C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Braun Paxette III is a 35mm fixed-lens coupled-rangefinder camera produced by Carl Braun Camerwerk of Nuremberg, West Germany, introduced around 1957. It represents a late and refined iteration of Braun's successful Paxette line, which had been running since the early 1950s.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Labs in our directory that process 35mm film.
Before you buy used
The Paxette III trades in the EUR 30-100 range in Europe; somewhat higher in North America where German compacts have fewer competing examples in the market.
About this camera
A well-finished West German fixed-lens rangefinder from the late 1950s — Cassar glass, Prontor shutter, and a bright combined viewfinder/rangefinder window in a compact aluminium body.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm (24x36mm) |
| Lens | Steinheil Cassar S 45/2.8 (standard); Schneider Radionar 45/2.8 (some variants) |
| Years | ~1957-1960 |
| Shutter | Prontor-SVS leaf shutter, 1s-1/300s + B |
| Flash sync | X and M sync |
| Meter | None |
| Focus | Coupled rangefinder (combined finder window) |
| Film load | 35mm, 36 exposures |
| Battery | None required |
Carl Braun Camerawerk introduced the original Paxette as a viewfinder-only 35mm camera in 1950, targeting the low-to-mid consumer market. Successive models added improved shutters and lens options; the Paxette II introduced a rangefinder variant. The Paxette III (circa 1957) consolidated the line into a mature product with a combined viewfinder/rangefinder, EV-coupled Prontor shutter, and a choice of good German lenses.
Braun also produced the Paxette Electromatic, an automatic-exposure variant with a selenium meter cell, targeting the emerging auto-everything segment. The Paxette III by contrast remained fully manual and unmetered. Production wound down by around 1960 as Japanese competition and the shift to integrated metering eroded the mid-tier German fixed-lens camera market.
The Paxette III is a clean example of the West German camera industry at its peak competence in the late 1950s: good lenses, reliable shutters, and accurate rangefinders in compact bodies. The Cassar S 45/2.8 and Schneider Radionar are both well-corrected triplets, capable of sharp results at medium apertures.
For the contemporary film photographer the Paxette III is a practical user camera: fully mechanical, no battery, easy to service, and producing standard 24x36mm negatives. Its rangefinder is accurate enough for street and portrait work. The main appeal is the same as many German cameras of the era -- solid build quality at a price far below the Leica tier.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
View profile →Braun Paxette III
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