The Foca
Universal RC

by Paul Gates, France

The coupled rangefinder interchangeable lens Foca cameras, of French design and manufacture, spanned a 20-year period from 1945 until the middle of the 1960s. Although familiar to many of today’s collectors, they were seldom seen in the UK during their actual lifetime, since they do not appear to have been ‘officially’ imported.

The Universelle RC (often misquoted as ‘CR’ in contemporary dealer literature) was the finest model in a range, which had evolved over something like eleven different models. It was also the very last, making it of above average collector interest. It represents the final offering from, and a design and manufacturing peak of an industry now sadly no more than a historical memory; that of French precision camera manufacture.

It’s a nice camera to handle and use with a quality finish and handling; it has a solid die cast body with base and back plate removable as one single unit. Film loading is very easy, aided by a hinged, chrome clamping bar which snaps into place after the film is conventionally loaded but before the back and baseplate are replaced. This clamping bar device holds the film perforations in positive register with the transport sprockets, and helps make for a silky-smooth winding action. The focal plane shutter runs from 1 second to 1/000th, the slow-speed escapement being of Swiss watch manufacture origin (I have been unable to trace which company provided this). A range of alternative lenses from 28mm to 135mm, and numerous other optical accessories such as supplementary finders, filters etc., were available.

The main feature of this last top quality Foca, was the large (near life-size), bright and clear viewfinder with its moving parallax-connected bright-line frame. This provided the field of view for the standard 50mm lenses only; for any of the alternative focal lengths supplementary finders need to be attached. As a result of the rather feint tint used for the camera’s integral finder, the rangefinder images occupying the central area are inclined to become slightly ‘vague’ under certain lighting conditions – the price paid for the particularly bright overall image. Comparisons will inevitably be made against the commendable Leica M series viewfinders and here perhaps, this camera does fall short – but perhaps, only here.

Dual flash synchronisation sockets were provided for electronic and expendable bulb units and the solidly constructed back & baseplate unit featured a central tripod bush of adequate strength.

Two alternative standard lenses were offered for this camera: a 50mm f2.8 Oplar and a 50mm f1.9 Oplarex. On the model featured in the illustration to this article, the f1.9 lens fitted is engraved ‘Oplar’, rather than ‘Oplarex’. This can only be accounted for by an engraving error. The f1.9 lenses were of the usual six-element gauss symmetrical design, and the two examples I have owned at various times have performed well. The f2.8 lenses were, or should have been of the four-element triplet (i.e. Tessar) type. However the only schematic drawing I have been able to find, which dates from 1951, shows a five-element construction; unnecessarily complex for a 50mm f2.8 lens. Possibly, the design was simplified for the later series lenses.

The Universelle RC was a product of ‘Optique et Prescision de Levalois’ an organisation established for the manufacture of military and naval optical equipment. The camera factory was based at Chateaudun, Eure-et-Loire, and the Universal RC was introduced around 1961. It had a short production life, probably no more than two years, as it was launched on to a market in which the single-lens-reflex was becoming dominant and sweeping away all before it. Despite this brief production life, the camera continued to be advertised, and presumably sold, by several major French dealer chains until at least 1967.

Today, it is much sought after by collectors of French ‘classic’ equipment and quality Leica copies, and, as the last of its line, commands a rather higher price than the earlier and less well-specified Foca models. It can be likened in this respect to the price differential one observes between Leica IIIg’s and the less glamorous earlier screw-mount Leicas.

I have only ever encountered one example on offer by a Paris dealer in over five years of continuously living in France, and the asking price was FF 8,000.00, or around £750. And that was nearly five years ago! More likely to be found in France than in the UK, expect to have to pay at least this and probably considerably more for a really nice example. But then, think of what this model represents as a piece of camera manufacturing history. Good hunting!

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