ADOX 300

The ADOX 300 – A unique 35mm Magazine Camera

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Only a few 35mm cameras have been designed which allow you the convenience of changing films in the middle of a roll without rewinding. Perhaps it was it too difficult to do, or was there no perceived need for this feature? Probably both back in the 1930s and 40s. But it was done. One way of achieving this was to make a camera with an interchangeable back as the film holder.

The first one to offer film interchangeability was the Kodak Ektra in 1941, a coupled-rangefinder camera with interchangeable backs and lenses:

Later came the Mamiya Magazine 35 (1957):

the Zeiss Contaflex (1959) and Zeiss Contarex (1960) .......... and then the Rolleiflex SL2000F (1981) and Rolleiflex 3003 (1985)

Contaflex magazine

– all of them used interchangeable backs. Zeiss listed their backs as accessories, as their cameras could also be used with a normal back that was removable; the others were true magazine cameras because they could only be used with their interchangeable backs in position.

But one designer took a different approach . . .

Prior to 1953 the film manufacturer Adox Fotowerke of Frankfurt am Main in Germany had marketed cameras made by other manufacturers, mainly Wirgin, which were re-branded as Adox. In that year they established their own factory for camera production. This was situated about 40km away at Wiesbaden, where they initially made folding roll-film cameras. Then late in 1956 they introduced an entirely new concept in 35mm cameras, the Adox 300.

Adox 300 with 45mm f2.8 Cassar lens and Synchro-Compur shutter

This was a fixed-lens viewfinder camera where the film was loaded into a magazine that was placed into the camera body. This magazine is actually just like a camera back that accepts standard 35mm cassettes, as it has a film transport sprocket, takeup spool, film plane guide, pressure plate, cassette chamber, frame counter and rewind key.

After closing the camera’s back door the action of locking the door, by the key on the base, opens the magazine’s dark slide allowing exposures on the film as usual. The magazine is now connected to the winding mechanism in the camera body via one slotted drive disc. Film winds from right to left and emulsion side out. A separate sprocket moves the frame counter (which shows the number of exposures remaining) that is visible through a window on the camera top.

A smaller window in the camera back allows you to see the magazine’s two reminder dials which you can set for film speed, 5 to 400 ASA, and film type.

Magazines can be exchanged at any time without lost frames (see Footnote 2) as the counter is not reset until a fresh film is loaded.

The camera and magazines have a real quality appearance, the camera body has smooth satin chrome parts and attractive grained black covering.

It feels solid and is very well made, especially considering this was the first 35mm camera that Adox had manufactured themselves. It was no lightweight, loaded and ready to use the camera weighed 855g. The well-designed magazine is made of cast alloy and pressed metal and has a fine black crackle-enamel finish. Its dark slide is thin flexible stainless steel that rotates partly around the takeup spool when withdrawn. A lock situated between the two drive discs ensures the left rotating disc cannot be moved when out of the camera back so the darkslide can’t open. A pin in the camera body unlocks this when the magazine is in place. Four machined studs around the film opening butt against four studs around the lens opening in the camera body to correctly locate the magazine and film plane. The camera back door has a pressure plate to hold the magazine in place securely.

Darkslide open and closed

The magazine chamber in the die-cast alloy camera body has only two moving parts; they are the bladed drivers that engage the slotted magazine discs.

Drive blades

The left one rotates as the back is locked or unlocked and moves the darkslide. The right one rotates the film advance sprockets.

Film winding is via the rapid-wind lever on the front of the camera. This action also tensions the shutter and operates the double exposure prevention interlock.

You then have to set this value on the shutter. A diffusing cover could be fitted to the meter window for incident light readings. The viewfinder is quite large and bright but does not have parallax correction.

Early bodies were marked ‘Dr C. Schleussner Fotowerke GmbH’ and ‘Made in Germany’ on the top plate, with the serial number in the accessory shoe. Later bodies had ‘ADOX Fotowerke Dr C. Schleussner GmbH’ on the top plate, ‘Made in Germany’ and the serial number are on the rear of the bottom plate. The camera shown in the instruction book has "Dr Schleussner" in script on the lens mount.

In addition to the conventional ever-ready case Adox offered a smaller case that could be fitted on to the camera case strap, it held a spare magazine and two filters. There was a window in it so you could see what type of film was loaded. The Adox 300 was also supplied in a handsome brown leather carrying case lined with red velvet, with spaces for four filters and complete with three magazines.

Camera with Xenar lens and meter diffuser

The concept of a camera system where the user could switch emulsions quickly and easily was timely in 1957 as color film was being used more while black & white was still popular with users who did their own processing. (As were those sweet Adox fine-grained films that I remember!) But the magazines were its main, and probably its only, selling feature; although the rapid film wind might be another for some users. Unfortunately the Adox 300 lacked lens interchangeability and a coupled rangefinder. Both these features would probably have been necessary for successful marketing and export sales. In the UK market Adox had to compete mainly with some other German 35mm cameras. The import of many German cameras into UK was still restricted, this paragraph is from the Zeiss distributor’s advertisement in the BJA of 1957: The following cameras are import restricted. Licences are granted from time to time by the Board of Trade but do not cover more than a fraction of demand. They listed the Contaflex I at £82 and a Contaflex IV with meter at £109. The British-made Leica copy the Reid was priced at £126. The Adox 300 was advertised with a Cassar lens, one magazine and a hand made leather case for 59 guineas, that’s £64.9.0 and with purchase tax added it’s about £90.

In the 1958 BJA the Adox 300 was advertised as “Now available with Xenar lens, 69 guineas”. Two Japanese cameras were advertised for the first time also: the Pentax at £102 and the Nikon S2 at £235. In the US market Adox had to compete against the similarly priced Leica, Canon, Nikon, Zeiss, Voigtländer and other 35mm cameras of that time. Japanese makers had already established sales offices in the US where a Pentax was priced at US$150 in 1957.

McKeown (p.10) has details on the Adox 500. This seems to me to be the camera that the Adox 300 should have been, as it featured interchangeable lenses, a coupled light meter, a coupled rangefinder and a bright-frame finder. The 1958 prototype was never put into production.

Footnote 1 -

To quote McKeown: After Adox stopped making the film magazines, the production tools were bought by Leitz. The Leitz produced magazines are marked “Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Germany” and were for the Orthomat microscope camera. They are nearly identical to the Adox marked magazines. Black, white or olive. The patent number on these magazines, shown in photo below, had been assigned to Adox. The Orthomat camera was used with the Ortholux and later the Orthoplan microscope. The magazines made it handy for using different films to photograph the same microscope slide (e.g. black-and-white and a color transparency).

Footnote 2 -

It is most important to know the procedure for changing magazines and removing a completely exposed one. When the shutter is cocked the back is locked and cannot be opened, magazines may only be removed after an exposure and before the wind lever is operated again. However after the last exposure on a roll the wind lever will not move and the camera back is locked. On the rear of the top plate there is a shutter interlock override lever. This has to be pushed up and held while the wind lever is operated. Now the shutter can be fired (with the lens cap on), the back can be unlocked by rotating the lock key on the base, and with a slight push on the door it will pop open so you can remove the magazine; the film could be rewound later. Having a spare loaded magazine handy meant you could change films quicker than rewinding and reloading a film cassette in the usual way.

1950s Adox films

Instruction book