws -- it's the only reasonable explanation. My Baldinette came to me in very bad shape. The mechanism worked great and the glass was fungus-free, but the film body had substantial rust and perforations. With sandpaper and a Dremel tool, I cleaned out all the rust and cut away rusty metal bits. All told, the hole when I finished was large enough to almost put two pencils through.

After getting rid of the corrosion and rust, I removed the paint from inside the film compartment around the hole. I wanted a paint-, dirt-, and grease-free, textured surface for the repair media to adhere to. With the body cleaned, I used engine hose tape -- the thickest, blackest stuff I could find -- to patch the hole. A piece on either side did the trick and it adhered quite well to the camera.

With the tape in place, I repainted the camera's insides (including the tape) matte black. I painted the area around the hole on the outside matte black, too, but not all of the face. During the rust removal, the outer leatherette had simply fallen off, so I cleaned its underside and glued it back onto the camera. The glue needed metal to adhere to, which is why I didn't paint the whole front panel. From more than a few inches, the repairs are invisible to anyone not looking for them. It's a great little camera and very good at taking establishing shots of a city or place.

This roll only yielded two worthwhile shots. The rest were very underexposed, due likely to the weather being very overcast. So after the two shots from this week, I'll include a couple from this camera's test roll.


Unsharp mask to add contrast and some detail. Also raised the gamma along the top to give the shadows some interest.


TONS of scanner noise.



A pond! And a fountain!


Papyrus! Well, maybe not. I have no idea, actually.