The Franka Solida I or Franka Solida 1 is a medium format camera. It was produced by the company Franka-Kamerawerk from Bayreuth. It was introduced in the early 1950s. At that time, Bavaria was still part of the American occupation zone. For this reason, "Made in Germany - US Zone" is stamped on the back as the country of manufacture.
The Solida I is a folding medium format camera, which were very popular at that time. A button on the side opens the camera and the lens with bellows unfolds. For the closing mechanism, a small button under the lens must be pressed.
Lens of the camera
The medium format camera comes with a fixed lens that cannot be replaced. There are different versions of this. Thus, there is a variant with Frankar Anastigmat 1:4.5 F=75mm V, Frankar Anastigmat 1:6.3 F=75mm or Frankar Anastigmat 1:5.6 F=75mm. As you can see, the main difference is the maximum aperture.
All models are focused manually. There is no rangefinder or similar, the distance has to be estimated. The closest focusing distance is 120 cm.
The camera does not have a light meter. Aperture and shutter speed must be set manually. With the Vario or Pronto shutter, you have the choice between different values. The Vario shutter offers the exposure times 1/200 second, 1/75 second, 1/25 second and the Bulb mode for long exposures.
The shutter has to be cocked before each release. Once the shutter button has been pressed or a picture has been taken with a cable release, the film must be advanced through a wheel. If this step has not been done, you cannot take a picture, this is to prevent double exposures.
An external flash can be connected to the PC flash socket. A flash can be attached to the accessory shoe. There is a thread for a tripod on the bottom. The camera has a weight of 527 grams and the dimensions are 13.5 x 9.5 x 3.8 cm.
Batteries for the camera
No batteries are needed to use the Solida 1. All functions are mechanical.
Films for the Franka Solida I
The Franka Solida I is a film camera and is loaded with medium format films. There are still some producers for this film format. For color images, for example, there is the Kodak Portra 160*. An option for black and white images is the Ilford XP2 Super*. Both films are very solid and very flexible to use. A slight mis-exposure is also not a problem with either of these films.
The exposure of the film is in 6x6 format. Approximately 12 photos can be taken with one roll of film. The film in the camera must be rewound manually, as there is no automatic film transport.
Sample photos
The sample photos were taken with the Fomapan 100 on a sunny day. The film was developed in the Ars-Imago MB Monobath. The development time was 8 minutes.
