Instrument No. 1
CANDELA I
A full-manual rangefinder. Four materials, each doing exactly one job, and nothing on the body that does not move something.
Loading the instrument
01 — Metal
Cut from one billet
The top and base plates each leave the mill as a single piece, bead-blasted, then brushed along the long axis so the grain runs with the body rather than across it.
Every edge is broken by a 0.4 mm chamfer. That chamfer is not decoration. It is the line of light that tells you, at arm's length, whether a part was machined or moulded.
The grain runs with the body — never across it.
- Alloy
- 6082-T6
- Finish
- Bead-blast, longitudinal brush
- Chamfer
- 0.4 mm at 45°
02 — Glass
Six elements, four groups
Air-spaced and multi-coated, set 2 mm back inside the barrel so the front element is shaded by its own mount. The coating reads faintly violet off-axis.
Focus runs 0.7 m to infinity across 120 degrees of helicoid, damped with a grease specified by viscosity rather than by feel — because "feel" is not a number a second factory can hit.
"Feel" is not a number a second factory can hit.
- Optical formula
- 6 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture
- f/1.8 – f/16, 11 blades
- Close focus
- 0.7 m
03 — Leather
The part you actually hold
A full-grain wrap over the magnesium core, applied by hand and rolled into the radius rather than stretched across it, so the corners keep their grain instead of going glassy.
The pebble depth is a specification, not a finish: 0.35 mm. Deep enough to stay dry under a thumb, shallow enough not to hold grit.
0.35 mm — deep enough to stay dry under a thumb.
- Hide
- Full-grain, vegetable tanned
- Pebble depth
- 0.35 mm
- Application
- Hand-rolled, no stretch
04 — Rubber
One soft component
The shutter release is the only part of this camera designed to be pressed, so it is the only part that is not hard: a 3.6 mm vulcanised dome on a threaded collar.
Forty shore A, with the release point set at 1.6 N. Everything else on the body resists you. This one gives.
The only part on this camera designed to be pressed.
- Compound
- Vulcanised, 40 shore A
- Release point
- 1.6 N
- Collar
- Threaded, M10 × 0.5 cable
Specification
Everything that is true about it
- Format
- 35 mm film, 24 × 36 mm
- Mount
- CANDELA M, 44 mm flange distance
- Shutter
- Cloth focal-plane, mechanical. 1 s – 1/1000 s and B
- Viewfinder
- 0.72× coupled rangefinder, 68 mm effective base
- Frame lines
- 35 / 50 / 90 mm, parallax corrected
- Metering
- Centre-weighted TTL, ISO 6 – 6400
- Body
- Magnesium core, 6082-T6 aluminium plates
- Power
- Not required for shutter operation
- Dimensions
- 139 × 80 × 39 mm
- Mass
- 640 g with the 40 mm lens fitted
Editions
Three finishes, one mechanism
The mechanism does not change between editions. What changes is the plate finish, the wrap, and how long you wait.
-
Silver
S$4,800
Natural brushed aluminium plates, black grain wrap. The finish the instrument was designed in.
- Brushed natural aluminium
- 40 mm f/1.8 included
- Shipped in 6 weeks
-
Black Chrome
S$5,200
Anodised plates over the same billet, deep charcoal wrap. Wears to brass at the corners, which is the point.
- Hard-anodised, 18 µm
- 40 mm f/1.8 included
- Shipped in 10 weeks
-
Atelier
S$7,400
Hand-engraved top plate, individually numbered, with a lens matched to the body at assembly rather than at random.
- Engraved and numbered
- Matched 40 mm f/1.8
- Built to order, 20 weeks
Register interest
Join the list for the next run
Each run is small and allocated in the order registrations are received. We write once when your edition opens, and not otherwise.