Cornu ONTOFLEX

The Ontoflex is relatively new to my collection, but I knew from the moment I received this camera that it would end up on my camera collection blog just because it's such an odd yet unique camera.

I knew nothing about the camera before I saw it on an online auction. I did some quick research to understand pricing better and discovered it's a rare camera. I won the auction and got it for a reasonable price. It either wasn't working or was not in good physical shape.

 It wasn't until I received the camera that I realized it was in good working condition, but it had something even more surprising and unusual. It was a 6x9 format camera with a rotating back to shoot either vertical or horizontal photos and not have to turn the camera…..WOW! My mind is blown, especially for a camera made in the 1930s.

HISTORY:

Here is the section where I tell you about the person and company that made this camera, The Cornu Co. from Paris, France. I have looked around on the internet, and there's not a lot of information regarding this company or its owner. The company existed from the early 1930s to 1946, closing just after WWII. Like Franke & Heideke, they started manufacturing stereo cameras and moved into other various cameras later. The ONTOFLEX was the only twin-lens reflex camera that I could find. During WWII, they made a reasonably inexpensive compact 35mm camera. One of them has a great name, the Weekend Bob.

THE CAMERA:

Here's the fun part about the blog: using the camera. Overall, the camera is boxier and heavier than the traditional TLR camera of the era. That's due to the extended area on the back that allows the photographer to rotate the negatives from vertical or portrait mode to horizontal or landscape mode. The camera is just under 6.5" tall x 3.5" wide x 4.5" deep, measured from the back of the film door to the front of the lens. The camera weighs just under 3 lbs. at 2 lbs. 15 oz.

 The Ontoflex came in two different models and three different configurations. The Model A, which is what I have, has a fixed rotating back. The Model B has a removable back that can take film plates. You can get the camera with different lens and shutter combinations.

My camera has a 90mm f3.5 H. Roussel Paris, ORTHO KYNOR lens for the taking lens mounted in a Compur shutter, and a 90mm f3.5 Reflex Ontor lens for the viewing optics. The shutter only goes to 1/250 shutter speed and down to 1 sec. along with B and T for time exposures.

To load the camera with film, there is a switch on the top of the back, which you slide over to open the back of the camera. Like any other TLR camera, you take the empty spool from the bottom to the top and the fresh roll on the bottom. Put the film tab into the empty spool on top and wind a few times until you see the film arrow pointing sideways. Close the back and open the door on the back, exposing the red window. Then wind until you see number 1. The 6x9 format gives you 8 2 1/4" x3 1/4" negs on a roll of 120 film.

To open the viewing hood, there is a release button on the backside, which springs the viewfinder open. Looking down into the viewfinder, on the four corners are squares to identify the shooting area if you are photographing in portrait or landscape mode. The focusing screen on my camera is pretty bright, and viewing and focusing is easy. For critical focusing, there is another sliding button on the top of the viewfinder, which is now facing the subject, which releases the magnifier for critical focus.

 On the very top is another sliding bar, which you can turn the viewfinder from the traditional "looking down" viewfinder to a "sports" finder. It allows you to pre-focus and use depth of field to maintain sharpness while viewing your subject more like an SLR, where you put the camera to your eye and frame your subject.

The focusing knob is on the right side of the camera. To take a photo is very simple: turn the dial to set the shutter speed and aperture on the ring around the shutter. Cock the shutter with the cocking lever, and release with the other lever. On the back of the camera is an extensive depth of field chart, but I cherish the plate attached to the back with the store that sold it, Photo-Plait Paris.

MY EXPERIENCE:

Here are some images I took walking around my neighborhood with portrait and Landscape photos from the same vantage point.

CONCLUSION:

 I had fun shooting a TLR camera with a beautiful 6x9 format AND could shoot both vertical and Horizontal images by rotating the back of the camera. It is similar to the newer Mamiya RB67 and others but with a much smaller camera. What a superb camera and something I was unaware of even a few months ago. I'll use this more often, especially with the film format and the ease of vertical or horizontal shooting.

 Thank you for taking some time to look over this post. Until next time, please be safe.

Seagull 4 Twin Lens Reflex Camera

It's been far too long since my last blog posting. I will do better by bringing cameras from my collection back to the forefront of my camera collection.

My camera with great leather case.

Last fall, sometime around October, I spotted a very underused and, more so, underappreciated camera on my shelves. It's from a camera company I rarely see written about. I'm writing this post about the Shanghai Seagull 4 Twin Lens camera.

HISTORY:

In my research on the Shanghai Seagull Camera Co., There's not a lot of information on the company. The camera industry in China is new and rarely shown due to the country's small number of camera companies. At least this is true in the Western world due to the Cold War and the frosty relations we had with China before Nixon's visit in 1972.

From the information found, the Shanghai Camera Company started in 1958 in Shanghai, China, and is considered the oldest camera company in China. They made several different cameras, from Twin Lens Reflex to 35mm cameras, which my father brought home for me back in the early 1970s, to folding cameras. There were many upgrades to the Seagull TLR line, and I'm not 100% sure of my model, but it's early. Most likely, it was sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Front view of Seagull 4

A new Shanghai Seagull Digital Camera Co. Ltd. started in January 2011. They state they absorbed the R&D and manufacturing of Shanghai Camera General Factory, which has a nearly 60 years history. They manufacture UAV digital cameras for observation and tactical planning, so I'm guessing they are drones.

THE CAMERA:

I've always enjoyed shooting with twin-lens reflex cameras. It was the first type of camera I owned. I shot weddings with TLR, and still, to this day, I enjoy looking through the viewfinder and popping up the magnifier to double-check focus.

To open the back to load the film. You pull down a small locking pin before turning the dial to open the back of the camera. This is a nice feature, so you don't accidentally turn the dial to open the back, exposing your film. I've not seen that on other cameras, so I'm unsure how helpful this is. When you open the back, the frame counter, which is located on the right side of the camera as you're holding it, resets to "0".

After conventionally loading the film, move the empty spool from the bottom of the camera to the top and put the fresh roll on the bottom. I am then threading over the lens area and onto the top spool. Turing the winding lever until you see the arrows from the paper backing pointing outwards. I close the back of the camera and wind the transport lever until the winding stops, and looking at the frame counter, I'm at number 1.

Here's where the camera gets a bit odd, and you'll need to determine the best way to proceed with your shooting. There is no double exposure prevention mechanism on this camera. I had maybe 7 or 8 double-exposed photos the first time I shot with it.

On the front of the camera is the average shutter speeds ranging from 1/300 to 1 sec. Along with "B". The shutter speed is set by sliding a button up or down until the marking along the lens points to the desired shutter speed. On the other side of the lens is a similar button with aperture settings from f3.5 to f22. You slide up or down to get to the desired aperture setting. This camera has no meter, so an external meter is needed.

Next to the shutter speed button is a longish bar with a knob on it which you press down to cock the shutter. Once cocked, you can press the shutter release button on the bottom right of the camera to expose your film. As mentioned above, you can do this as many times as you want to on the same photo. You'll need to either wind to your next frame, then cock the shutter and fire, or wind to your next frame just after taking a photo.

Camera Logo with Model and Serial number above.

