Flexaret is a brand of cameras manufactured up to 1970 in Czechoslovakia by the company Meopta. The camera was equipped with two lenses: the viewing lens for focusing, framing and composing the shot, and the taking lens for actually taking the picture. For focusing Flexaret uses quite unique feature, a double-headed lever placed below the taking lens that swivels from side to side.
All models of Flexaret are twin-lens reflex cameras with aluminum body, taking square "6×6" format photographs on a 120 roll films. The camera was intended rather for amateur photography; the handling was easy and technical parameters were simple. The Flexaret rapidly became popular in Czechoslovak households and its popularity lasted until the late 1960s.
The most striking feature about the Flexaret, and in general about all twin-lens reflex cameras, is the way in which you take the photographs. To look down into the waist-level finder, with the big bright screen, allows a very conscious framing and composing, and you can achieve dead on focusing precision with the aid of a small pop-up magnifying glass. The image projected onto the screen is reversed left-to-right.
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