Montanus Rocca

Four years after the lacklustre Montana, Montanus had introduced a mainstream camera model. Appearance and features conform to the standard other makers had offered. I pulled at random three other cameras off the shelf, German-made within a year or two; they all look alike as if a troop of dress-coded bridesmaids: Baldessa Franka Optina.

The Rocca offered much of the standard of that time. It has a decent, not outstanding lens, enough shutter speeds for the everyday shooter, and a meter, all packed in a neat, compact body. The Rocca came in several variations, some minor, as a variety of shutters and lenses, and some odd, as offering the same body with an installed meter or just a provision for a later install.

Several Rocca offshoots followed, as the Rocca Automatic with several subversions, the Rocca Familia, all chips of the same block. It could be for different markets. Rocca also sold rangefinders in the US market, but they were rebranded Regula cameras. Nevertheless, after a short ten-year production run, the factory had hung its tools.

Both versions of the first Rocca models looked the same: the Rocca LK with an installed meter and the Rocca L without the meter. On the L, a plate with an exposure table covered the meter reading window. The front meter lens was in place, although nothing was behind it. See the image below. Being a young technology, omitting the meter shaved about a third of the camera price so it could have been a wise marketing idea.

The three lenses and four shutter options offered could have been for different price points or, most likely, reflected that time’s unstable supply.

There is nothing much to elaborate on other than that once the meter recommends the shutter/aperture settings, both dials lock together to retain the set EV. It is changed by pressing the two black tabs on the aperture dial and moving as desired.

Sutter speeds are similar to the Vitomatic offering, heavy on the slow speeds, up to a whole minute.

The camera on my bench is immaculate; all buzzes and clicks like an eager woodpecker. The meter is dead, so I will set aside for a better day, which I doubt will ever come.