Fu Lunda Super Double Reverse Camera

Undoubtedly, Fu Lunda Superb camera was born to meet the challenge brought by Lulai Double-Reverse in the field of medium format camera. From 1929 to 65438+ 10, Lulai launched the first prototype of Rolleiflex dual-mirror camera, which was immediately sought after by the market. In the first three years, this new dual-lens reflex camera has won unprecedented praise. In its own promotional materials for Rolleiflex, Lulai described it as the lightest camera in history, the most convenient to carry, the most advanced technology and the simplest to operate, which is completely suitable for professionals. The greatest of these histories not only brought full confidence to Lulai Company, but also brought amazing market performance. In the short three years of1929–1932, the Rolleiflex prototype actually achieved the success of selling 35,000 units. 193 1 year, lulai introduced a reduced version of Rolleiflex 4 X 4 with 127 film, trying to sweep the camera market of 127 specifications with more advanced functions such as automatic film stop, linkage counting and motion framing.

Prior to this, with long-term technical accumulation, Fu Lunda has been the market leader of medium format film cameras, and no one can shake its dominance for many years. The sudden emergence of Rolleiflex has brought an unprecedented sense of crisis to Fu Lunda. It must catch up, or it may lose the whole medium format camera market. When Fu Lunda realized the crisis and immediately began to design his own double-Lorai super camera, Lulai had made careful arrangements in the research and development of new technologies, patent protection, expansion of production and occupation of the market. 1932, in order to expand production capacity, Lulai bought a new land and expanded its headquarters. When the new headquarters is completed, it is enough to accommodate 2000 workers. In the face of Fu Lunda who rushed to fight, Lulai was already ready for the battle.

1932, the Brilliant double-reflex camera introduced by Fu Lunda is suspected of copying Rolleiflex in the overall structure and film-passing system, but the prototype of Brilliant camera can't be linked to focus, and even its viewfinder has no focusing function. From the beginning, Fu Lunda positioned Brilliant as a low-end camera. It can't compete directly with Rolleifex. In order to make a camera that can compete with Rolleifex, Fu Lunda must first break through the technical barrier of dual-camera. Rolleiflex is developed from the original Rolleidoscop stereo camera of Lulai Company. There are many inventions in fuselage structure, focusing and framing system, film passing system and counter technology, all of which have applied for patent protection. How to effectively avoid patent disputes, Fu Lunda must give full play to its expertise in technological innovation.

Although the situation was urgent and time was limited, the designers of Superb did not neglect at all and made careful preparations for the launch of new models. 1 in the middle of 933, after the continuous research and development of several test prototypes, the brand-new Superb was launched in Fu Lunda as a high-end medium format camera (Figure1). From the appearance, this machine really has a high grade: the stocky body gives people a special sense of security, the exquisite printed skin is matched with the exquisite black paint edge, and all the exposed metal parts are nickel-plated and shiny. After the back cover of the camera is opened, two film bins are in front of you, which makes it very convenient to load and unload films (Figure 2). A year later, the version with Heliar high-end lens is not inferior to Rolleiflex with carl zeiss lens. In order to challenge Rolleiflex, which has taken the lead, Barenyi, the chief designer of Superb, led the design team to make a lot of efforts in innovation, first of all, the innovation of the overall structure of the camera.

The vertical membrane fuselage structure is one of Rolleiflex's most creative inventions. This structure can skillfully hide the two film bins in the empty space behind the oblique mirror and the narrow space just vacated under the imaging lens. This idea solves the problem of space waste caused by the huge reflective viewfinder and two lenses of a dual-mirror camera, which should be the best scheme under this structure, and there is hardly room for improvement. It is difficult for Fu Lunda to find another way to bypass this plan. When the designers in Fu Lunda boldly put forward the idea of horizontal film crossing, the first thing to be solved was how to arrange two film warehouses and how to come up with a brand-new design that rivals could not find fault with. This is a great challenge for designers in Fu Lunda, but all the difficulties can be overcome. So they ingeniously put two film bins on both sides of the fuselage (Figure 3-4).

