Ghetaldus Zagreb King Regula L

For introduction to Ghetaldus Zagreb cameras, see Ghetaldus Zagreb King Cameras page.
For information on specific camera models, click on these links: Regula IIb, Regula IIIa, Cita III, Regula L, Regulette.

Based on specifications and considering only Ghetaldus King cameras, the Regula L seems to be an updated and upgraded Regula IIIa. The lens is still a triplet Ghenar, however, it's 2/3 of the F stop faster with a maximum aperture of F/2.8. The viewfinder has bright frame with a parallax correction mark and is bigger, which looks nice but has a downside in form of a significantly darker view. The shutter moved from the top plate to the lens barrel. The film reminder is still located on the film rewind knob while an exposure counter was moved to the bottom plate of the camera. Film advance and shutter cocking is performed by a lever hidden in the camera body.

Regula L (GRL100 variant) looks somehow more modern with it's clean top and shaped lens plate.

Some Regulas L are equipped with a Prontor-SVS shutter adding the slow speeds up to 1 s, which is significant improvement that would normally cause a model name change - but evidently not in Regula L's case. I have no clue about pricing difference, however, from a small serial numbers sample I gathered Prontor-SVS doesn't seem like an evolutionary change but rather coexistence of higher and lower spec models. Or even an exemption in a small production batch.

• Viewfinder camera
• Bright fixed frame in the viewfinder
• Ghetaldus Zagreb Ghenar lens F/2.8 45 mm
• 3 elements 3 group
• Minimum aperture: F/16
• Pronto shutter (or Prontor-SVS)
• 1/250 to 1/30 s + B (or 1/300 to 1 s + B for Prontor-SVS)
• Self timer
• Flash synchronization (X and M option for Prontor-SVS)
• Dimensions
• Weight: 478 g
• 125 × 65 × 85 mm  

 Regula L with warranty card and receipt. Based on quality control date and receipt date camera sat on the store shelf for half a year prior being sold on April 1962.

Evolution of Ghetaldus Regula L Production

I found Regulas L in a Ghetaldus leather case, but with a Cassar 1:2.8/45mm Steinheil München lens. At first I thought it is a coincidence and someone just replaced the ever ready case, however, I spotted several such specimens on the local internet selling sites. The L series cases are also different compared to the III series, since a hole for the exposure counter is made on the bottom side and "Regula L" is embossed on the upper part. The ones that had lens caps, had Ghetaldus ones. These Regulas L have the older style of the Regula's L body (GRL100) which was made mostly out of metal. One distinguishable feature is less leatherette like surface and more shiny metal on the front side.

It turns out there are also Ghetaldus assembled Rodenstock Trinar Regulas L.

All these Regula L cameras came in Ghetaldus cases with Ghetaldus lens caps, however, only two of them have Ghetaldus lens.

I still couldn't resist to acquire each of these "Ghetaldus Munchen" and "Ghetaldus Rodenstock" Regulas just for sake of comparing them to the Zagreb Regula L.
What I figured out is that front body metal plate design can vary in height. "Ghetaldus Munchen" and "Rodenstock" have red 10 and 3 meters engraving on the distance scale while GRL 100 and GRL 200 have all white. Presence of 20 m engraving also varies. "Munchen" and "Rodenstock" Regula uses decimal point while GRL100 and 200 use decimal comma. Distance style is different among them in decimal number size. "Munchen" and "Rodenstock" have smallest decimal numbers, GRL100 a bit bigger while there is no difference among whole and decimal number on GRL200.

Front body metal plate design: left "Ghetaldus Munchen", middle GRL100 and right GRL200. Note the High vs Low profile of the "Ghetaldus Munchen" and GRL100 lens plate and also metal band on the front that is substituted with leatherette on GRL200.

My theory is that there was a lack of three element 2.8 Ghetaldus lenses when transitioning to or in the middle of Regula L production in Zagreb. Thus imported lenses were used. All in all Regula L with Ghetaldus lens seems to be produced in the lowest number among all Ghetaldus cameras - only approximately 2500 pieces.

Distance engraving styles: left "Ghetaldus Munchen", middle GRL100 and right GRL200.

However, since Ghetaldus isn't mentioned on the "Ghetaldus Munchen" and "Ghetaldus Rodenstock"cameras itself, I don't track these cameras' serial numbers. Still, I noted down variants I spotted during my search for Yugoslav optics equipped King cameras. As seen in the table below, there is no logical connection between properties of non Ghetaldus lens equipped variants besides the fact that all have front metal band.

Bright Frame Finder

Regula L has a variant of the reverse Galilean viewfinder called bright frame finder. Framing assist lines, shaped by the metal mask, are projected to the viewfinder with a help of an ordinary and a semi transparent mirror.

Regula L (GRL100) viewfinder construction.

Underutilized Pronto Shutter

While fixing a Regula L, I discovered that the built in Pronto shutter has a delay mechanism that is in fact never used. Video below clearly demonstrates that slowest speed 1/30 s and B setting don't utilize the delay mechanism. However, when machined metal plate that engages shafts in the shutter when setting different shutter speeds is removed, delay mechanism is engaged and result is cca. 1/2 s exposure. However, due to removed part camera acts as it was set to B, but if shutter button isn't held down, timed exposure of 1/2 s is achieved.
Why didn't they machine the adjustment dial differently? Was camera "crippled" intentionally to not cannibalize sales of higher spec cameras? But which models were such competition? Was Cita III still being sold at the same time? Or was there more expensive GRL300 variant with Prontor-SVS shutter offering shutter speeds from 1 s to 1/500? Based on warranty cards dating I recently learned that Cita III was indeed still sold at the time Regula L was in production. However, it's not necessarily Ghetaldus tactic to hide the spec of the shutter - could be also the shutter manufacturer Gauthier. 

