Dacora Dignette Super E-B - A Time Traveller
written by vicuna
on May 7th, 2009
, 12 comments
(10 votes)
Photo can also be found at http://oliwajsf.club.fr
The Dacora Dignette is one of the most popular cameras to come out of the Dacora Kamerawerk factory. This company was created 1946 by Bernhard Dangelmaier in Reutlingen and moved during the 1970’s to Munich and then Nürnberg. In total they produced over 2 million cameras, both under their own brand and for other brands too, like Porst, Ferrania, Ilford and Lumière.
The Dacora Dignette (who has a perfect twin brother named Ilford Sportsman) was a camera produced during 1960 with a lot of different models, the top ones were the Super, Super E-B and Super Electric.
The Dignette Super E-B came out 1962 as a luxury model of the Dignette Super (which was already a luxury model of the ordinary Dignette…) It’s a simple rangefinder camera with a built-in selenium lightmeter uncoupled to the shutter, but you can see the lightmeter needle through the top of the viewfinder and adjust your settings without taking the camera away from your eyes.
The shutter is a Prontor LK going from 1/15 to 1/500 + B with a Steinheil München Cassar 2.8/45mm lens
The body of the camera is a bit chunky but big enough to have something in the hand, and has this particularity many other German cameras (more from the east GDR) have, that is the shutter button on the front right of the camera, just on the side of the lens. It’s in fact a very natural position to shoot when you hold you camera. Shooting is easy and quick with this camera, with a very clear viewfinder, a very reduced shutter noise and smooth setting rings.
As for the pictures it produced, I was so surprised when I saw the results of my first roll that I asked myself if I didn’t time travel to the past with this camera in my hands. The shots had such a great taste of the 60-70’s, a very warm texture and surprising colors. I used Lomo x-pro 100 film, cross processed it and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw very different kind of colors on the film as I was used to very blue/white shots with this film! Some of the shots (see the gallery for that) had the expected taste of the Lomo x-pro, but others were completely different that I couldn’t believe it was the same film! And in these pictures I found this very special taste of the past, the impression pf being back in the times the camera was produced and I simply loved it. A camera is not only a mechanism to shoot pictures, it’s a witness of the past, and if you take pictures with one of these old vintage cams, you are transported to a whole new time.
This is a great vintage camera, not very expensive (can be found for about 15€) and also gives you the feel of the past!
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