MY EXPERIENCE:

On my first roll of film, there were many times when on a hike, I'd put the camera away after taking a photo, then walk to my next area to shoot and cock the shutter and take another on top of the last one. Once you realize there is NO DOUBLE EXPOSURE lock, you'll learn. The next time I use it, I will shoot, then wind. Walk to my next area to shoot, the cock, the shutter, shoot, and wind. Something I'm sure you're more intelligent than me and will remember.

My Granddaughter at the beach

My son, daughter in Law and Granddaughter enjoying the beach.

My wife and granddaughter headed to the beach.

Conclusion:

I enjoyed using this camera. The Seagull 4 is inexpensive, and the results are decent. It would be a great entry-level camera for someone wanting to get into medium format. I don't know if parts are readily available to fix it if it breaks down, but it's a fun camera to take photos with for now.

I appreciate you taking a few minutes to read my blog post. I have the next camera picked for the next blog post, and it won’t be long until I finish it. Until next time, please be safe and enjoy the never-ending hunt for fantastic cameras.

Bencini Koroll

Bencini Koroll

Front view of Bencini Koroll Camera

The interesting thing that caught my eye about this camera was the aluminum body. I had previously seen these in books and thought I'd jump on it if the right opportunity presented itself to get one at a reasonable price. With that said, I want to tell you about an exciting camera from Italy, the Bencini Koroll, a 645 format 120 camera.

History

Antonio Bencini started his photographic career fixing and maintaining french made cameras during WWI. In school, he was trained to be an aeronautical engineer. After the war, he and a partner started FIAMMA, a successful camera company making box cameras. In 1935, the oldest film company in Italy, Farrinia, purchased FIAMMA. Bencini moved to Turin and started Filma, a company focusing on simple 127 film size box cameras. Two years after he began Filma, Farrinia purchased the company, prompting Bencini to move to Milan, where he started ICAF (ICAF). Having a war in Europe was pretty evident given the circumstances in Germany. In his factory, camera production was halted during WWII so the company could manufacture aviation and bicycle parts.

Top View of Bencini Koroll Camera

After the war, in 1946, the company changed its name to CMF. During this time, cloth bellows in cameras weren't used. Bencini decided to transition to a sliding tube system of bellows with a focusable lens mounted on the end of the lens. Most of the Bencini cameras were either the sliding tube bellows or just a rigid lens system, gaining popularity during this time. Bencini cameras were popular throughout the1960 with their ever-popular "Comet and Koroll" lines of cameras. Still, the camera company lost favor in 1970 with the influx of Japanese cameras, and by the 1980s, the camera company had ceased production.

My Camera:

Having purchased my Bencini Koroll a while ago, it does have some cosmetic issues with scrapes and scratches. The shutter is accurate, and since there is no real aperture control, the setting of f11 is what I use when metering for exposure.

The camera measures 5.25" wide x 3.25" tall, 2.5" deep with the lens retracted, and 3.75" deep with the lens extended. My camera weighs one lb. and 1.2 oz without film loaded into the camera and without the strap. The Koroll is considered lightweight for a camera this size, and I attribute this to the fact it's an aluminum cast body lighter than other metals.

The camera loads just like any 120 camera, although getting the reels in and out is a bit difficult due to the tight spacing of the film chamber.

To take a photo, you need to pull the lens out from the camera, and you also need to rotate it to lock it into the taking position, which is similar to the Rollei 35 cameras. The shutter will not fire until the lens is out or pulled away from the body, which also engages the shutter button. The shutter won't fire if it's in the retracted or closed position, which is very nice for traveling or hiking. You won't accidentally fire the shutter with the lens retracted, causing double exposures or lost frames.

The one unique feature I like about this camera is the pull-out "foot," which stabilizes the camera when you put it on a table or flat surface. Using the foot is especially helpful when the lens is pulled out and in the "taking position."

The focus on the end of the lens is a straightforward "guestimate" focus system. There is no integrated rangefinder for critical focusing. If you're using f11 all the time for taking your photos, the focus isn't that critical since it's using a broad depth of field. Nothing is printed regarding the lens's focal length, but assume it's in the standard 75 to 80mm range.

Looking through the viewfinder was very challenging, especially for the people (like myself) that wear glasses. The rear part of the viewfinder is tiny and difficult to look through. Often when I used it, I just pointed the camera at my subject, and for the most part, I got the images I was expecting.

The day I was shooting with this camera was an overcast and foggy day at the coast. I did get some favorable images which you can see here.

Images from Camera

Video:

I’m starting to put a video review of the camera I post here on my channel on Youtube. To view the video, you can find it here:Bencini Koroll

Conclusion:

The Bencini Koroll camera was surprisingly fun to use and straightforward, and I took some fun and exciting images. That's something I look for in a camera. I can see myself packing this on a trip to foreign lands to photograph the streets of Bangcock, Paris, or even just walking around the neighborhood. The camera isn't expensive and was something I'd recommend you pick up at the next flea market, boot sale, or camera meeting if you see it; you won't regret it.

Until next time, be safe and keep looking for the odd and unusual cameras you can add to your collection. I know I always do.

Bolsey-Flex Trio Camera

As I was sitting at my desk a few weeks back as I was figuring out what camera to write about next, I looked down at a box of cameras I have in my office, and on top was the Bolsey Flex Trio, which is in the box and complete with the instructions. As I started putting together my thoughts about the camera, I had to pull out the camera, and many different ideas came into my mind.

My Bolsey-Flex Camera & Instructions

The camera for its age isn't in great shape but does work. The camera uses 120 size film, which is a HUGE benefit to me since the film is so readily available. I decided to load a roll of Black and White film in it to shoot as I walked through my neighborhood. I processed the film and was somewhat impressed by the Bolsey-Flex. It's a Pseudo Twin Lens Reflex camera, which means it looks and feels like a TLR camera but works more like a Box Camera due to its simplicity.

Camera Research

I was researching the camera, only to find that a friend of mine, a brilliant writer and camera collecting blogger, Mike Eckman did a blog post on the same camera just a few months ago, which you can read here. With that said, Mike has quite a bit of information on the designer, Jacques Bogopolsky, and camera companies he worked for. The famous movie camera, Bolex, was named after Jacques Bogopolsky, and he also designed cameras for Pignons S.A., the original company that made Alpa Cameras.

For my blog post, I want to concentrate on the experience of using the camera, the image quality, and my overall thoughts on how such a beautifully designed camera handles out in a natural shooting environment. I want to offer a few facts on the camera in general. The camera is an all-aluminum cast body with beautiful light green coverings. In the box comes all you need to take the camera out into the world to take photos.

The Camera

The camera measures 4.75" tall without the viewfinder in the closed position and 6" with the finder in the "up" position. The camera is 3.75" wide, which includes the width of the knobs. It is 3.75" deep, including the lens in the focused to the closest focused position, and 3.5 with the lens focused to infinity. The Bolsey-Flex incorporates an elementary zone focusing lens which can focus from 5 feet to infinity. The focus on the camera is strictly a "guess focus" style. While this is a Psuedo TLR camera, the top lens does nothing more than frame the photo in the camera. There is no focusing capability when looking through the viewfinder.

