1932 Nagel Vollenda with Tessar lens, Freshly Serviced, CLA’d

Cleaned, Lubricated & Adjusted. Ready for immediate use!

This little camera is a Nagel Vollenda. It was built at the Nagel factory, which was eventually purchased by Kodak in the beginning of the 1930’s in order to gain a foothold in the European market. The Nagel Camera Company always enjoyed a fine reputation for it quality products. This quality was evident in the finely crafted prewar Kodak Retinas. This was largely due to the founder Dr. Nagel, who designed and ran the business together with his skilled and motivated workforce.

The Nagel Vollenda was only produced briefly between 1931 to 1932, after which it was marketed until 1937 as a Kodak Vollenda. This makes this model very difficult to find. Another feature that makes this camera desirable is the high quality 2.8/50mm Carl Zeiss lens.

This camera produces 3x4 cm exposures on 127 roll film. By the way in case you’re wondering, 127 film is still available from specialty film firms on the internet. The 127 format is still quite popular among collectors who actually use their vintage cameras because of the very compact size of the cameras and the generous negative size of the film. In fact many photographers of the 1930’s preferred these cameras above early 35mm cameras for precisely this reason. The larger 3x4 cm negatives produced a superior image when enlarged.

This camera has an attractive patina. It’s been carefully cleaned, lubricated and adjusted and it works as it should. The bellows are supple and completely light tight. The quality Compur shutter works smoothly and all speeds (B & 1 sec - 1/300th) are appropriate. The slow speeds buzz along smoothly and the faster ones are clean and snappy.

It comes complete with an leather case. (circa 1930’s non-original.)

The 2.8/50mm Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, is a classic design with four elements in three groups. It’s well known for its crisp, sharp rendering and gentle bokeh. It produces lovely photos with smooth, attractive backgrounds and this lens is very popular with users. The serial number indicates that it was produced in 1932. The glass is exceptionally clean. There are no scratches or cleaning marks. There is no haze, separated elements or other problems and it’s capable of producing lovely photos with modern color and B&W film if you’re inclined to use it.

All in all an attractive, unusual vintage camera.