Welmy Six L

The Name Says it all

Unlike most 35mm cameras, medium format cameras come in a range of negative sizes. Medium format cameras used this size as a naming device a fair bit like with the Pentax 67 and Mamiya 645. Welmy was no different, naming the Welmy 6 after its 6x6 negative size. The particular model I own is a late Welmy Six L Variant B. The L model got rid of the secondary viewfinder and slimmed down viewfinder housing, making it a sleeker design. As well as taking away the slower shutter speeds, up to 1/25th found on model E cameras. Overall fit and finish of the Welmy Six L is very solid. The camera features a matte metal top with bits of polished chrome accents around the body. Mainly consisting of a black painted metal frame, textured leather, and brown bellows, the camera has the typical look of a folding camera of that era. The body sports quite a few logos, Taisei Kaki and Welmy monikers come to a total of seven all around.

The Welmy Six L is opened by a small button above the cold shoe, and it’s quite the spring loaded design. To close you push in the struts and fold in the door. All the controls you have left on the top plate is the aforementioned cold shoe, as well as the advance knob and shutter button. The button is not threaded, but there is a threaded mount on the shutters right hand side. The viewfinder is small but manageable, with a decent view of the frame. On the back of the camera, you have the frame counter window with the window cover in the middle. As well as the tab on the left hand side you pull down to open the back of the camera.

Most controls are located on the shutter. There is a shutter cocking lever on the top of the shutter along with older ASA bayonet flash sync on the left hand side. Please note the there is no double exposure prevention on the camera. The aperture dial is right behind these controls, going from f/4.5 to f/22. The shutter is behind the lens on a scale of bulb, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200th of a second. The lens has quite a lot of movement, going from three feet to infinity and rotating nearly all the way around.

THE SPECS AND FEATURES

Shutter Speeds - bulb, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200

Aperture - f/4.5 to f/22

Meter Type - None

Shutter - Welmy branded shutter

Lens - Welmy Terionar 75mm f/4.5

Flash Option - ASA bayonet, cold shoe

Batteries - None

Film Type - 120 film

Other Notable Features - Very spring loaded lens door

The Experience

I never specifically looked for a Welmy Six, or even heard of one. I found a great deal on a camera I never heard of before and decided to take a chance on it, knowing that I wouldn’t lose out too much if I couldn’t get it to work. As it arrived, the camera was in less then stellar shape, and the shutter seemed to be slow. Unbeknownst to me, this was the start of a lengthy process of fixing almost every part of a camera. The camera was almost unusable at the start. Leather peeling off, a slow and oily shutter, you could not turn the shutter selection dial and a dull murky viewfinder to round it out. The first step was to see if I could fix the shutter. This prompted me to take off the focusing element to get to the shutter mechanism. Hardened grease around the dial was causing the speed selector to seize up, and cause other shutter problems. Lots of scraping grease, naphtha baths and oiling later, I had a somewhat working shutter.

I took the camera to a very anxiety inducing abandoned school in the middle of a winter night. This is where I learned that the tripod mount is less than ideal. It comes to a point instead of being flat. This led blurry shots when I was holding the camera on a tripod as best I could. While also freezing and thinking about not getting stabbed played a part. I had some amazing shots lined up, but once I got home I was shown an even bigger issue. All the shots were way out of focus, and I had no idea why. I took apart the lens and found the elements were cemented together with hardened grease, and I was turning the lens elements together instead of just one. They were somewhat easy to pull off and grease again but as I went to put on the front focusing element I realized a grave mistake, I did not mark infinity. This meant that I had no way of knowing when to stop screwing in the element for correct focus. Dejected, I threw this camera into a box for over half a year before I even glanced at it again. 

While reading up on large format cameras, I read about how simple ground glass really is. A forum user stated that you can mimic a ground glass with frosted scotch tape or parchment/wax paper and I ran to the store and grab some that day. I rigged up a strip of parchment paper between two spools and made sure that they were taught. As I set the camera in bulb, I aimed it at a lamp and tested this advice out. It worked pretty damn well surprisingly. I set up a tripod and used a laser measuring device from the film plane to a detailed paper and moved the tripod to a solid number of feet. I focused as accurately as I could, even using a loop, and screwed everything back together. I glued the leather back to the body, did some work on the bellows, and finally had a working camera.

After all this trouble the camera still sat for a couple more months before I got around to using it. When I would grab a medium format camera, the ones I would gravitate toward were the SLR or rangefinder variety. Even when I grabbed a scale focus camera, I chose one with more features, like the Agfa Silette II. Initially, my biggest gripe for this camera was having only four shutter speeds and a slower lens. But that was at the start of me using the Welmy Six. I was looking at it from the perspective of newer cameras. This camera is from the early 1950s and was not meant for faster films and environments. I decided to treat it like you would with a large format camera, tripod steady shots and careful planning. The results at the end were surprisingly great, when it wasn’t a focus error by me.

I put the Welmy Six L through its paces after this and had much better luck. The focus seemed to be hitting the mark and the exposure was spot on. I went through a couple more rolls, with a variety of inside, outside and studio shots. A few double exposures happened when I forgot if I advanced the shot or not, but that was on me. Once all the trials endured were over, I enjoyed using the Welmy Six L. For an older scale focus medium format camera, it does the job well. The speeds are slower than most cameras, but that’s no excuse. As a film photographer, you can always work around that. What started as a daunting project camera, ended up teaching me how to use older cameras that had minimal settings, how to fix the focus of a camera, the importance of testing, and overall loving the process more. I would recommend giving a Welmy Six a look, they are solidly built with a reliable shutter and nothing overly complicated to repair. There are plenty of Welmy Six cameras and variations to be had, and it will most certainly take you back to some more photography roots as it did for me.