On the Bolsey-Flex shutter, you have the capability of "I" for an instant, which shoots the shutter at 1/50th of a second shutter speed, and "T" for a time exposure. The camera does have a synchronized shutter which couples with the flash attachment. The camera also has an 80mm lens with three aperture settings, F7.7, f11, and f16. 

The flashgun takes 2-"AA" batteries to power the Type No.5 flashbulbs that fit the top. You unscrew the bottom of the flashgun to put the batteries into it. It would be best if you took the camera case off the camera to use the flash. The flashgun fits into the camera synchro port, which is below the lens and held by the screw that holds the case into place. When you trip the shutter, the camera sends a signal to the flashgun, which fires the flashbulb. 

My unit seems to be in good working condition. Unfortunately, I didn't have bulbs when I loaded the camera with film and did all my shots outdoors. It would have been fun to shoot with bulbs. I'll need to test another camera that uses a flashbulb in a future post, not that I have some bulbs to try.

To load film into the camera, there is a knob on the left side of the camera with "Open," Close" on it. Turn the knob to "open," and the top of the back swings down open to load the film into the camera. Nothing special here as the. Put the empty spool on the top and film onto the bottom area. The shutter won't fire until the winding lever is turned to advance the film. On the back of the camera is the red window with a sliding cover to see when the film is advanced to the following frame number.

 Images

Here are some of the images I took with the Bolsey-Flex camera.

Rocks

Backyard Aspen

Evergreen Tree

Dogwood

Conclusion

I thought the camera did a very excellent job for a pseudo-TLR camera. It's not much more than a glorified box camera. The camera was easy to hold, the exposures were good, thanks to my sunny 16 rule when exposing to sunlight. The lens vignettes a bit, but I enjoy that. The ease of operation and see the frames in the red window when advancing were spot on. I'd recommend this very well-built camera to anyone.

 Thank you for taking some time to look over this post. Until next time, please be safe.

Lumiere Super ELJY, (Type 3)

Looking through many of McKeown's Camera Guides, which is the Bible of all camera collecting books, the Lumiere ELJY camera is one camera that always caught my eye. I believe it has to do with the size proportion of the lens to the camera body that caught my eye. The much larger proportion the lens has compared to the camera body reminds me of the Leica Dial-set Compur cameras of the mid-1920s.

My Lumiere Super ELJY camera.

The Company

The Lumiere company is a French company founded in 1893 by Charles Antoine Lumière, which started out as a film manufacturer and is most well known in the cinematography world. Charles's sons, Auguste and Louis Lumière, were the first to make a mark in the cinema world. The two produced short films starting in 1895 and what is now know as modern kind of movies.

In 1903, they invented a new photographic patent that was a successful color process for a film that lasted for years. They began to produce the Autochrome, a black & white plate but combined 3 color filters to create a color image that continued until the 1930s. They then started making sheet and roll film using the same process.

Lumiere started producing cameras in the 1920s through 1961 with all different cameras, including plate, folding, 35mm in different styles, colors, and shapes. Doing research on the blog and looking at all the different cameras Lumiere produced, I recognized a few other cameras in my collection. For this post, I'm just going to focus on the ELJY camera.

My Camera

There are many different models of the ELJY camera with versions and upgrades to the camera. The ELJY model that I own and am talking about is the Super ELJY, type 3. If you're interested in seeing the different models and variations, you can see them here (http://corsopolaris.net/supercameras/eljy/eljy.html). Personally, I didn't realize there were so many. The ELJY was produced between 1937-1960.

 The Super ELJY camera is a ruggedly built camera with a pull-out lens similar to the modern-day Rollei 35 cameras. To put the lens in the position to take a photo, you rotate the lens clockwise and pull the lens away from the camera body. The lens is on a very sturdy chrome barrel. Once extended, you turn the lens counterclockwise to lock the lens into position, and the lens won't slide back into the camera body.

 While the image size is 23x35mm, which is almost the same as 35mm, the camera takes a paperback roll film which is more similar to 127 or 120 films than 35mm. Some people say this is the "large format" miniature camera due to the camera and film size. The camera is more significant than the subminiature cameras that I have but considerably smaller than the 35mm camera, even the previously mentioned Rollei 35.

The camera is just over 3" wide by 2" tall without the finder up; with the finder up, it's 2.5" tall, and the camera is 1.75" deep with the lens retracted, or 2.25" with the lens extended. The lens is a Lypar 40mm f3.5 lens with aperture settings going to f20. It's odd because the aperture settings are 3.5,5,7,10,14 & 20. The shutter speeds go from "T" for time exposure, "B," 25, 50, 100, 125. The focus range is from 0.5m to Infinity.

 The camera has a simple pivoted, two-blade shutter which there is no cocking; just press the shutter release to take a photo, and there is a place for a cable release for the longer exposures. To open the back, the back door locking lever is on the bottom of the camera. The entire back comes off the camera to load and replace the film. There is also a tripod socket on the bottom of the camera. The red window on the back of the camera used to count exposures has a sliding door to open to view the film numbers.

On the top of the camera is the winding lever to advance the film. There is also a pop-up viewfinder. There is also a lever to slide out next to the viewfinder to correct for parallax when focusing close. When I first opened the camera, I noticed an exposed roll of film still in the camera. I'm going to have to find a way to process the film to see what treasures are on the film.

Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule to read my blog. It's very much appreciated, and I would love to hear from you. One of the great joys of writing this article is hearing from people. Many tell me about their camera collection, which I enjoy hearing about. Until next time, please be safe.

Nikon 28Ti Camera

In this week's blog post, I'm writing about a camera I've had in my collection for a few years now and one that I've always wanted to own, ever since I laid eyes on it when the camera was introduced in 1994. The 28Ti  is the younger brother to the popular 35Ti camera, which came out a short time before the 28Ti and was similar to the Minolta TC-1, Contax T cameras, and a range of other well built "point & shoot" style cameras that targeted the more affluent and travel market.

My Nikon 28Ti, camera case, and interested photographer.

The Company

Nikon started producing optical instruments such as microscopes and rangefinders in 1917 in Tokyo, Japan. During the early days, Japan had urgent needs for these types of optics. The person responsible for doing this was Koyata Iwasaki, the president of  Mitsubishi and the nephew of Mitsubishi founder Yataro Iwasaki.

 Plans started with establishing an optics company by combining the optical instruments division of Tokyo Keiki company and the mirror division of Iwaki Glass with Fujii Lens Manufacturing. This combination of companies started Nippon Kogaku K.K. which is, the Nikon we know today.

In 1921, photographic optics were becoming more refined. Nikon invited 8 German engineers to Japan to help Japan catch up with the development and design of photo optics. They created the Anytar lenses after the Tessar design. Buy 1931, Nikon lens designs were no longer in the Tessar design and optical quality shadow.

Nikkor lenses started in 1933 with the Aero-Nikkor 50cm f4.8 lens used for ariel mapping purposes. They also created a 70cm F5 and a 180cm F4.5 lens which is very difficult to find today.

