This Balda Juwella folding camera was made around 1936. These cameras must have been very popular as they are common to find today. Someday I will do more research to try to more precisely date the many variants of these cameras.

Most of these cameras have a plate with a stop below the lens for focusing at various distances. This one has a distance scale on the lens and a scribed mark on the front plate with a shutter. I doubt this left the factory this way, but I’m not sure. I imagine that there were many ways these cameras could have been modified at the time, either by an original owner or by a shop or workshop that sold or repaired cameras. And of course most of these cameras probably had a number of owners and users over the decades since they were made.

Balda did not make their own lenses, and it’s not clear what maker supplied the f4.5 105mm lens on this example of the Juwella. But I like the results.