Finetta 99

Since its inception as a camera maker in 1949, Finetta made entry-level cameras. Styled differently from other cameras of that time, they were quirky, with little upgrades from one model to another. Yet it must be remembered that the company came and went within eight short years, so whatever they did in this period is outstanding.

Finetta still wanted to make a splash, und wenn schon denn schon; it should be one-up over models that ruled the market. They collected all advanced camera features offered then, added a spring-loaded winder, and the Finetta 99 was born, later sold in the US as Ditto 99.

At the company’s tradition, an odd camera was prematurely presented to the market before ironing out all childhood malaise. It had likely contributed to the company shutting down within a couple of years.

Offering five different lenses system is a tall order even today, let alone for a company with a manufacturing capacity of 100 units a day. Relying on a third party’s mount could have changed the model and company’s fate, but I would guess that hubris also played a role. Also, this was the third lens mount offered by Finetta, and neither was compatible with the other. A spring-loaded technique was not new, but shipping it to the market without thorough testing was irresponsible. Similar to the  Fotochrome, cameras were shipped out and returned for service at the same rate. All that with a model that was supposed to change photography and was sold at the time about USD 100, equal to some USD 1,200 in 2023. You would expect more reliability once you spend such an amount. Adding the iffy quality and reputation of the Finetta brand, it was doomed from the jumping board.

Spring-loaded cameras have been available since the dawn of photography in cine cameras. This was translated into compact or miniature models before the Finetta 99. Searching for such models points to John Wade’s book, Clockwork Cameras. Available from Amazon or the publishers, Blurb.com, that print and ship one copy upon demand. Oddly, the entire book is available online at fliphtml5.com, I am not sure why and for how long. Looking for clockwork cameras, Robot is the name that comes to mind, with an early model offered in 1938. The first to gain wide distribution was the Robot IIa, of which I have a pair that work perfectly. This Robot had led the way to a long list of siblings, including the notorious and dreaded STASI models. The Japanese had some early models, miniatures by Niagawa, followed by a glut of Ricoh models. The US Kodak dipped their feet with the Automatic models, which didn’t last long, and Bell and Howell presented the one-off 1949 Foton. Tessina of Switzerland offered some tiny, highly desired models in 1951, and the Soviets had it with the in-your-face 1956 Leningrad. The trend had ended with the miniature battery-operated and cheap electric motors that made the spring loaded redundant.

For good measure, I added a searchable list of spring-loaded / clockwork cameras at the bottom of this page. It is probably incomplete and could be corrected; I appreciate notes, corrections, and additions.

Before getting into the camera, I would quote an excerpt from the English language user manual. Printed in Germany but probably written elsewhere, judging by the style. For this camera, reading the manual is essential.

Quote:
Long life and faultless performance can be guaranteed for the Ditto 99 with the automatic film advance only if the following notes, and the booklet of instructions, are most scrupulously attended to. (sic)
Unquote.

Further, there is a note to wind gently and a strong warning against self-servicing it. I guess there were some precedents. And lastly:

Quote:
For the rest (in case you have already gone so far), we need only to say that if you use your largest pair of pliers, a giant screwdriver and a sledgehammer, you can say goodbye to all your hopes of good photographs.
Unquote.

Oops. Untypical language for a user manual, very. It brings to mind Dan Aykroyd explaining to Ned Beatty how not to operate a gun, in the movie 1941.

The camera is neat, good-looking, and nicely styled, much heavier than its contemporaries. With chromed metal and gray skin, it differed from the black-on-black of most cameras at the time. The above note about studying the manual is justified, as it has some mystery functions.

The top has a large winder drum set above the spring mechanism that is contained within the oversized take-off spindle. Frame counter nearby it, with a protruding setting cog at the back. The speed selector is divided into three groups:  50, 100-1000, and B, 25. To use the ‘B’, slide the ‘B’ lever at the front, and remember the manual’s note about not winding while there.  A hot shoe and a rewind knob complete the top. A later model, the 99L has an additional slow speeds dial located by the rewind knob.

The side has a lever sliding between X and 1, setting the flash synch delay. The manual has a table specifying which setting is for which bulb. I am not sure how the synch mechanism works in other models, but I have yet to see such a configuration.

The back is boring. The bottom has a flat thumb nut in the middle to unlock the back cover. In my model, there is no indication as to which direction to turn. To open turn anti-clockwise. It is not held by a screw but via two mushroom-headed pins that fit into grooves in the body. A side thumb nut, smaller, is to allow rewind. When unscrewed, it releases the clutch holding the take-off spool. The nut has a matching hole in the bottom of the back cover, so it is accessible with a mounted back cover.