 After WWII, Nikon started making 35mm cameras. The first camera, the Model 1, was introduced in March 1948 and was heavily advertised. Production couldn't keep up with the demand for domestic cameras of the time. There were many complaints about the design. In 1949, they had worked out many of the problems when the Model M was introduced.

 In 1950, the introduction of the Nikon S line and later the SP, along with a strong line of high-quality lenses, put Nikon on the radar for many newspapers and professionals photographers and made them the camera system they are now known.

My Camera

The Nikon 28Ti is a very sturdy camera with an all-black finish, which is more pleasing than the two-toned 35Ti camera. That's just a personal opinion for me. The feature that draws me to this camera is the analog dials on the top of the camera, which contrasts with the black camera body. The dials indicate things like aperture settings, focus distance to the subject, frame counter, and over/under exposure compensation. All of these are done with the precision of a fine Swiss watch and resembles one as well.

The size of the camera is approximately 4.5″ wide, 2.5″ tall, and 1.4″ deep and weighs in at 11.2 oz. The camera body is a titanium body with a retractable 28mm f2.8 lens, from what I can tell. According to technical specification, the lens is a Nikkor 28mm F2.8; multi-coated seven elements in 5 groups, with integrated coatings and extra-low dispersion elements. The camera's autofocus has 541 steps in a range which is slightly less than the 833 in the 35Ti. 

 The electromagnetic shutter has speeds range from 2 sec. to 1/500 in "P" mode (Program) or up to 1/330 in "A" mode for Aperture Preferred. There is also an "LT" mode similar to "B" and has a maximum time of 10 minutes.

 There is a "panoramic" mode that blades off the shutter area to achieve a panoramic photo on the negatives, popular in the 1990s. There is also the ability to over or underexpose images by up to 2 stops. The camera also features a Date feature on the camera, but I've yet figured out how to set them as the buttons to do so on the camera's back are very small and difficult to push.

Looking on top of the camera are the elegant dials which I enjoy, and when you press, items like +/- can be manipulated by the scroll wheel on the back right of the camera when the film advance would be on an SLR camera. Around the shutter release is the camera mode switch. Pressing the AF button on top and turning the scroll wheel allows you to focus manually. The Lamp button turns on the lamp on the dial display and lights up the viewfinder lines for the image area.

Top view of the Nikon 28Ti camera with the controls

There is an "H" displayed in the viewfinder when the lighting is too bright and "L" when the lighting is too low for properly exposed images.

 On the right side of the camera is the dial that opens the back of the camera. The camera sets ISO with the DX coding. If no DX film is used, then the ISO is set to 100. The camera has auto wind and auto re-wind. There is a button on the baseplate that allows for re-wind the film mid-roll if needed.

 On the front of the camera is the flash control. You have flash on, Autoflash, No flash, and on the side of the camera by the flash control is a switch to set red-eye reduction. The lens automatically comes out when powered up and retracts when turned off. 

To me, the quality of the optics is what I enjoy. Some people prefer the less wide 35mm, but not me. Here are some images from a walk at my local dog park I did this week.

Images from the Nikon 28Ti Camera

Winston, a friends Korgi

Giving a friem=nd a drink of water

Electrical tower in dog park

Regular view

Panoramic view

Self Portrait.

Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy schedules to read about one of the cameras I need to take out and use more often—another fantastic camera in the collection. Until my next post in a couple of weeks, please be well.

Konishiroku Snappy Camera

It's been a few weeks since I wrote my last camera collecting blog post because I've started a new position. Now that I feel comfortable in the new job, I think it's time to write about some of my cameras. I love the new responsibilities, the company I'm working for again. I also think I have my nose above water and can take on other enjoyable tasks such as writing about one of my passions: cameras within my collection

My Konishiroku Snappy Camera

Looking over the cameras above my desk, I came across this small and what I believe is an underappreciated gem of a camera. So, in this week's blog post, I wanted to write about the Konishiroku Kogaku Snappy camera. A camera is exceptionally well built, especially for a subminiature-style camera coming out of Japan just after WWII.

Company History

Konishiroku is one of the oldest photographic companies coming out of Japan, even older than Kodak. The company traces back to 1873 when a pharmacist, Rokusaburo Sugiura, started selling photographic items out of the largest pharmacy in Toyoko that he owned. In 1878, Rokusaburo gave the original shop to his younger brother and launched a new shop, Konishi Honten, in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district.

In 1882, Konishi began to produce photography-related materials in Japan. In 1902, Konishi started to sell the Cherrimportedy Portable Camera, the first Japanese-built camera made for the public. In 1921, Konishi named his son Konishi Honten to succeed in the family business. The company turned into Konishiroku Honten, later Konishiroku, an abbreviation of their names Konishi Rokuemon.

 After WWII, Konishiroku was well known for its Konica brand of cameras, which they released the Konica I camera in 1948. Later in 1965, Konica produced the first auto-exposure SLR camera, the Konica Autoreflex. In 2003, they merged with Minolta and exited the photo market in 2006. they are now more recognized in the copier business.

The Camera

The Konishiroku Snappy was designed, developed, and sold in 1949. According to sources, the Snappy original design was in spring, with the first model released in August 1949. They were somewhat popular and sold approximately 40,000 units.

The camera has a trapezoidal-shaped camera that incorporates items seen in 35mm cameras of its time. The camera is a "system" with other lenses and accessories. In form, it reminds me of the VP Exakta, model B, which I wrote about in an earlier post, only considerably smaller. The camera measures 2.5" wide by 1 5/8" deep and 1.5" tall and weighs 5 oz. with a very sturdy and well-built leather case.

 Another item the camera has is a pull-up rewind knob that allows you to open the back. There are integrated shutter speeds of "B," 25, 50, 100. The lens is an Option 25mm f3.5 lens that allows the photographer to set aperture settings between f3.5-16 by turning the lens's outer ring. You would think this operation would focus the lens, but the lens is a fixed focus, and you're changing the aperture settings.

The camera has a horizontal running guillotine shutter tripped by the shutter release on the top of the camera. The winding leaver on the back of the camera advances the film and cocks the shutter.

 When you lift the rewind knob and swing the door open as you would a 35mm camera, you see there are rill film reels in the camera. The camera shoots 14x14mm square images on the 17.5 paper-backed roll film, which was popular in the "Hit" style cameras, but the Snappy film was much better quality.

The System

The lenses on the Snappy are also interchangeable, and they unscrew from the camera body. There is a Cherry 40mm f5.6 telephoto lens which also comes with an auxiliary frame that fits the front viewfinder window. Other accessories for the Snappy camera are Close up lens, which fits over the standard 25mm Optor lens, hoods and filters, tripod adapter, and the sturdy brown leather case with strap. The Snappy came in a kit with all the accessories in one red and black presentation box.

Conclusion

The Snappy is an excellent camera and a camera that I enjoy having in my collections. Having researched the camera, I'll need to hunt down the other accessories for the camera, especially the telephoto lens and filters. Maybe it's time to see if I can find the whole kit. Now that would be the crowning gem.

 Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to read my blog post. I'll do my best to do this every other week, time permitting. Until next time, please be safe.

