Balda Super Baldinette

The folding Retina-like camera

Coming out around the same time as the Kodak Retina II, it strikes an eerily similar appearance, even garnering the same manufactured lenses and shutter of the Retina at the time. But do not be fooled by the similar appearance, it has a completely different feel. The Super Baldinette features a brushed metal and painted black design on the body. The leather is textured and has the cameras logo raised on the front while engraved on the back. A very elegant and beautiful design. This was a top of the line camera for Balda at the time and you can see no expense was spared. A solid feel and weight rounds out a high quality feel for the Super Baldinette.

To open the camera you must push the smaller of the two buttons, on the top of the cameras right side, and pull the door to the side until the lens locks in place. This door also has a stand that you can use for propping the camera up vertically. Once open you will be able to focus the camera, with the knob on the side of the lens with the distance scale. To focus with the rangefinder you must look through the left window on the rear of the camera. The frame is slightly amber, with a large clear square focusing patch in the middle. Once focused you will need to use the other viewfinder, to the right, to frame the image.

The other controls on the top of the camera from left to right, are the rewind knob, the shutter button and cable release socket, a cold shoe in the middle, the door release button once again, and the frame counter. This counter you can change at any time by turning the knurled ring with your thumb. To open the back you must oddly look to the front of the camera, where a tab with an arrow is above the Super Baldinette logo. Pushing this up unlocks the back. More logos and an impressively detailed dept of focus chart lies on the back of the camera, helping out with a great bit of info for scale focusing. To the right of the two viewfinder windows, on the rear of the camera, you have a large looking screw. Under this you will find quick access to the horizontal adjustment for the rangefinder.

While the Super Baldinette is closed, the camera is still able to be wound via the large knob on the bottom of the camera. This knob also acts as the rewind release, disengaging the mechanism when you pull it out. The button next to the winding knob is the film lock release, needing to be pushed before being able to wind to the next frame. The tripod socket is the only other thing of note on the bottom of the camera, being located far to the side.

All adjustable controls are around the lens of the camera. The particular lens on my example is the 6 element Rodenstock Heligon 50mm f/2. Around this lens is a different but interesting design for the aperture selection, going from f/2 to f/16. Under that is the shutter speed selection and shutter cocking lever, going from bulb and 1 second to 1/500th of a second. The standard PC port is next to the cocking lever along with a switch to choose between M and X sync flash. Finishing off the controls around the lens is the focusing lever for the coupled rangefinder and the distance scale. Please note that the camera has a prevention mechanism that will not close the camera unless the focus is at infinity, do not force and damage the camera!

THE SPECS AND FEATURES

Shutter Speeds - bulb, 1 sec to 1/500

Aperture - f/2 (or f/2.8 depending on lens) to f/16, non locking so able to do any number in between

Meter Type - none

Shutter - Synchro-Compur

ASA - N/A

Lens - depends on the model bought

• 4 element Enna Ennit 50mm f/2.8

• 6 element Schneider Xenon 50mm f/2

• 6 element Rodenstock Heligon 50mm f/2

Flash Option - PC socket with M or X sync

Batteries - none

Film Type - 35mm

Other Notable Features - depth of focus scale chart on back

The Experience

I knew nothing about Balda initially, when I decided to give a very rough looking folding camera a chance at repair. When it arrived it had quite the sound of rattling and was in a sorry state of disrepair. You could tell many years ago that someone tried their hand at fixing the camera and lost a few screws in the process. Thankfully the rangefinder needed little adjustment, but all of the glass on the windows were disconnected from the body and you could see they were shoddily glued at some point. I sanded as much of the ancient glue as possible and tried my hand at properly gluing back on the glass. Once back together the rangefinder worked great and the camera was halfway to working correctly. Next was the leather on the body. Some pieces came right off in my hand when I first held the camera, so a thorough re-glue was in order. Cleaned and hydrated the leather on the body, did some minor work on the bellows, and all that was left was the lens and shutter. Naturally everything was going too well at this point, but not for long. While trying to clean the shutter blades, I had to unscrew the front lens elements. No matter what I did, it would not budge. I tried many things, but I was determined not to break anything and I tried to drench it in lighter fluid to hopefully free something up. Very bad move. The lighter fluid got between the lens elements and caused them to separate and create spots. I had to go through quite the process of getting the lens elements apart, drilling, sanding more gluing and putting them in an oven to return to normal. At multiple times I thought it was a fruitless effort, but I kept pushing forward and didn’t want to give up. I finally had the camera back together and in good working order, Rodenstock lens and all.

The Balda Super Baldinette is essentially a Kodak Retina II copy, even featuring the same lenses you could get on the Retina at the time. While incredibly similar to a Retina, there are a few things that set in apart and make it a unique camera. Shooting the Super Baldinette is a multi step process. Going from start to finish, you must open the camera, push the wind release button, wind to the next frame, change the aperture and shutter speed then cock the shutter, use the rangefinder for focusing, and then frame the shot. A bit hectic at times, but once a rhythm is achieved, it becomes somewhat natural.

I enjoyed using the Super Baldinette quite a bit. With the ability to fold into such a compact size, I kept it in my coat pocket or threw it in a bag when I went out. Once accustom to the somewhat quirky system, from folded to ready to take a picture was fast enough for me to take a quick shot and shield from the rain. Truly a compact and fast rangefinder to use with some legendary glass to back it up. The Super Baldinette is an incredible feat of engineering and a beautiful camera to see and use. Truly a work of art and it deserves a place on anyone’s list of top tier rangefinders.