ADOX Polo

Last updated
ADOX Polo
ADOX Polo front.jpg
Overview
Maker Fotowerke Dr. C. Schleussner GmbH
Type 35 mm SLR
Lens
Lens Adoxar 45mm f/3,5
Sensor/medium
Film speed ASA 8 to 800 [manual]
Focusing
FocusManual
Exposure/metering
Exposure Manual
Exposure metering none
Flash
Flash PC socket
Flash synchronization 1/30 s
Shutter
Frame rate Manual lever winding
Shutter speed rangeB, 1/30, 1/60 and 1/125 s [mechanical]
General
Batterynone
Dimensions 130 × 86 × 67 mm
Weight 280 g
Made in Germany

The ADOX Polo was a consumer-class, viewfinder camera with a completely manual operating system. It was manufactured between 1960 and 1963. Dr C. Schleussner Fotowerke GmbH was installed during WW2 in the stolen Wirgin camera factory of Wiesbaden, Germany. The three Wirgin brothers who were the founders and owners of the Wirgin company, were forced to leave Germany when the Nazis seized their factory before the Holocaust and installed ADOX. After the war, the Wirgin brothers returned to Germany, reclaimed their factory and continued business producing the Edixa and subsequent models.

Contents

Description

ADOX produced high-resolution fine-grained film material. The camera featured an Adoxar 45mm f/3,5 lens that would have been respectable on cameras in a much higher price range.

The top, bottom and the lens base cover were made from pressed steel of about ½mm thickness. The rest of the chassis and most of the internal parts were made from mould-injected plastic. Metal was only used for parts where wear and tear make it unavoidable, such as the film pressure plate and the film transport cogwheels. [1]

Interior ADOX Polo back.jpg
Interior

The viewfinder had neither lines for parallax compensation, nor for outlining the edge of the negative. With the camera held to take a picture in landscape format, the center mounting and poor enlargement of the viewfinder required the user to press the nose rather hard against the camera back. There was no rangefinder.

The camera had no light meter. It offered three shutter speeds and aperture values had to be set by a separate light meter, by guesswork or by following the coarse exposure guide on the film package.

An accessory shoe was on the top of the housing but without a 'hot-shoe' contact. The rewind knob held a film speed reminder, covering ASA 8-800/DIN 10-30, but no folding rewind handle. The frame counter needed to be reset manually. It counted down from the number of exposures in the roll to zero. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zorki</span>

Zorki is the name of a series of 35mm rangefinder cameras manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1978.

Kiev is a Soviet and Ukrainian brand of photographic equipment including cameras manufactured by the Arsenal Factory in Kiev, Ukraine. The camera nameplates show the name "KIEV", with older cameras using "КИЕВ" or "КИЇВ" in Cyrillic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikon F3</span> Camera model

The Nikon F3 was Nikon's third professional single-lens reflex camera body, preceded by the F and F2. Introduced in March 1980, it had manual and semi-automatic exposure control whereby the camera would select the correct shutter speed. The Nikon F3 series cameras had the most model variations of any Nikon F camera. It was also the first of numerous Nikon F-series cameras to be styled by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, and to include a red stripe on the handgrip – a feature that would later become a signature feature of many Nikon cameras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canon EF camera</span> 1973–1978 single-lens reflex camera

The Canon EF is a manual focus 35mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Canon between 1973 and 1978. It was compatible with Canon's FD-mount lenses. The EF was built as an electro-mechanical version of Canon's top-of-the line wholly mechanical Canon F-1. The shutter is mechanical at all speeds starting at 1 second and faster, but from 2 seconds and beyond the shutter is all electric, allowing for AE shutter speeds as long as 30 seconds. The EF shares the F-1's rugged construction and tough metal body. Unlike the F-1, the EF does not support any motor drive for film transport. Neither does it provide any interchangeable viewfinder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canon F-1</span> 35mm single-lens reflex camera model

The Canon F-1 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Canon of Japan from March 1971 until the end of 1981, at which point it had been superseded by the New F-1 launched earlier that year. The Canon FD lens mount was introduced along with the F-1, but the previous Canon FL-mount lenses and older R- series lenses were also compatible with the camera with some limitations. The Canon F-1 was marketed as a competitor to the Nikon F and Nikon F2 single lens reflex cameras by Nikon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canon New F-1</span> FD-mount 35mm single-lens reflex camera

The Canon New F-1 replaced the F-1n as Canon's top-of-the-line 35mm single-lens reflex camera in September 1981. Like the earlier models, the New F-1 takes FD-mount lenses. Although no date has ever been confirmed, it is thought that the last New F-1 was made in 1992. It was officially discontinued in 1994, and factory support ended in 2004.