Rare Univex Model AF Cameras

I started writing my blog posts to let the world know about the cameras in my collection, the fondness I have for cameras, and anything photographic. I had a LOT of time on my hands since losing my position a year ago due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The company I worked for restructured the sales position, and I was the odd man out.

My collection of Univex AF Cameras

 I love the companies that hired me. It's been gratifying to get back to work, and it feels lovely to contribute to the workforce and the photo community I feel so passionately about. I've been lax in my camera blog posts lately because I took a new job that has consumed most of my time and energy for the past few weeks.

Blogging

I'm hoping to get back to writing this post every other week now instead of weekly as I was doing. Time willing, I'll do it every other week, or maybe weekly should time allow.

 I wanted to take a few hours to photograph the cameras I'm presenting this week. It's not a single camera like the past blog postings, but a whole collection of cameras that I've built over many years of collecting.

The Company

The Universal Camera Corporation started in 1932 at 521 Fifth Ave., then moved the following year to 32-46 West 23rd St. New York, NY. They stayed in that location until they ran out of office and manufacturing space in 1938. Starting in the depression era, they made reasonably inexpensive cameras made that also used their film, the successful Universal six exposure #OO film for their cameras.

Until 1938, The Universal Camera Corp. was making primarily smaller cameras like the Original Univex Model A camera, which sold for $0.39 and was wildly successful. In 1938, to revise the sales of #00 film, Universal Camera Corp came out with a line of Candid Cameras, which became increasingly popular during this time.

The Story

This story is about the small "A" model cameras and their specialized models in the AF line. As mentioned in many of my previous posts, my love for colored cameras and the odd, unusual models camera manufacturers made. I started collecting the Univex AF line well over 20 years ago when I came across their colored cameras.

 I believe the first camera purchased the standard and graphic-faced AF-2 model with the black face and graphic red lines running from top to bottom of the camera. Then I started buying the colored models, green, blue, brown, grey, and found their Girl Scout model when I searched out "Scout" cameras. At this time is when I came across the elusive Hollywood, GE Topper, and very rare Aristocrat model.

 I found the Hollywood camera (brown model) first on eBay and was excited to have it in my collection. I've been looking for the GE Topper and even more elusive Aristocrat camera for years. I did see GE Topper models on eBay, but they were always more expensive than I could afford.

My collection of Univex AF cameras

The Elusive Camera(s)

In my camera searches, I received an email about someone back east selling a "lot" of cameras, and looking at the photos, I saw it…..The elusive Aristocrat camera. It was an online auction, and I just HAD to have it. On the day of the sale, I went online, and when the camera lot came up for sale, I was ready. The pricing started slow and started to build. It got close to my limit, and low and behold. I had won the auction along with a box of items I wasn't sure I wanted.

 When I talked to the shipper about the items in the box, I told them I only wanted this one item, but they already had the items packed and ready to ship. I bit the bullet and had the whole lot shipped to me. From the time I paid for the shipping to get to me to the day it arrived, I knew the one camera to complete my collection was the GE Topper. For days, all I could think about was finding the GE Topper camera.

 When the box arrived, I was giddy with excitement to open it and put the Aristocrat model on my shelf and the other models in the collection. All the cameras were bubble-wrapped. Pulling items out, I kept looking for the Aristocrat. I pulled this one bubble-wrapped item and, turning it over, I faintly saw….could it be what I believe it is, the GE Topper camera? I gently unwrapped the camera, and as I was peeling off the wrap, the front face became more visible. It was the GE Topper model. My heart was pounding, and my eyes teared up a bit. Not only did I get the Aristocrat camera BUT the GE Topper too in the same sale.

Later, I added the odd difficult to find, green Hollywood camera, so along with the AF-3, AF-5, and AF-5 models, I can call this collection complete unless something else pops up that I'm not aware of.

 Thank you for taking some time from your schedule to read my blog on cameras in my collection. Until my next posting, please be safe.

Ruberg Art Deco Camera

As I've stated several times in my blog posts, that the flashy, colorful odd, unusual, or bazar cameras are items I'm attracted to. That's been the same my entire life. I believe that's probably true for the majority of individuals. People are always looking for something out of the ordinary, not the usual mundane, usual products or items. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how my brain operates. With that in mind, this week's camera and maker of the camera fits right into this category, the Ruberg Art Deco camera.

My Ruberg “Art Deco” Camera

The company.

The Ruberg cameras were manufactured by the Ruberg & Renner company, which was located in the Delstern district of Hagen, Germany, during the 1930s.  The company was started in 1918 by Josef Ruberg, who originally started producing drive trains for bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles. After 1930, the company started making simple cameras. In 1931, Josef obtained a patent for the construction of a simple camera in Germany. He also received a patent in the United States in February 1932.

"Due to the simple and very inexpensive production of all the parts of the camera from synthetic resin which was done from a single pressing process makes it possible to place a cheap camera on the market which is affordable to all", it says on the patent application. In the 1930s, Ruberg & Renner manufactured four models with 25 designs for export to the USA, Great Britain, and France. The cameras' construction ended in the mid-1930s where the company started producing products to help the German war effort.

The Camera

As noted before, the Ruberg cameras are straightforward cameras with several different variations of the same build. The Art Deco version I have has the standard helical telescoping lens tube found on all of their cameras. On the back of my Art Deco camera are chrome patterns on two corners, giving it a modern look. The cameras take 127 size film and have a straightforward shutter system. Some later models even enjoyed the lens's focus, even though it was a fundamental zone focus. My Art Deco version is a metal body camera with a dark brown resin lens tube. My camera has either B for time exposures or I instantly, which is 1/25th second exposures. There is primary aperture control. Pulling on the chrome arm with the ball on end seems to change the aperture settings inside the camera's lens. Looking at the aperture settings, I can't see much difference. I'm guessing they are in the F8 to f11 or f16 settings.

The camera sports a straightforward pop-up sports finder. Mine is pretty wonky and doesn't stay erect and kind of flops down a bit.  The film advance is just a bare knob to advance the film. Loading the film is basic. There is a latch on the side of the camera to open the back. The film slides through a channel to hold it flat. There is no pressure plate to keep it flat. There is a black piece of felt glued onto the backdoor on my camera, so I'm not sure if that's normal or just the previous owner did it to the camera I have. The red window cut out for the felt is professionally done, so it may be something they did in the factory.

The Ruberg Art Deco Camera with lens extended

Conclusion.

I enjoy this camera and am now looking for other Ruberg & Renner versions to add to the collection. I like the twisting lens, but most of all, I like the different colors the cameras come in. The shutter in my camera isn't working so I haven't taken photos with it. At some point, I'll be purchasing some 127 size film to run through the many cameras I have that take that film size.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to read this blog post. As always, I enjoy your replies and comments, so please keep them coming. Until next week, please be safe.

Petal Camera

In my early days of collecting, I was never a real huge fan of the smaller subminiature cameras, mainly since most of them were the lesser quality cameras, or as I called them, "carnival camera" like the Hit camera. Then there was the other end. The 007 spy style camera was coming from Minox. As I grew in my camera maturity, coming across cameras like the Minolta or Yashica 16mm camera gave me an appreciation of some of these cameras' quality and quality.

