Watameter
Watameter I image by John-Henry Collinson (Image rights) |
Watameter was a widely-sold German series of accessory rangefinders of the photo accessory brand Wata. A Watameter I or a Watameter II could be used to measure distances between 55cm and infinity. It could be attached to a camera's accessory shoe. All Watameters have a knurled rangefinder thumbwheel, with a smaller knurled screw upon it as means to adjust the rangefinder to indicate infinity exactly at the upper end of its scale, i.e. at ∞. Another small adjustment knurl at Watameters' I, II and Super's side is for correction of the rangefinder images overlapping to make the devices optically functional.
Watameters were produced by the company Edmund Wateler in Braunschweig.
Watameter I, front plate variant image by Dirk HR Spennemann (Image rights) |
Watameter Condor's measuring range began with 3 ft. image by John-Henry Collinson (Image rights) |
Watameter Super image by John-Henry Collinson (Image rights) |
The Watameter II and the Watameter Super were versions, in which the distance could be read directly through the rangefinder ocular, left hand to the measuring spot. The Watameter II even had only that distance display inside whilst the Watameter Super's enhanced distance scale partially has to be read from the meter's thumb wheel's cm scale, i.e. all distances between 30cm and 50cm.
Watameter almost like the Watameter Condor, and a sample of an almost equal watameter badged "Mastra - Germany", obviously the same type as the rangefinder made for Photopia image by Adrian Gee (Image rights) |
Watameter II image by John-Henry Collinson (Image rights) |
Some say the Watameters were also sold under the TELEX brand, but it seems that at least the outer design was quite different.
Links
Watameter image by Gustavo Vasquez (Image rights) |
- Watameter Super – The Rolls Royce of Rangefinders on casualphotophile.com [1] (imcludes english manual!)
- Watameter user manual (in German) at Butkus.org
- Watameter II at Kurt Tauber's Kameramuseum