Diax IIb

     The Diax IIb is another early post World War II camera that makes you wonder how craftsmen in Japan and Germany managed to create excellent cameras within a relatively short time after their countries had been devastated by the war. Consider, for example, the problems they must have had related to materials, skilled  manpower, and even  factories in which to work after many of their cities had been bombed to rubble.

      Manufactured by Walter Voss in Ulm, Germany during the 1950s, the IIb was a 35mm interchangeable leaf shutter lens camera that had two viewfinder windows, one for a 50mm lens and a second for an 85 or 90mm lens. The camera I

have sports a 2.8/50 Xenar lens that is the easiest leaf shutter lens to dismount and mount I've ever handled. To accomplish this, you simply align the lens with an internal pin and turn the knurled knob (green dot) either counter clockwise or clockwise.
      The red dot marks the aperture adjusting ring; blue delineates the focusing ring; yellow indicates the shutter speed adjusting ring (1-500+B). Notice that, unlike on most cameras, the tripod mount is more or less centered on the bottom of the camera.  

     As shown in the photo (left), at just 4-3/4" wide the Diax IIb is somewhat smaller than other cameras of its time, but it's well engineered and solidly built. 
       But that's not all. As seen when viewed from above, this camera can boast of several nice features.   
     Notice the small knurled wheel that's located at the end of the film advance lever. Its purpose is to make using the lever more comfortable. The film counter peeks out from the front of the lever. And because it's oversize and easy to turn in its fixed position, there's no need to pull the rewind lever up to rewind the film.  Unlike many other cameras of its time, the Diax IIb also has a removable back that makes film loading easy.

COMING SOON: Yashica 35