My Round Petal camera

For this week's camera blog post, I wanted to go back to one of the subminiature cameras I have in my collection. The Petal camera has always intrigued me since it's the smallest of the small non-medical cameras made according to Guinness World Records. As far as cameras go, this one is tiny and just a little larger than a quarter in the US or a 2 Euro coin. The St. Peter Optical Company made the Petal camera, whose Japanese name was Sei-Petero Kōgaku, in 1948. According to some, I've seen some references where it stated its introduction in 1947. The first US advertising of the camera was in U. S. Camera in February 1949, which you can see here.

The Camera:

The Petal camera comes in two different styles, with an even rarer third version named the Evarax A. The two primary Petal camera are either a round-faced camera, which is what I own, or a second model with an octagonal shaped face. The Evarax A camera is an octagonal shaped face camera with a more elaborate etching on the faceplate. The Petal camera is only 1.25" across by 1.75" tall by 5/8" deep and weighs 2.2oz. The camera has a 12mm f5.6 lens, placed in the upper middle on the front of the camera. There are two shutter speeds, either "B" for time exposures or "I" for instant, which is 1/25th of a second, controlled by a wheel on the camera's front.

My Petal camera compared to a U.S. Quarter.

On the top of the camera is an optical viewfinder, and to the right of the viewfinder is the shutter trigger lever. Along the top of the optical viewfinder is a lever that can be mover over the trigger arm to lock it so you cannot take a photo when you don't want an accidental image taken. The shutter release lever pushes a plunger down into the camera, which trips the shutter. On the camera side is a knurled ring that you rotate to advance the film to the next exposures. To the side of the knurled ring, number 1 to 6 with indents stops the ring at the next photo.

Loading the Camera:

It took me some time to figure out how to get to the film chamber. After playing for about 15 minutes or so, I noticed that the back of the camera. The camera back can be unscrewed to get to the film cassette. Once the back is off, it exposes the film cassette. Once that's removed, you can see the shutter mechanism and the inside of the camera itself.

Unthreaded the back off the Petal camera. You can also see the exposure counter.

The film came in preloaded discs with 6-6mm images on each film cassette. The film cassette holds the film. To get to the film, the cassette needs to be unscrewed too. The original Petal film was a panchromatic film, which needed to be loaded in complete darkness. Many people used orthochromatic film like that can be loaded and unloaded under a red safelight, which doesn't affect the film. A film cutter allowed the Petal camera owners to cut 35mm film to use in the film cassettes.

Once the film is in the cassette and back into the camera, you thread the back onto the camera. You need to rotate the back portion of the camera one to two revolutions clockwise until the #1 is next to the exposure indicator. Doing this opens the film window on the film cassette and allows light to get to the film once the shutter is triggered.

Exposure counter on the Petal camera.

After you took the six exposures, the exposure counter is at number six to unload the film. You need to turn the number counter clockwise two numbers to number 4, closing the film window and allowing the photographer to unscrew the back and take out the film cassette for processing.

Conclusion:

The Petal camera is a lot more sophisticated of a camera than I first thought when I purchased it many years ago. It's very well built and a prized camera to own for the "spy" photographers. Extremely small, very well made, and a beloved camera in my collection. The shutter on my camera is inoperable. It would be fun to cut some film and take it out for a spin.

 If you have questions or comments about this camera or any others in my collection, I'd love to hear from you. Thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to read about this fun camera. Until next week, please be safe.

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Pouva Start

Whenever my wife and I travel, I'm always looking to see if the country we're going to has a flea market or someplace where there might be a possibility to find cameras. It might be in a run-down antique store in Vietnam where I found a few cameras. One of my all-time favorite places was a flea market outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia.

My Pouva Start original model with sport finder opened and lens out.

The flea market itself was a wild experience. The people-watching and the different items at the vendor's tables was pretty fantastic in itself. I didn't know how many cameras I would find but figured there'd be a good mix of Russian and European cameras. I was correct on both counts, and one of my favorite cameras found there was the Pouva Start. In my opinion, this is a classic 6x6 format Lomography camera. Something compact, well built, and extremely simple to use. Let me tell you a bit about the camera and the company that made it.

Karl Pouva

The Pouva Start camera was built by Karl Pouva AG, who first started his company making simple Bakelite slide projectors in Freitel, a city near Dresden, Germany, in 1939. After the war, that area of Germany was a part of East Germany. In 1951, with his experience with Bakelite, he decided to build a simple camera. Something easy to use, low cost, and a camera to get the youth started to take photos. At the time, the camera cost 16.50 Deutsche Mark (east), which was very affordable for young people.

There have been several different changes in the Pouva Start camera over the years. I am starting with the camera I have, with the pop-up sports finder. Later, in 1956, they updated the design to incorporate an optical viewfinder into the camera and symbols for aperture settings. A sun symbol for smaller aperture settings, and clouds for larger aperture settings. The one thing that stayed constant on the cameras was the screw out lens, which acts as a locking mechanism for the camera.

The Camera

This camera has a very classic design, with a spiral threaded lens system, which is very similar to the Kodak Bullet cameras built in the early 1930s. When the lens is threaded back into the camera body, the shutter mechanism is locked so you cannot take unwanted photos. Once you wind the lens into the taking position, the shutter firing system engages with the shutter button, and the shutter now fires.

On the lens are just four settings, two for the shutter and two for the aperture settings. There is a toggle switch on the shutter side that goes from "Zeit" for timed exposures and "Moment" for a regular shutter speed of 1/30 second. On the aperture side, there is another toggle between "Sonne" Sunny or F16 and "Trub" Cloudy F8. In the later versions, as stated, they used symbols for sunny/cloudy. The camera incorporates a Duplar F8 lens, which has two elements in two groups for simplicity.

On top of the camera is the pop-up sports finder, the shutter release button, a cable release button to thread a cable release into and trigger the shutter: the film transport winding knob, and two metal levers. One of the levers is next to the shutter release button, which you can slide over to lock the shutter for time exposures. The second is by the film winding knob. This lever opens the back of the camera for film loading.

That lever is the one that stumped me for the longest time. I kept wondering how to open the back to load the film. I pulled and twisted several different areas without success. Then I pressed the lever forward, and the back started to come off. The back is held into place by friction and seats tightly onto the camera very well. The lever is attached to a small piece of Bakelite that, when pressed forward, separates the back from the camera, allowing you to take the back off. Ingenious!!!! I love this. So simple.

Photos from the camera:

Conclusion:

The camera is enjoyable to use and doesn't take a horrible photo. I was surprised at how the pictures turned out. They're not the sharpest photos I've taken, but for a simple lens, they're not bad. If you like the Lomography style of cameras, I search out this camera and try it out, as I think you'll enjoy using it and the photos that come from it too.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to read this post. I always enjoy it when I hear from you, so please feel free to email me any questions or comments about this or any other camera I've written about. Until next week, please be safe.

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No. 0 Folding Pocket Kodak

Due to the holiday season, I thought I'd do something a bit different for the blog this week. I did pick out a camera to write about, but as you can imagine, I didn't have a lot of time to do the research, but I did have an opportunity to take the camera out and use it. The camera I picked for this week's post is a camera that's well over 110 years old, and I received some pretty peculiar looks when I took it out to shoot.

