More at Optimar

Everytime I go to Optimar I spend at leat two hours talking to Ms. Yeda. She has always something interesting to show: old or new pictures (mostly from her family), old magazines, photobooks, etc.

Last time she showed me some of their cameras like these two Rolleiflexes, both with Planar Lenses: at left is a 2.8F with prismatic viewfinder and at right is a 3.5F with Tele Mutar 1.5x.

Exacta Varex IIA with three lenses: Zeiss 50 mm f/2.8.

Zeiss Flektogon 25 mm f/4.

And Meyer Goerlitz 400 mm f/5.6 with shoulder strap.

A Bolex 16 mm movie camera with Kern Switar 17-85 lens in perfect condition.

Bolex 8 mm movie camera (working).

Cosina Super-8 boxed.

Kodak 16 mm movie camera working smothly.

Keystone 16mm projector (not working – so far).

Optimar

Optimar is one of oldest camera repair shops still working in Sao Paulo. They have been in this very same place for 60 years!! No kidding. One decade ago they were a large company with almost 110 employees but now only 5 people are working there.

This is Ms. Yeda, wife of Mr. Frederico the shop owner.

According to her that photo of Lunar module was made from the original negative took on the Moon by the astronauts of Apolo program. It was a gift given to Mr. Frederico during a training in Hasselblad facilities in Sweden back in the 70´s.

Ms. Yeda is a friendly and nice lady that knows a lot about still and movie cameras. Take some time to visit Optimar. Ms. Yeda will serve you a nice coffe and speak about the old times.

Some posters decorate the walls. Among them the certificates of Mr. Frederico.

Rolleimarin

This week ended the auction at Ebay for a Rolleimarin, which is the underwater housing for Rolleiflex TLR cameras. It includes the camera, a Rolleiflex 3.5, and was sold for less than US$2.000,00.

One and a half year ago I found one at Optisom which is a service shop that also sells used cameras. The price was US$3.243,00 and did not include the camera. It is still there…