The camera I nearly had and the one I did have. The Carl Braun GLORIA and PAXINA

We had thumbed the catalogue for weeks; the ‘we’ being my grandfather, my father and me. In the mid-1950s, Neville Brown & Co (NEBRO) produced a catalogue of the lines they sold*. in 1956, my grandfather fancied buying me the Gloria because it had an f/2.9 lens—probably the widest aperture on a (relatively) low-priced camera. Money was tight and it was either that with no ever-ready case or the cheaper Paxina with a case. Eventually, it was decided; a Gloria it was going to be. One Saturday morning we set off for Nottingham Photo Centre but when we arrived, there were no Glorias in stock. I left clutching a new Paxina in its box, the solid ever-ready case in another. So I never did get my hands on the Gloria—until I thought it would be fun to see what I had missed sixty years previously. I bought a good-looking Gloria on eBay and had it serviced by Ed Troszka before he gave up the business. It came back in beautiful condition. As well as cleaning the Prontor shutter he cleaned the rangefinder internally. I soon found a lens hood and filter mount plus a few filters of the correct size going for very little on eBay. I then put a couple of films through it to relive the dubious delights of 1950s photography.

The medium-format (we didn’t call it that then) Gloria and its cheaper sister Paxina were made by Carl Braun Camerawerk of Nuremberg. They produced the successful Paxette range and little-known Gloriette of 35 mm cameras as well as box cameras and a folder. From 1906 until the end of the Second World War, Carl Braun had produced parts for radios and binoculars. Like a number of other German manufacturers trying to get re-established after the War they entered the camera market in 1948 with their box cameras. The demand for German cameras was enormous in the late 1940s and 50s but the more expensive ones like Rollei, Leica and Zeiss Contax could not be imported into Britain because of currency restrictions. Cheaper models, however, could get in but even then Purchase Tax of about 30% or more was added. Nevertheless, there was an opening for cheaper cameras from first tier manufacturers (Zeiss), second tier (Agfa) and the new third tier manufacturers, like Carl Braun, to get a foothold in the British, Commonwealth as well as the US and world markets.

It  should not be imagined these cheaper cameras were cheap. The Paxina 29 (named for its f/2.9 lens) with the Prontor-SVS shutter was 17 guineas (including tax) or £379 in 2018 prices, the Gloria about 12% more. That was big money in 1956. The cameras were 3 guineas cheaper with the Pronto 4-speed shutter.

These medium-format cameras taking 120 roll film had, in common with some other simpler models, one key feature. The lens/shutter assembly was held at the correct distance from the film plane by a metal tube that was either spring-loaded (Gloria) or manually pulled (Paxina) from the body. Other manufacturers like Zeiss and Agfa had stuck with a fold-down arrangement of struts and bellows. The resulting folding camera was flatter in profile for carrying but relied on the struts holding the lens parallel to the film and on the bellows not leaking light. One of the reasons my grandfather, brought up with folding cameras in the very early decades of the 20th Century, was so keen on the Braun cameras was that bellows did deteriorate and light leaks could be a problem. That design of the ‘tube’ camera makes one more attractive to people who want to use these cameras in the 2010s. With the Zeiss Nettars, Ikontas etc and the Agfa Isolettes there is always the state of the old bellows to worry about.

According to McKeown, the Gloria was made between 1954 and 1957, the Paxina 29 between circa 1953 and 1957. There were earlier Paxina models, made from about 1950.

The lenses were incredibly fast for their time, especially on a medium-format camera. The Gloria I have has a Praxar 75 mm f2/9. Both Praxar and Praxanar lenses are shown as having been fitted to the Gloria in Mckeown’s guide. The Paxina is said to have been fitted with a Praxar or Steiner but mine has a Praxanar.  These lenses are triplets and have some form of coating. All the lenses were made by Steiner-Optik GmbH of Bayreuth, still in business as makers of binoculars.

As with most other than top-range cameras of the time, hoods and filter holders were a push fit. The problem was that when fitted they obscure the scale on the focusing ring.

Paxina 29 - tube in the closed position

The Gloria has several features the Paxina 29 lacks. The first was a non-coupled rangefinder, a good coincidence rangefinder with a coloured second image. The second was a body release (the shutter release on the Paxina 29 is on the lens/shutter assembly). The third is a double-exposure prevention device that comes along with the body release. The fourth is a spring-loaded tube to extend the lens to the taking position (the tube has to be pulled out manually and locked in the Paxina).

As for performance, these lenses were thought of originally as of rather low contrast compared to the cameras with the more expensive Tessar-type lenses. It is difficult to say how they compare now with the competition then in terms of contrast and sharpness because coatings etc may have deteriorated.

Using the Gloria reminded me of how slow the whole process was even though, and ignoring flash photography, there were only aperture, shutter speed and focus to set before cocking the shutter, pressing the release and remembering to wind the film on. An extra step could involve fitting filters and a lens hood after setting the focus and not moving the ring while doing so.

The lens at its extreme - f/2.9
FP4+/Rodinal, negative scanned, processed in Lightroom

Alloway Auld Kirk - on a dull day

The only problem I had was seeing the numbers on the film backing through the red window. The modern film I was using all had the same backing paper, with the numbers and arrows printed in a light shade of grey. That’s when I missed the automatically determined wind-on of a Rollei.

These cameras had no means of attaching a strap and every-ready cases (‘never ready’) are a pain with flaps getting in the way and the camera having to be removed completely to change the film.

One advantage of these cameras over a single- or twin-lens reflex is that they can fit into a large pocket although they are not so flat as a typical folding camera from that era.

I enjoyed using the Gloria with my iPhone as exposure meter—for a short period, but it is time for somebody else to enjoy the pleasure.

Finally, how long did I keep the Paxina I was bought in 1956. Not very long—but that’s another story.

I have made a short video on the Goria and Paxina:

*Inside Gloria and Paxina cameras sold in Britain can be found a sticker recommending Ferrania film. NEBRO were the agents for Ferrania as well as Carl Braun of Nuremberg.