This wonderful prewar camera is a perfectly pocket-sized folder that makes sixteen 4.5 x 6 cm images on 120 film. For me, this is a perfect balance. High resolution medium format negatives, from a camera that is easy to carry around.

The lens on this Balda Baldax is a 7.5 cm f/2.9 “Vldanar” from Ludwig-Dresden. This must have been a short-lived branding- I couldn’t find much information on this. It’s a nice lens, though. The shutter is a Prontor II.

The table on the back of this camera is a chart showing the depth of field depending on the aperture at various distances.

This old apple tree was planted around 100 years ago in the yard of the home in which I grew up, a source of food in a time that valued thriftiness and self-reliance. For years as a kid I played on a tire swing that hung from a branch of this tree. When I took these photos the tree was drying, the trunk rotted at the base. This tree was cut down in 2025.