The close focusing distance of 35cm was quite an achievement for a leaf-shuttered camera. Focusing the camera does not involve moving the scissor struts or further dropping the folding bed, unlike the Certo Dollina.

The focusing system is peculiar to the Arco 35: the front standard is mounted on a pair of scissor struts, itself attached to a metal frame sliding inside and out of the camera body and driven by a set of four rack-and-pinion devices. The lens and shutter assembly is mounted on a square plate, moved back and forth for focusing and driven by a knob at the top left, as seen by the photographer, an ergonomics similar to that of the 1951 Vito III. The first generation of Arco 35 has a prismatic body with sharp edges. Lens : Colinar f3.5/50mm or G-Colinar f2.The Arco 35 is a horizontal folder, unlike most other 35mm folding cameras.Camera type : 35mm rangefinder folding camera.(*View Arco are prepared for each Arco 35 and Arco 35 Automat.)Īmong the Arco 35 series, there are also Arco 35 Junior (popular version of Arco 35) and Arco 35 Automat D (with f2.4/50mm lens, an upgrade version of Arco 35 Automat). What's more, it has the aperture unit so that depth of field can be seen through it. Although the appearance of the camera with View Arco is a kind of different and unique, the viewfinder of View Arco couples with the lensboard movements, and also parallax is corrected automatically. This is the attachment reflex finder, and attaching this to the accessory shoe on the camera enable the camera to be used as a TLR camera. There is an unique accessory named 'View Arco' prepared for Arco 35 series. For that reason attachment Albada finder was provided with the camera.)

(Although it bacame 1x., the viewfinder was not bright enough and hard to see. The rear cover was attached to the camera by means of the hinge while it had to be put off on Arco 35. Other improvements from Arco 35 are as follows : The film wind knob was changed to the film wind lever. In addition, Arco 35 Automat was the first domestical folding camera that equipped with this shutter. The shutter was change from Seiko-Rapid, which was in Arco 35, to Seiko-MX that had self-cocking mechanism and selectable M, X flash sync. in spite of the rangefinder camera.Īt the biginning, only Colinar f3.5/50mm lens was fixed on the camera, but after a few month later, G-Colinar f2.8/50mm lens model was also available. This mechanism enables the camera to focus as close as 35 cm. On this mechanism, focus is made with the focusing dial at the base of the film rewind knob and turning this dial extends the lensboard and adjusts focus by means of four rack-and-pinions inside the camera body.

One of the feature on Arco 35 Automat is the focusing mechanism which is took over from Arco 35. On Arco 35 Automat, the unique structure still ramained, and at the same time several operations were automated. While most of cameras on the domestic market were imitations of Leicas, Contaxs, Rolleis and such of foreign manufactures, Arco 35 had a unique structure and got a reputation. Then in 1952, it introduced its first camera, Arco 35. A 35mm rangefinder folding camera, Arco 35 Automat was launched in 1955 by Arco Photo Industry.Įstablished soon after the war in 1946, it started manufacturing photo accessries like free-stop tripod and so on.

Folding camera retro arco