Vintage Balda Super Baldina Folding Camera

Updated August 27, 2026

This Balda, Super Baldina, folding camera was made in Dresden, Germany, around 1938. It is a rangefinder with a lens marked, 5cm, f2.8, Schneider-Kreutznach Xenar and a Compur shutter. The glass element looks good, and shutter seems to fire without any issues. The bellows appears to be light-tight, with no obvious pinholes (which pleases our photographer). The Super Baldina, was a mid-range camera for its time. Balda, was known to sell their cameras to other companies, for sale overseas, the Super Baldina series was one of these cameras. This camera, however, was sold in Germany. The Super Baldina folder, had an innovative feature that was on the leading edge of rangefinder design, namely, a coupled viewfinder that would automatically tilt as the camera was focused. This design was Balda's way to get around the problem of parallax, when focussing at close distances. The tilt, would adjust the main viewfinder to more accurately reflect the what the lens was seeing. This camera shows some wear, due to age, but is in good overall condition. We have not tested this camera with film, and can make no assurances for it's function.

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