INTRODUCTION

The Leotax Semi is a folding medium format film camera made in Japan by Showa Kogaku around 1940.

BEST SUITED FOR:

Art

Fun!

Travel

PERSONAL NOTES

The Leotax semi is really fun to use because of its size. It's one of the smallest medium format camera I ever used.

Of course, it's a bit limited, but not too much for a folding camera. Some folders have limited shutter speeds and/or aperture values, but the Leotax opens to a f3.5, which is quite respectable for the 40s, and it has a good shutter that goes down to 1/300s.

Its Wester lens is quite sharp. Wester also made cameras, like the Wester Autorol.

The finder is fixed on the top of the camera, it's just ok. No rangefinder here, but this is also better than the older finders that were close to the lens and needed to be manually turned for a landscape oriented photo.

The design is simple, evaluate the distance, choose speed and aperture, compose, and click. Use the red window to wind between shots.

CONCLUSION

The Leotax Semi is really fun and cool. It's of good quality, not too limited for a folding camera, and very compact for the film size you get. If you want to have a compact 645 camera, the Leotax Semi (or some other 645 Nettar) is the answer.

PHOTO SAMPLES

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