Ihagee Parvola

The Parvola was produced by Ihagee in Dresden from 1931 to 1939

Since the 1920s, Ihagee had been producing a range of folding cameras that variously contained the name “Ultrix”. As the model 1350 which was supposed to be called “Klein Ultrix” was significantly different from the rest of the production it acquired a new name, becoming the Parvola.

Over the production years, the Parvolas offered various formats, all on 127 film. Depending on the model you could get various numbers of 4 x 6 cm, 3 x 4 cm or 4 x 6.5 cm shots.

The main distinctive feature of the Parvola are the two concentric threaded barrels that serve both to rapidly deploy the lens and also focus. The barrels are arranged so that the outer rotates and drives itself out of the body, whilst the inner is restrained from turning and so is driven out of its opposite thread machined into the outer barrel’s inner surface.

It appears that with the Parvola, the design department had a free hand just to try different ways of doing things. Making it a very interesting evolution of folding cameras.