OddCameras.com Vilia Auto
The Vilia Auto (Вилия Aвто) is a minimalist automatic 35mm camera for 24x36mm film format. It resembles the Smena Symbol, but it is an independent design. The ordinary Vilia cameras were built in huge numbers (more than 2.000.000) by BeLomo. The Vilia-Auto camera, made from 1973 to
1985,
is a Vilia with a Selenium meter and aperture automation in place of
the manual settings of the ordinary Vilia. There was a successor with a
CdS meter.
It's
a mix of plastic and metal with a decent triplet lens, very easy to
handle, except distance there is nothing to set. On this one the
automatic aperture still works fine. Its main features are:
40mm Triplet 69-3 4/40 lens, F4 -F16 + auto, min. focus 0.8m, macro setting
Shutter: 1/50
Size 125 x 80 x 63 mm, Weight 392 gr,
Film speed in Gost 16-250 (ISO 20-300), hot shoe
Some photos:
Camera front. Shutter release and big selenium cell around the lens.
Camera
back. Viewer, film speed setting and advance lever.
Camera
bottom. Film counter, rewind unlock, tripod socket.
Seen
from above. Rewind and hot shoe. Distance setting and DOF scale on the
outer lens barrel.
Under the lens barrel: auto/aperture setting.
Camera back open. Film compartment.