|
Jean
Roche was a small stamping craftsmen, located in Villeurbanne near Lyon
(France).
In 1948, he tries a
diversification by designing and producing two models of cameras : the
Rox and the Allox.
The one
presented here is a Rox.
The body of the
camera is a 6 x 9 format made in a sheet steel. It is topped by the cage
of the viewfinder made of polished aluminium. This one is surrounded by
two buttons, one is used form film advance.
The general design
of this camera is a nit massive but finally it looks very modern.
This camera
was proposed with two different types of lens:
 |
Aplanat
ROXA f=105mm / f :8 |
|
Trylor ROUSSEL
f=105mm / f :4.5 |
For
the shutter, only one choice: a Gitzo offering a range of speeds from
1/25 sec to 1/200 sec. Usually, the front face of this shutter should be
labeled “ROX” which is not the case of the camera presented here.
The lens and its
shutter are mounted at the end of a aluminium pipe which comes through
the camera body when this one is not used. To take a snapshot, operator
has to pull to the end the couple lens/shutter out of the camera body.
Then, a small rotation of 3 or 4° on the left hand side, will lock its
position.
The
adventure stops quickly. Less
than 500 exemplaires of the Rox will be produced and all will be sold in
the Lyon region. As a consequence, these
two models are quite rare. |
