Made by Gallus of Paris in 1947, the Derlux is most definitely French in it’s appearance - it oozes style, and is beautiful with it’s raw polished aluminium body. It is a strut folding camera for 127 roll film, and captures half frame 3×4cm images through the Gallix 50mm f3.5 lens.

My particular version has been modified for some strange reason - a previous owner has chosen to drill out the hole on the front plate, possibly because their cable release was too big! What a philistine!

To hold, the body feels like it has been machined out of a solid aluminium billet, and although mine could be polished I quite like the look as it is. There is a good bit of weight to this small camera, and is heavier than the 1930’s Foth Derby it descends from. Gallus took over production in 1945 after Foth moved from Germany. With the Derby being made of pressed sheet metal, the French really stepped it up a notch for the 1945 Derby-Lux and in turn the 1947 Derlux.

It is not just the feel of the camera that is solid, the shutter too has a distinct sound - with it’s horizontal curtain comes a lovely solid clunk! The shutter is set by rotating the speed knob which also has a lovely feel.

There is something truly special about shooting old cameras like this, and sometimes the actual using is better than the results! Loaded with Ilford HP400 the Derlux had mixed results, but the ones that worked were really nice. To be fair to it, most of the mistakes were operator error!

Whilst shooting I felt like something was off! The shutter speed didn’t sound right to what I had set. This got me thinking - do I need to tension the shutter, then set the speed - or set the speed and then wind up the shutter?! Because of my confusion some frames were over exposed, but due to the film being re-rolled HP5 the latitude allowed me to just about get away with it to a degree.

The Derlux is a wonderful piece of photographic history, and although wasn’t a total success for me, was really enjoyable.

The first image of the old Mercedes proves that the lens can produce nice clear images, so the rest must be down to me! I think in future I should take more time and not treat it like a point & shoot. Who knows what it can do when used correctly… lol

I have only shot one film in the Derlux, not for the want of trying mind you!

I took it back to it’s home of Paris, excited to fire off a roll around the city, but when I went to load the film there was no take up spool inside!! A hunt of camera shops was not fruitful, so just took a picture of it by The Seine as a memento of it’s trip!

Raw style & beauty - Gallus Derlux

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