The Olympus OM System was a line of 35mm single-lens reflex cameras, lenses and accessories sold by Olympus between 1972 and 2002. The system was introduced by Olympus in 1972. The range was designed by Yoshihisa Maitani, chief designer for Olympus, and his staff; OM stands for Olympus Maitani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olympus OM-2</span>

The Olympus OM-2 is a single-lens reflex film system camera produced by Olympus of Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikkormat</span> Camera brand

Nikkormat was a brand of cameras produced by the Japanese optics company Nippon Kogaku K. K., as a consumer version of the professional Nikon brand. Nikkormat cameras, produced from 1965 until 1978, were simpler and more affordable than Nikon-branded cameras, but accepted the same lenses as the Nikon F series cameras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minolta X-700</span>

The Minolta X-700 is a 35 mm single-lens reflex film camera introduced by Minolta in 1981. It was the top model of their final manual-focus SLR series before the introduction of the auto-focus Minolta Maxxum 7000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentax LX</span>

The Pentax LX is a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Pentax in Japan. It was introduced in 1980 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Asahi Optical Co., and was produced until 2001. The LX uses the K mount, which is the Pentax proprietary bayonet lens mount, and has manual and aperture priority automatic exposure modes. It is the top-of-the-line professional, or "system", camera in the Pentax manual focus range, and has a large body of accessories. Compared with contemporary professional camera bodies from rival manufacturers, like the Canon New F-1 or Nikon F3, the LX body is smaller and lighter, weighing in at 570 grams with its standard FA-1 finder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rollei 35</span>

The Rollei 35 is a 35mm miniature viewfinder camera built by Rollei. The original Rollei 35, when introduced at photokina in 1966, was the smallest existing 135 film camera. The Rollei 35 series remains one of the smallest 35 mm cameras after the Minox 35 and Minolta TC-1. In 30 years, about 2 million Rollei 35 series cameras were manufactured. The Rollei 35 was manufactured by DHW Fototechnik up to 2015, the successor of Franke & Heidecke as small-batch production. The last version is the Rollei 35 Classic, an updated Rollei 35 SE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leica R8-R9</span>

The Leica R8 & R9 are manual focus 35 mm single-lens reflex cameras produced by the German firm Leica as the final models of their R series. Development of the R8 began in 1990: the camera was introduced at the 1996 photokina trade show, and was succeeded by the similar Leica R9 in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konica Hexar RF</span> 35 mm rangefinder camera

The Konica Hexar RF is a 35 mm rangefinder camera which was sold by Konica. It was introduced to the market on 13 October 1999. and subsequently discontinued some time before the end of 2003. The camera used the "Bayonet Konica KM-mount", a copy of the Leica M-mount, thus sharing interchangeable lenses with those designed for Leica cameras and others compatible with them. The Hexar RF has a combined rangefinder/viewfinder modeled on that of Leica cameras, a similar body shape and size - and so is similar to Leica M-mount cameras in many aspects of operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konica Hexar</span> 1990s 35 mm autofocus camera

The Konica Hexar is a 35 mm fixed-lens, fixed focal length autofocus camera which was produced through the 1990s. It was introduced to the market in 1993. While styled like a rangefinder camera, and intended for a similar style of photography, in specification it is more like a larger "point and shoot" camera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canon EOS 100</span>

The Canon EOS 100 is a 35 mm autofocus SLR camera introduced by Canon in 1991. It was marketed as the EOS Elan in North America. It was the second camera in the EOS range to be targeted at advanced amateur photographers, replacing the EOS 650.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wirgin</span>

Wirgin was a German company which is still known for its brands Wirgin and Edixa, and for its camera types like the Edina, the Edinex or the Gewirette. It was based in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden and made a line of quite inexpensive 35mm SLRs from the 1950s to the 1970s, including the Edixa Reflex and Edixa-Mat Reflex. Wirgin was West Germany's main producer of SLRs with focal plane shutter. It also produced some of the lenses for its cameras, among them several M42 screw mount lenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentax Super-A</span>

The Pentax Super-A, also sold in some markets as the Pentax Super Program was a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Pentax of Japan in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leica M5</span>

The Leica M5 is a 35 mm camera by Leica Camera AG, introduced in 1971. It was the first Leica rangefinder camera to feature through-the-lens (TTL) metering and the last to be made entirely in Wetzlar by hand using the traditional "adjust and fit" method.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kodak 35</span> 35mm camera from Kodak

The Kodak 35 was introduced in 1938 as the first US manufactured 35mm camera from Eastman Kodak Company. It was developed in Rochester, New York when it became likely that imports from the Kodak AG factory in Germany could be disrupted by war.

References

  1. "ADOX Polo 1 & 1S Cameras at Historic Camera". historiccamera.com. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  2. "Instructions for using POLO 1" (PDF). cameramanuals.org. Retrieved 2023-04-17.