GRL100

Older style of Regula L body - less leatherette, more metal. Body with serial number at the film pressure plate. Bold font on the film memo dial with straight top on the number "3". Bright colored exposure counter set knob. Probably constructed mainly from metal parts. Pronto shutter. 

GRL100 on the left and GRL200 on the right.

 

GRL200

Regula L GRL200 variant

Pronto shutter, metal aperture knob. Body no longer has serial number. Dark colored exposure counter set knob. Sightly different design of the film chamber than GRL 100 and simplified viewfinder assembly. Viewfinder assembly is not screwed to the body but kept in place by plastic pin and the spring pressure when the top cover is mounted on the camera. Note on the image below that with Regulette viewfinder assembly is screwed in place again which suggests that GRL200 simplification wasn't proven successful.

Viewfinder assembly. Left GRL100, middle GRL200 and on the right Ghetaldus Regulette.

GRL300

Prontor-SVS shutter with shutter speeds from 1 s to 1/300 s, plastic aperture knob. Sample needed.

 

Regula L Serial Numbers

In the table below there are all serial numbers known to me. In case there is a "*" symbol besides the Variant, the variant is an educated guess due to a lack of data.

Ghetaldus Zagreb King Cameras

For information on specific camera models, click on these links: Regula IIb, Regula IIIa, Cita III, Regula L, Regulette.

I admire work that has been done by many camera collectors sharing information about vintage cameras and their variants. Thus I decided it’s time to make a contribution. Luckily there are still an uncovered niches in the camera collecting world and one of them especially interests me – cameras made in (former) Yugoslavia.

Some years ago I stumbled upon a simple camera that didn’t interest me at all until I noticed the engraving on the lens – Ghetaldus Zagreb. Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia, former republic of Yugoslavia and neighbor country of Slovenia, where I come from. 
The company, whose name the lens wears, still exists in Zagreb, Croatia. Unfortunately, It seems that only a prescription glasses selling business survived, but in the golden ages of socialism the company produced optic equipment such as microscopes, prescription lenses and, as it seems, also camera lenses. After the fall of Yugoslavia, Ghetaldus divided into many branches and the production entities slowly went bankrupt.

Ghetaldus produced sports eyewear among other optical products. [1]

Yugoslavia's import duties were very high to encourage domestic production. However, the fact was cleverly turned into profit by some firms with importing partly assembled goods and finishing them inside the country (e.g. some Yugoslav computer manufacturers and TAS Volkswagen factory). Ghetaldus may have establish that kind of business deal with the West German camera manufacturer Regula-Werk King KG that made the camera line named Regula. To which extent the cameras were actually made in Yugoslavia is unfortunately unknown to me. On the bottom of the camera it is actually written "Made in Germany". But the lenses itself are clearly unique, the lens caps and leather ever-ready cases wear Ghetaldus logo, cases even have metal buttons from TKG Ljubljana (Slovenia).

Metal Ghetaldus lens cap with factory logo.

The Model Lineup

So far I have come across the following cameras wearing Ghetaldus lenses (click on a link to open subpage):
•    Regula IIb  
•    Regula IIIa
•    Cita III
•    Regula L
•    Regulette

Regulas IIb and IIIa are kind of easy to find nowadays on a former Yugoslavian territory. They were made in relatively high quantities for such a small market. Serial numbers suggest that altogether cca 13000 of Regula IIb and IIIa cameras were produced.

Advert from 1959 saying: "We are hereby informing all citizens that on June 16th this year the Central national bank released under the number 270/10 an internal guidance to all its subsidiaries saying that Regula cameras belong to a list of products for which buyers may get bank loan. Buy Regula cameras in a stores using bank loans." [2]

It’s much harder to find a Cita III. Probably the camera was far more expensive and thus less popular. Based on serial numbers I recorded it seems not much more than 2000 examples were made. Regula L and Regulette serial numbers shows that there was approximately 2500 and 3500 cameras produced. In my opinion they were introduced too late and never really caught up with East German and Soviet cameras widely available in the sixties across Yugoslavia. However, there were also some Regulas L assembled (or perhaps only imported and equipped with accessories) with german lenses by Ghetaldus factory, as one can find them with Ghetaldus branded lens caps and leather cases.

Regula L given to the Ghetaldus employee at 10 years work anniversary, Ghetaldus pin and keychain.

So far I was able to precisely date three cameras:

• Regula IIb sn 04183 production date March 10th 1959
• Cita III sn 33919 production date February 22nd 1962
• Regula L sn 56454 warranty card date October 16th 1961
  

In the links provided above you can find model descriptions and my own classification of the variants. Any help is highly appreciated – if you own a camera with Ghetaldus lens, please, share the serial number and the variant with me via the email address below.

 

Useful Links and image resources

 

cjs-classic-cameras - website with a lot of King cameras mentioning and showing Ghetaldus IIIa and IIb.

[1] Poster for Ghetaldus, famous Croatian glasses; design by Vladimir Fleck, unknown year. Source: "Good choice", exhibition catalog, examples of commercial advertising from 1950s and 1960s: Marinko Sudac Collection, 2014. Found on Pinterest.
[2] http://jna-sfrj.forum-aktiv.com/t3552p400-slike-iz-ex-yu-drugi-dio-teme