This design seems ingenious, because the length of 6×6 will not affect the handheld mode of the camera, but after changing to the horizontal film, it still brings structural problems: first, the camera volume increases, and Superb looks solid and steady, because there are two bulging belly pockets on both sides of its fuselage, which is a prominent feature of its appearance. These two belly pockets are actually the space of two film warehouses, and there is no place to live. The space behind the superb mirror gave way to a big counter, otherwise it was basically idle, and the space under the imaging lens was partially wasted.

Another problem caused by transverse film passing is that the mirror and focusing screen become very unstable without the support of the metal structure of the film magazine behind the mirror. Superb's fuselage is actually divided into two parts. The lower part of the fuselage is supported by two silos similar to columns, and with thick metal doors, the structure is extremely stable. On the other hand, in the upper part of the fuselage, after removing the shell, the reflector and focusing screen lose any reliable support points. In order to solve this problem, Superb designers installed two solid metal beams for the upper part of the fuselage, passed through the front panel of the camera and riveted them firmly with rivets, forming two striking protrusions on both sides of the Superb logo on the panel (Figure 5). Seeing that there are foreign articles analyzing the functions of these two protrusions, it is speculated that it is related to the parallax adjustment of the viewfinder lens. It seems that he doesn't understand the internal structure of Superb. With these two intense beams, the focusing screen and reflector in the upper part of the fuselage can be stably supported even without the assistance of the fuselage shell. The two bulges on the front of Superb are not beautiful, and even cover the letters on the nameplate from the side, but they also fully reflect the design concept that German designers give priority to the structural safety of design objects.

Fu Lunda's dual-lens linkage focusing technology solution is relatively simple and economical. Superb's double-lens gear meshing focusing structure is much simpler than that of Rolleifex's multi-screw gear driving focusing structure. The focal length synchronization of the two lenses is realized by the meshing rotation of the convex teeth on the edge of the two lenses, while in Rolleifex, the focal length synchronization of the two lenses is realized by driving the whole panel to move through multiple groups of planetary gears in the fuselage, which is much more complicated in structure.

In order to solve the parallax problem of double-lens close-range shooting, Superb also used a new idea when applying the double-lens gear meshing focusing technology. After precise calculation, Superb's lens barrel thread can drive the lens to rotate, and at the same time, make the viewfinder gradually tilt downward. The closer the shooting lens is to the shooting target, the greater the downward inclination angle of the viewfinder, and at the same time, the lower end of the reflector is also lifted up, and one end of the focusing screen is also lifted up synchronously, thus ensuring the parallax generated by the upper and lower lenses to be eliminated when shooting a close-range target and focusing. This structure of coordinating the synchronous actions of viewfinder lens, reflector and focusing screen is obviously much more complicated than rolleiflex's technology of eliminating parallax by moving the inner frame of focusing screen, because Releiflex only changes the range of viewfinder, while Superb really changes the angle of lens to observe close-range objects, which is indeed a very creative invention.

1933 In the advertisement released by Fu Lunda Store in London, England in July, parallax compensation was taken as a main feature to promote the new product to be launched. It uses the following paragraph to describe the latest great camera:

Fu Lunda's new Superb camera has the most prominent feature-parallax compensation, which is literally a scientific achievement. Up to now, no dual-lens reflex camera can do it except Superb. When shooting at close range, even if the positions of the framing lens and the imaging lens are different, the real picture framing can still be realized regardless of the differences. On Superb camera, when the focus wrench is turned, the viewfinder lens, reflector and focus screen can automatically adjust the angle.

Superb's designers put great emphasis on the convenience of the new model. They hope that when the camera user uses the waist flat viewfinder, the handheld camera can complete all the operations of ranging and focusing, setting aperture and speed from above the camera. For this reason, the numbers on Superb speed dial are carved in reverse (figure), and users can see the positive numbers from above through a small prism. When the light is bad, it is difficult to see the numbers from the prism. At this time, the prism can also be pulled away. There is a small bump on the frame of the prism, which can prevent the small prism from being worn when the speed dial rotates.

Due to the short production cycle, the version of Superb is not complicated, and the improvement of the later version mainly includes the following aspects:

The fluff lining was replaced by matte black paint.

The fixed belt loops on both sides of the fuselage are changed into movable belt loops.

Cancel the back 1 17 film red window.

The font of the film counter becomes bigger and thicker, with white characters on black background.

Added Helia lens version.

A depth of field conversion table has been added to the viewfinder.

