Mec 16
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| 1958 Mec 16 - gold color image by Geoff Harrisson (Image rights) |
The Mec 16 is a viewfinder camera for 10×14mm-sized shots on 16mm film in special cartridges. It was one of the cameras of the post-war subminiature camera boom. It was made from 1958 by Feinwerktechnik GmbH in Lahr, in the Schwarzwald in Germany, a subsidiary of INA-Werk in Herzogenaurach which made the Navax 35mm camera.
Opening the camera by sliding out a frame at one end exposes an optical viewfinder, and also opens the sliding lens-cover. On this cover, the lens is identified as a 20 mm f/2.8 Color-Ennit, by Enna.
A second model in 1960, the Mec 16 SB is similar, but improved by the addition of a built-in Gossen lightmeter. It was the first camera to offer through-the-lens metering.[1]
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| Presentation case image by eBayer broadside (Image rights) |
Notes
- ↑ Stated by Martin Kohler in his web article on cameras by Apparate und Kamerabau at his website on 3D photography. Kohler suggests that Dr Eugen Armbruster of AkA moved from that company to Feinwerktechnik, and was probably involved in the development of the Mec cameras.
Links
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| Mec 16 SB image by Matthew Rick (Image rights) |
- Mec 16 user manual at Butkus.org
- MEC 16 (in German) at Club Daguerre
- Mec 16 and 16 SB at submin.com
- Patents listed at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent Office:
- German Patent 1773992, Sucheinrichtung für Kameras (Camera Viewfinder), granted to Feinwerktechnik GmbH on 11 September 1958, describing the optical finder in pull-out frame, with framelines, including one for parallax error-correction at close focus.
- German Patent 1810615, Einrichtung an Kameras (Camera mechanism), granted on 28 April 1960 and describing the flash-synchronisation device in the camera.
- German Patent 1820146, Filmkasette für Rollfilmkameras, granted 20 October 1960 and describing a rather simple film cassette.
