Hacoflex Twin Lens Reflex

I know, it's not a camera from the G.D.R. but I was looking for my Weltaflex TLR, to write a post on that, but could not find it, however I did find in a box of TLR's that belonged to my Dad, this, a Hacoflex!

Well to be truthful, I know nothing about the Hacoflex at all, so I sat down to have a look at it, it was pretty dusty, so that led to giving it a careful clean, which led to taking a few pictures of it, then I thought, well lets find out about it and write a post! So here we are, please excuse me for going off topic a bit!

This was what I first fished out of the box, I did not have a clue what it was, so intrigued I opened up the rather battered case to find this........

The shutter looks to have been worked on at sometime in the past looking at the front panel covering.

I was going to put it back in the box and continue looking for the Weltaflex, but curiosity got the better of me, so wondering if it was any good I had a proper look!

What I found was an interesting camera that looked quite well made, yes it looks like it has had a good bit of use, a bit tatty around the edges, but often the tatty ones have been used a lot in the past because they were nice to use and gave good results, I hope this is the case here.

Right, let us see just what we have got. The taking lens is a bloomed 8cm (80mm) Tri-Lausar 3.5 Anastigmat. The lens number is 688152. Stops are 3.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22. The shutter has speeds marked B, 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 300. So a quite decent speed selection. Some sources say this shutter is a Prontor shutter copy.

I went through the shutter speeds one by one, initially 1 second was very hesitant, but after a few tries it has settled down nicely and now works smoothly every time.

The view finder is large and very clear and bright, I have found no difficulty in focusing this camera. It has a good large magnifying glass to help on critical focus, but I have found it quite difficult to flick it up into position, but once there it's excellent.

I really like the red grid lines on the screen, these really help to line up your image properly and are not too obtrusive like some, yes I think these will prove to be a real plus when composing a picture.

There is also the option of the sports finder to fall back on too.

It is a pity that there is no metal cover over the red window, so there may be a chance of fogging, unless a bit of 'Blutac' or simmilar is placed over the window when not winding on.

What is this little lever for just above the red window? You can slide it left or right, but what is its purpose?

The back opens in the usual TLR fashion, this set up seems well done holding the back shut nice and firmly.

Looks pretty good in the back, well made, just that problem red window!

All in all, not a bad looking camera

But what does the world in 2025 know about the Hacoflex? Well very little it seems. Most sources say that the Hacoflex was manufactured by the Tougodo company of Toyohashi Japan. At the time of production of this camera it was most likely called Tōgōdō Kōki K.K. but has also been called Tōgōdō Sangyō Y.K. or Y.K. Tōgōdō. The camera is probably late 1950's.

According to Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia Tougodo produced this camera, or cameras that are very similar, under a great variety of names, probably the most well known being the Toyocaflex.

I have had a look at images of the Toyocaflex, (one of which is below) there are a lot of similarities we will say, and leave it at that!

If you really want to dig a bit deeper then look here

http://www.tlr-cameras.com/

Tougodo Optical Co (Japanese) TLRs

It is quite an old site, but full of information on TLR's generally and includes the Tougodo TLR's of which this Hacoflex is one!

So, what do I do with this one, put it back in the box, or try it out? I could do with an instruction book, not sure how to set the film counter and there are a couple of switches I'm not sure what they are for either, I suppose I could get a scrap 120 film and just have a play, see if I can work it out? What do you think? I'm tempted to dig a bit further into it all and try a film, I have seen some reports that the Tri-Lausar lens is a cracker.

The bit I'm not sure about is what does the little button thing do that you can see here in the picture above, just behind the focus knob? What is it for? Also how do you set the film counter seen above the focus knob, I'm guessing that you find frame 1 using the red window, but how do you synchronise it with the frame counter? Finding out could be quite fun I think!

I hope you enjoyed this post, yes it's a bit off topic and the whole blog was not planned, it was just off the cuff so to speak, the Hacoflex nearly went straight back in the box, but hopefully it was of interest to some of you.

I have seen this camera summed up in one sentence, as just another Rolliecord clone, well yes in a way I suppose it is, but it is far more than just a clone. What do you think?

Take care,

Phil