My Pocket Hassy
Balda Super Baldax by Balda Kamera-Werk, Bonde, West Germany
By David Bias
6 February 2007
A few years ago, I was dating a woman who wanted a view camera. You know, one of the kind like Ansel Adams used - with the bellows and the dark cloth and the mandatory tripod. At the time, I knew very little about cameras and photography was something other people did. So I went online. To eBay, specifically, and started watching auctions, then looking up the auctioned item for more information. I spent two solid months learning everything I could about anything that had a bellows and I became completely enamored with these old manual cameras in all their varied forms. The girlfriend got a very nice view camera outfit, but I was hooked far beyond just finding a gift. It was the first in a series of photographic breakthroughs.
Eventually, I stumbled on so-called "folders" - small cameras with the lens attached to a bellows that folds out from the body and snaps into place at the proper distance from the film plane. There are literally hundreds of different brands and makes of folding cameras, largely because during the early- to mid-twentieth century, they were the point-and-shoot of choice among the masses. However, our photographic forefathers didn't point-and-shoot like we do today. Everything about these cameras is completely manual. You wind the film by checking a red window on the back for numbers printed on the back of the 120 rollfilm that most use. You set the aperture and shutter speed and cock the shutter by hand on the lens itself. When it comes to focus, you might luck out (as I did) and get one with a working rangefinder, but many folders' rangefinders are uncoupled from the lens - meaning they don't focus the lens but simply give you a distance reading that you then transfer to the lens. And that feature is only on the higher-end models. With most folders, you simply guess the distance to the subject and twist the lens to match the distance printed on the rim. The makers were names we recognize - Kodak, Agfa, Zeiss - as well as some that have faded from memory - Dacora, Certo, Welta and Franka.
All of these brands and "features" were a little confusing, but within a week of discovering folders, I had also found the Internet's leading folding camera expert, Jurgen Kreckel. Jurgen retired and began selling folding cameras on eBay under the handle "certo6". Over the years, he's sold literally thousands of folders. After a couple of email exchanges, I knew I had found my guru.
I described my needs to Jurgen - coupled rangefinder, fast lens, square format, reasonable price - and after some trial and error, I received my Balda Super Baldax. By the time it arrived, I had already rushed headlong into photography, buying a Holga and digging out my old Nikon from the back of my closet. I was running through ten rolls of film a week. But nothing compared to the joy I experienced using my folder. It had all the features I wanted, with the added bonus of having a fairly clever film-winding mechanism that stops automatically on the next frame without having to open the red window. The Rodenstock Trinar 80mm/f2.9 lens is coated against flare and captures gorgeously sharp images. Folded, the camera is about 6" wide, 3" tall and 2" thick - incredibly small and easy to carry with me all the time.
As described, using a folder is painstakingly particular. I quickly found that I actually need all of that fiddling before taking a photo. It slows me down, giving me time to think about the shot. It takes several seconds to reset the camera, making each shot more precious. I find myself waiting longer for just the right moment and considering the composition and subject matter much more thoroughly. In fact, I've discovered that shooting with this rig is a meditative experience like no other I've ever experienced. My photography is much better for it. In the three years since purchasing my Super Baldax, I've added a Canon 20D, a Hasselblad, a Leica M6, many more toy cameras and three other folding cameras to my collection. And although I love them all, my Super Baldax is the one I call "My Precious."
In fact, it was this camera that facilitated the biggest breakthrough in my personal photography. I had ventured out one Saturday with it on my shoulder, ready for my usual snapshooting. While I was on the bus to Central Park, it began to rain. I was disappointed, but resolved to make the best of the situation and began conceiving shots using the rain as a "prop," of sorts. For weeks, I had been studying Cartier-Bresson and I was particularly enamored of the shot most often cited in reference to his concept of "the decisive moment" - an image of a dark silhouette leaping across a pool of water, snapped at just the second before landing and disturbing the mirror-like surface of the standing water. All around me, pools were collecting in the rain and I hopped off the bus, loaded the camera and waited - determined to shoot a tribute to Cartier-Bresson. As I was walking, looking for just the right pool, the rain stopped and I decided on a spot. I had no meter, so I set the camera as best I could judge, cocked the shutter and waited. I took over 40 minutes and two rolls of film, but I got the shot. In the process, I learned the value of conceptualization, planning and, thanks to my Super Baldax - with its take-your-best-guess aperture and don't-forget-to-cock-it shutter - patience.
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