No. 0 Folding Pocket Kodak

The Camera

This week's camera is the No.0 Folding Pocket Kodak camera built between 1902 and 1906. It's a very compact folding camera that takes  121 size film that produced 1 5/8" x 2 1/2 size film negatives. The No.0 folding pocket Kodak is one of the earliest Kodak folding cameras and measures 5 5/8" long by 3 1/4" wide by 1 1/4" deep when closed, and 3 1/2" deep with the lens extended and weighs in at 11.5 oz.

The No.0 folding pocket Kodak is a fundamental camera that was marketed for horizontal shooting. When you pull the lens away from the body, it has a scissor-style hinge system to keep the lens erect, along with a pull-down leg on the front, right side of the camera so the camera can stand on its own. I'm a big fan of the red bellows style cameras produced during this period, and the bellows on my camera are light tight and a vibrant dark red color. The No.0 folding pocket Kodak has a Meniscus lens along with an Eastman Automatic shutter. To open the back of the camera is just a simple latch on the left side of the camera, and it opens on a hinge to load the film.

When you're holding the No.0 folding pocket Kodak with the lens extended and ready to take a photo, there is only one viewfinder, and it's for horizontal images. Most cameras have two viewfinders, one for horizontal and one for vertical photos. On the other side of the viewfinder is the shutter release button for normal instant style photos, which I'm guessing is approximately 1/60 sec. On the right side of the extended lens area is a protruding shutter release for time exposures. You click once to open the shutter and a second time to close it. On the left side of the extended lens area is the sliding mechanism, which changes the aperture setting. There are three different aperture settings set by moving the slider out to get to the desired aperture.

I am preparing the camera to shoot.

When I played with the camera, I had a roll of 35mm film on my desk. When I opened the back, the camera, it still had the wooden take-up spool in it. I picked up the 35mm film and laid it in the film chamber, and noticed how well it fit there. Pulling the film leader over to the take-up spool, I figured I'd be able to shoot 35mm through this camera.

The 35mm film's width was too small, so I needed to put something across the film area to keep the film flat when shooting. I had some black masking tape in my office, which I use to mask my light table when shooting glass negatives. I measured the width of 35mm film in the camera and cut some masking tape to fit across the film chamber so the film would lay flat.

Now I needed to figure out how many turns of the winding lever would take to advance the film to the next frame without overlapping frames. I did this with a dummy roll I had in my office. It takes two full turns of the winding lever to advance to the next frame. It probably is 1 3/4 turns, but I like to keep it simple. There is a red window on the back of the camera, which I needed to block out the light since 35mm film isn't a paper-backed film like other roll films. I put a couple of black tape layers over the red window to block that light as well.

 I loaded up the film into the camera and took my dogs to the local dog park to try out the No.0 folding pocket Kodak. Once I took the roll of film, I brought it home to unload the film. There is no rewind on the No.0 folding pocket Kodak, so I put the camera into my trusty dark bag for film processing and unloaded the film.

Photos from the camera.

My local dog park, from No. 0 Folding Pocket Kodak camera

Lulu from the dog park. She was sitting so nicely, then got too close. Photos from No. 0 Folding Pocket Kodak

Vertical photo from the No. 0 Folding Pocket Kodak

Conclusion.

It was enjoyable to put a film through this 110 plus-year-old camera. There were a couple of hiccups as I hit the time exposure shutter button a couple of times to take the photo as I'm used to having the trigger on the side of the camera instead of on top, but other than that, the results are pretty good.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes to read my camera collecting blog. I enjoy hearing from you about this or any of the other posts I've made so far. I hope everyone has a very happy and safe new year and until next week, please be safe.

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VP Exakta Model B

Knowing me, the more odd and unusual the item is, the more I enjoy it. The VP Exakta, also known as the "standard" Exakta, is just one of these cameras. The VP Exakta camera has such a classic design. They are sleek, angular, somewhat small but fits well into your hands when holding them. The VP stands for Vest Pocket, which refers to the 127 size film used in this camera and was introduced to fit into the folding Vest Pocket cameras from Kodak started in 1912. This camera isn't small by any stretch of the imagination, but interesting. They call this the VP model due to the size of the film used.

My VP Exakta Model B camera

The VP Exakta started being produced in 1933 and is an SLR or Single Lens Reflex camera utilizing the 127 size film made by Ihagee in Dresden, Germany. The Ihagee company has a very long history and well known in the photographic community for its cameras and accessories. Here is one of the best websites about the company and cameras. Let me tell you a little about the company before I get more into the camera.

The Company

The company started as Industrie- und Handelsgesellschaft in Dresden, Germany. Johan Steenbergen, a Dutchman, started it in 1912. The name changed to Ihagee due to the German pronunciation of IHG or "ee-hah-get." In the early years, the company was making wooden plate style cameras. You can see their 1914 German language catalog here. In 1918 they changed their name to Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen & Co and six woodworking employees producing products.

After WWI, they had some horrible financial problems, much as other German companies did. After the war, the company dissolves but reappears in the early 1920s, whereby in 1925, they are producing 1000 roll film cameras a day. In 1933 they introduced the first in this line of cameras known as the Exakta A. The camera has a cloth focal-plane shutter that had shutter speeds up to 1/1000 sec, which was extremely fast for its time. Even the Leica's of the same era only had shutter speeds to 1/500 sec.

During WWII, production ceased, and Steenbergen, a Dutch national, transferred ownership of the company to an excellent friend and the company employees due to the tensions between the Netherlands and Nazi Germany. After WWII, Dresden was part of the Soviet-occupied part of Germany. Because Ihagee was Dutch-owned, the East Germans didn't want to damage international relationships, so they produced their popular 35mm Kine Exakta. These were the first 35mm SLR cameras made, and the VP Exaktas paved the way for this prevalent model. It's the camera most people are familiar with or associate what Exakas are today.

 In 1950, Pentacon took over Ihagee and was producing cameras under their name. In 1959, Steenbergen returned to Frankfurt, Germany, and started Ihagee West, making some unsuccessful camera. Steenbergen died in 1967, and the company dissolved in 1976.

The Camera.

The VP Exakta or Standard Exakta took eight 6x4.5cm exposures on 127 size film. They have shutter speeds from 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200, 1/300, 1/600, and 1/1000 plus "B." The newer "B" model came out later the same year. They started calling the original model "A." The more recent "B" model incorporated extended shutter speeds and a self-timer. The extended shutter speeds were 1/10, 1/2, and seconds of exposure up to 12 seconds, giving the "B" model a shutter speed range from 12 sec. to 1/1000. There are also settings for B and Z. The Z setting is for "time" exposures on the shutter speed dial. I own this model of Exaktas. The later model "C" incorporated interchangeable backs for ground glass focus and film plates. It also had a film advance lever, and they also made the camera with a chrome finish.