The front contains an extensive lens board, having two modest-looking pins at its sides. Squeeze in both pins, and the lens pops out. The lens has a large diameter mount – 46mm / 1 7/8″ ring, much larger than the lens body diameter, hence the size of the lens board. A notch in the lens base directs to a pin in the body, making it easy to remount. The front of the lens takes the ends of two fingers to turn the aperture dial, a typical Finetta. Depending on the model, focusing is marked in meters or feet, and the focusing dial forever turns to a full 360⁰.

Opening the back, a fold-down pressure plate tends to be in the way. The film track has no guide gears, so it advances only by the pull of the spool. There are two bulges on the spool to catch the film’s perforation and pull. I think the designer dropped the ball here; it is impractical. The spring mechanism is set in the take-off drum. At the bottom are two spring-loaded pins; it seems the only purpose they serve is to push the back cover off once the catch is released. I think it is an overkill, so it may serve another purpose, but the manual does not mention it. A crude, very early horizontal cloth shutter is mounted in the middle of the camera. Curtain shutters were earlier available in the Leica models, copied by a host of makers, widely offered by the Soviets, Canon, and a long list of Japanese and a few US, UK, and Italian; other than Canon, none is still among the living. It means that a camera like the Finetta 99 was premature in its days, and to succeed, it needed the manufacturer’s deep pockets and a serious customer base, neither of which was there.

Finetta had high aspirations for this model, so it had announced a full lens line to match and a slew of accessories. Other than the kit 2.8/45 lens, there were also  4.3/45, 4.5/70 and 6.3/105. I have not seen any for resale, so I will cautiously assume that actual distribution was limited based on the initial cost and the short life of the brand.

My unit sat on the shelf for a good decade, and the winding mechanism and the shutter are dead. Popular camera models have easy-to-find service manuals; here there is only one source, a well-edited booklet by Jean Bruno. The first 15 pages are available online in Google Books. A hard copy can be bought online for 25 Euro, but the best is to get immediate gratification with a cheaper PDF copy at the author’s site. It has pictures galore and French descriptions, easily translated via the camera on Google Translate on your mobile or on a desktop with a PDF editor, copy and paste. I got the PDF copy and will attend to it when time allows, most likely never.

For the collector, I would highly recommend having it on the shelf. It is a unique model, an exemplar made by a mouse that roared.