1933 When the first batch of Superb products were introduced, the film 1 17, which can shoot six 6X6 films, was still popular, so there were two red windows on its fuselage to accommodate two different types of films: 1 17 and 120. With 120 film becoming the standard and 1 17 film out of the market, Superb's later products canceled the red window of 1 17 film on the back of the camera, leaving only one red window on the side of the fuselage for 120 film. This is also a major feature that distinguishes the superb version.

Most films before 1930 are positive color films, which are not sensitive to light. The red window of the camera body can prevent light leakage, but since1mid-1930 s, the red window of the camera is not so safe. The early Superb had two red windows, but it was not until the red window set for 1 17 standard film was cancelled that the cover was designed for it. At that time, many people who used full-color film must be worried about the film with light leakage at the edge. Incredibly, the red window cover designed for 120 film is actually up and down. When it is necessary to block the red window, one corner of the square metal button is aimed at the red window, and the lower baffle will block the red window, while the upper baffle is useless under any circumstances. We can only guess that this accessory with two baffles may be reserved by the designer for the camera to be compatible with other specifications of film, or it may not be designed for Superb at all.

Superb has a counter, but it has no automatic stop function. If you can't see the counter window clearly in dark situations such as theater or shooting night scenes, you can only move the film blindly by pulling the film handle for 7 times. At this time, the interval between the two films will increase, and a roll of 120 films can only be shot at 1 1. Moreover, once there is a blind movement in the shooting process, the rest of the film can no longer be operated by the counter, which often becomes a nightmare for amateurs who are not so professional in photography. In contrast, after 193 1 year, all models of Rolleifex 1 20 and 127 have applied the automatic film stop function, so you don't have to worry about the film problem from1to the end of shooting, which is an important aspect of Superb's backwardness in technology.

Superb, change the switch of the horizontal back cover to the left of the back. The design of this important safety device is very simple, and it is very easy to cause misoperation by only using an elastic stainless steel button on a small bump on the fuselage. Once you accidentally touch the switch, the small door on the left side of the fuselage will open immediately, revealing the entire left magazine. We really don't understand why superb designers have made so many careful arrangements for the details of the camera, but they are so careless about the safety of the film warehouse. Compared with the tight and safe double locking device located at the bottom of the camera, Superb is really a grade worse.

There are still some design details to consider. For example, although the focus wrench is located under the fuselage, in order to read the focus value conveniently, Superb's designer actually designed a pointer with a painted base and a hook on the metal top below the nameplate (pictured). Obviously, drawing a dash on the edge of the focal length disk can solve the problem, but it is necessary to design such a complicated thing, which brings a lot of trouble to mold making, painting and fitting installation. These design details seem to be very intimate, but in fact, they may not bring good feelings to users, and some feel that they are superfluous.

Rolleiflex's success has attracted numerous imitators all over the world, including Gull Double Opposition in China, all of whom are members of its family. In contrast, although Superb also has a high technical level and many new inventions, no camera manufacturer wants to imitate it, not only because of its complex system and ingenious structure, but also because it brings various inconveniences and doubts to users in operational details. After all, consumers are the ultimate judges of the success of products.

Although Fu Lunda tried its best to solve this problem, it failed to reverse its disadvantage in the field of medium format film cameras and the competition with the road. During the period of 1933- 1938, Loreleflex produced more than 300,000 sets, while Fu Lunda Superb only produced less than 30,000 sets in these five years, which lost to Lulai in terms of output, market share, technical level and user experience. The only consolation for Fu Lunda is that the low-end double-reverse brilliance achieved good results before the war, which is comparable to the similar low-end models in Lulai.

What makes Fu Lunda executives fidgety is that after Superb lost its competitiveness and 1938 stopped production, Lulai did not stop expanding in the medium format camera market, and the more advanced Rolleiflex follow-up models were still being introduced, but Fu Lunda could not come up with other products that could compete with it in the high-end field, and watched Lulai attack the city and pull out the village. Rapidly eroding its traditional territory, if the outbreak of World War II did not cause great losses to all German camera manufacturing industries, Fu Lunda might not be able to bridge the gap widened by Lula.

The photos used in this article are all from my collection. Without permission, it shall not be quoted, and offenders will be prosecuted.