Spring loaded / clockwork camera list

Brand	Model	Year	Type	Country	Image
Ansco	Memo Automatic	1963	Viewfinder	USA
Ansco	Memo II	1967	Eye level direct	USA
Bell & Howell	Dial 35	1963	Viewfinder Half Frame	USA
Bell & Howell	Foton	1949	Rangefinder	USA
Canon	Dial 35	1963	Viewfinder Half Frame	Japan
Canon	Dial 35 II	1968	Viewfinder	Japan
Canon	Dial Rapid	1965	Viewfinder	Japan
Debrie	Sept I	1921	Cine	France
Debrie	Sept II	1923	Cine	France
Finetta	99L	1953	Viewfinder	Germany
Finetta	Finetta 99	1953	Viewfinder	Germany
Fotofex	Mini Fex MG	1939	Submini	Germany
Fuji	Drive	1964	Viewfinder	Japan
Fuji	Rapid-D1	1966	Viewfinder	Japan
GOMZ	Leningrad	1956	Rangefinder	USSR
Great Wall	Great Wall SZ-1	1969	Rangefinder	China
Great Wall	Great Wall SZ-2	1976	Rangefinder	China
Japy	Le Pascal	1898	Box	France
Japy	Le Pascal Prototype	1897	Jumelle	France
Kilfitt	Robot Prototype spring motor	1948	Viewfinder	Germany
KMZ	Foton	1969	Eye level direct	USSR
KMZ	Foton 2	1973	Eye level direct	USSR
KMZ	Foton 3	1975	Eye level direct	USSR
KMZ	Foton M	1970	Eye level direct	USSR
Kodak	Autosnap	1962	Viewfinder	USA
Kodak	Automatic 35	1959	Viewfinder	USA
Kodak	Automatic 35B	1961	Viewfinder	USA
Kodak	Automatic 35F	1962	Viewfinder	USA
Kodak	Automatic 35R4	1965	Viewfinder	USA
Kodak	Instamatic 400	1963	Instamatic type	USA
Kodak	Instamatic 814	1968	Instamatic type	USA
Kodak	Instamatic X-45	1970	Instamatic type	USA
Kodak	Instamatic X-125		Instamatic type	USA
Kodak	Motormatic 35	1960	Rangefinder	USA
Kodak	Motormatic 35F	1962	Rangefinder	USA
Kodak	Motormatic 35R4	1965	Rangefinder	USA
Kodak	Motormatic 35B	1960	Rangefinder	USA
LOMO	Lomo 135 BC VS	1975	Viewfinder	USSR
LOMO	Lomo 135 M	1980	Viewfinder	USSR
Lone Riders	Gatling 72	1963	Viewfinder
Minolta	Autopak 800	1969	Instamatic type	Japan
Miyagawa	Boltax I	1938	Miniature	Japan
Miyagawa	Boltax II		Miniature	Japan
Miyagawa	Boltax III	1941	Miniature	Japan
Nichiryo	Nicnon TF Binocular Camera	1970	Niche	Japan
Nichiryo	Teleca 240	1970	Niche	Japan
Ricoh	126 C Automatic	1968	Instamatic type	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half E Auto Sun	1968	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half SE Black	1968	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half SE2 Black	1968	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	A-2	1979	Compact	Japan
Ricoh	AD-1		Compact	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half	1963	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half E	1966	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half E2	1976	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half EF	1978	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half EF2		Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half SE2		Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half Professional		Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half S		Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half SE	1967	Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Half SL		Point and shoot	Japan
Ricoh	Auto Shot	1964	Compact	Japan
Ricoh	Hi-Colour 35	1970	Viewfinder	Japan
Ricoh	Hi-Colour	1968	Viewfinder	Japan
Ricoh	Hi-Colour 35 S		Viewfinder	Japan
Ricoh	Super Shot	1967	Rangefinder	Japan
Ricoh	Super Shot 24		Rangefinder	Japan
Robot	375	1938	Finderless	Germany
Robot	82 Electronic	1982	Finderless	Germany
Robot	I	1934	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	II	1939	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	IIa	1951	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	IIa red-brown	1951	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	IIa Deluxe	1952	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Junior Green	1952	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Junior	1951	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Motor-Recorder Post		Niche	Germany
Robot	Motor-Recorder		Niche	Germany
Robot	OS 35 F	1985	Niche	Germany
Robot	Royal 18	1957	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 18A	1957	Leica type RF	Germany
Robot	Royal 24	1957	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 24 Black	1957	Leica type RF	Germany
Robot	Royal 24 FKF Danish Army		Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 24A	1957	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 36	1955	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 36 III	1955	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 36 Vl	1955	Leica type RF	Germany
Robot	Royal 36 A	1955	Leica type RF	Germany
Robot	Royal 36 B	1959	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 36 B Black	1959	Leica type RF	Germany
Robot	Royal 36 S	1956	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal 36 S A	1961	Leica type RF	Germany
Robot	Royal 40	1952	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal II	1954	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Royal III	1953	Rangefinder	Germany
Robot	Star Junior	1952	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star	1952	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 25	1969	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 25 Endoscope	1969	Niche	Germany
Robot	Star 50	1969	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 D	1969	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 DA	1991	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 ED	1975	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 18	1975	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 ES Black	1975	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 S	1975	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 Spy Outfit	1969	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 STASI	1969	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star 50 STASI Briefcase	1969	Niche	Germany
Robot	Star 90	1970	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star Classic Colours	1996	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star I Sweden Air Forces	1955	Niche	Germany
Robot	Star II FKF Danish Air Force	1955	Niche	Germany
Robot	Star II S	1958	Niche	Germany
Robot	Super Recorder 24	1973	Finderless	Germany
Robot	Star II Auto Side Winding	1958	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star II Auto Scientific	1954	Niche	Germany
Robot	Star II Auto STASI		Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	SC	1982	Finderless	Germany
Robot	Star E		Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star D	1996	Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star III Auto		Viewfinder	Germany
Robot	Star II Auto Danish Army	1958	Viewfinder	Germany
Sears	Easi Load FC 600	1970	Instamatic type	USA
Standard Projector & Equipment	Gatling	1963	Viewfinder	USA
Teraoka	Auto Terra IIB	1957	Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra IIBS	1958	Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra IIL		Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra P	1959	Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra Super	1959	Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra Super L	1959	Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra II		Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra Super P police	1961	Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra		Rangefinder	Japan
Teraoka	Auto Terra Super A		Rangefinder	Japan
Tessina	Tessina 35 red	1957	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina 35	1957	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina 35 'STASI'	1966	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina 35 black	1957	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina 35 Gold	1957	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina L Black	1957	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina L Chrome	1957	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina L Gold	1957	Miniature	Switzerland
Tessina	Tessina L Red	1957	Miniature	Switzerland