Shutter speed dial on VP Exakta

Top view of VP Exakta

Slow shutter speed dial on VP Exakta

The camera's size is 6" wide by 2" tall by 2.5" deep, including the lens, and it weighs 28 oz. I enjoy the camera's trapezoid shape, which, to me, is one of the finer points. The cameras came with several different lenses. The camera I have has the more expensive Tessar f2,8 lens, similar in price to the Zeiss Xenar 2.9 lens. You can look through the 1933 German catalog here. The aperture range on my camera goes from f2.8-22 and is set by the knurled ring outside the lens. I also enjoy seeing the exposed helicoid when you focus the lens. It gives the camera a more industrial look. The helicoid on my camera freezes up and is next to impossible to move unless I put some lighter fluid on the helicoid to loosen it up, but that only lasts a few hours, then it freezes up again.

The focal plane shutter on my camera sometimes works, but it is mainly in the closed position. I can get it to fire at times, but winding the camera to advance the shutters is exceptionally challenging, so I mostly use the camera for display purposes. The film fits into a holder, which then fits into the camera body. To put the film spool on the holders, you unscrew the film holder's bottom and slide the film reel over the holder's center and screw the base back onto the holder before putting it back into the camera.

Conclusion:

I enjoy this camera and am looking into getting the camera repaired to shoot film through it. If any of you out there have had one repaired or know of a reputable repair facility in the US that can handle the repair, please let me know. I'd enjoy running through some 127 films through it to see how it operates, especially if I can get it to shoot for 12 seconds.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes from your schedule to read my post. If you have questions or concerns regarding this post or any of the others I've written, please email me. I'd love to hear from you.

 Until next week, please be safe and hope you have a joyous holiday.

Ferrania Rondine

As I've mentioned in some of the other blog posts, I have a real fondness for the odd, unusual, or colored cameras. When I first started collecting, I was fascinated with all the different colors camera manufacturers would make their cameras. Walking through an antique store or flea market, I thought it was boring to see the regular black box or folding camera unless the folding camera had red bellows. Some had exciting faces on them, but the blue, green, brown, tan, burgundy, and rose-colored cameras were the cameras that stood out. Even better if they came with the matching or, at times, contrasting color bellows.

Ferrenia Ronnie with Sport finder open.

This week's post is on one of the cameras in my collection that does come in different colors, blue, green, black, burgundy, and red, the beautifully designed Ferrania Rondine camera. I purchased my first Rondine at least 30 years ago, and while I don't have all the different colors (yet), I'm sure I will shortly.

The Company.

The story of Ferrania, an Italian company, is a fascinating one. Film Ferrania is making film today, but it different from when the original company started in 1882 as SIPE (Società Italiana Prodotti Esplodenti, "Italian Society of Explosive Products," an explosive manufacturer. During WWI, the company grew and built a new facility in Cairo, Montenotte, an area in Farrinia, Italy. At the time, the chemical properties of explosives and film were very similar. And in 1917, SIPE founded a new subsidiary, FILM (Fabbrica Italiana Lamine Milano) in Milano, which was a partnership with Pathe' Brothers of France, which effectively became the film manufacturer Farrania in 1923.

Farina purchased other companies in the 1930s like Cappelli and Tensi, and for a while, they were known as Farrania-Cappelli producing film plates but went back to Farrania in 1938. After WWII brought Farrania to the height of their business, and by 1964, 3M purchased the company. By 2008, Farania ceased to make a color film, and in 2012, they had laid off the majority of their workers. In 2013, FILM Farrinia s.r.l. purchased the manufacturing lines and brought back many of the laid-off workers. Much of the capital to start production came by crowdfunding, kickstart, and in 2017 started to produce black & white film, P30 Alpha. In 2019, the Farrania P30 film began selling into the North American market.

My three Farrinia Ronnie cameras, Green, Blue and Tan

The Camera

The Rondine, which means "Swallow" in Italian, has been soaring in my collection for many years. The Rondine started in 1948, at the height of Farrinia's success. These cameras are very well made box camera that produces 8-1 5/8" x 2 1/2" or 4cm x 6.5cm images onto 127 size film. They are a full metal construction body with some areas showing brushed metal and come with both a waist-level finder and a sports finder built in the camera. There were three different models made, Model A was focus-free, Model B had focus control, and Model BF had focus control and flash sync capability. The camera measures 3.25" tall without the sports finder extended and 4.5" tall with it opened, by 2.75" wide and 3.5" deep. The camera weighs 13.2 oz.

On top of the camera are the waist level finder and the pop-up sports finder. On the front of the camera is the Farrinia Linear 75 meniscus lens, 7.5cm or 75mm f8.8 lens. You can focus from 6' to infinity by rotating the lens to the desired distance noted outside the lens. The Rondine is designed for portrait mode shooting as there is no viewfinder to use in landscape mode. Under the lens is a switch set for "I" or 1/75th second exposure or "P" for a time exposure. Under the switch and the very bottom of the lens is the shutter release, which moves left-right.

The three that I own are all the Model BF with focus and flash capability. The colors I have are blue, green, and tan are all in good condition, with the green camera having a small piece of the leatherette missing under the lens. I see this missing piece on many Rondine cameras. I recently noticed that 127 film is being sold again, and need to run some film through this camera and bring them back to life.

Farrinia Rondine

Conclusion

The Farrania Rondine is a solidly built camera with some sleek Italian design. It seems like it classy camera, especially with all the different colors available. It's somewhat more advanced than the average non-focusing box camera and something you can quickly put in your pocket, although bulky, a nifty handheld camera.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to read my camera collecting blog. If you have questions, concerns, or want to leave a comment, please do so. I enjoy hearing from you.

 Until next week, please be safe.

No. 0 Graphic Camera

In my opinion, the No. 0 Graphic camera is one of the real sexy models made. It's a small yet sophisticated, high-quality design and somewhat technical that it advanced camera manufacturing forward. The camera is a fixed focus camera made by Folmer & Schwing, a division of Eastman Kodak at the time, manufactured between 1909 and 1926.

Graphic No.0 Camera & Case

The Company

Folmer & Schwing, Mfg. Co. first started as a gas lamp manufacturing company. The company was started in 1887 by William F. Folmer and William E. Schwing. When the decline of gas lamp sales occurred in the 1890s, Folmer & Schwing moved into Bicycle and camera manufacturing. Their cameras first appeared in their 1896 catalog and their first Graphic camera in 1898, which you can see here. Mr. Folmer also introduced the photographic world to the very well-known Graflex cameras in 1898, known as the Graflex Reflex camera, a single lens and moving mirror (SLR). Looking at some of their later catalogs, it's interesting that there were so many bicycle-related cases, etc. You can see the No. 0 Graphic advertised here.

In 1905, Eastman Kodak purchased  Folmer & Schwing Mfg. Co., and up until 1926, they were a division of Eastman Kodak. In 1926 the U.S. government forced Kodak to divest its professional division due to the Sherman Anti Trust Act. With no one buying Folmer & Schwing, they became Graflex Inc., which was an independently owned company up until 1958. After 1958, the company had a few other owners and was officially closed in 1973.

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Top view of No. 0 Graphic camera

The Camera

Looking at the No. 0 Graphic, I like the intricacy of the top of the camera and the rest of the camera's simplicity. Looking at photos of the camera, I thought the camera would be larger than it is. The camera measures 5 1/4" wide by 3 3/4" tall, including the viewfinder, by 3 1/2" deep, and weighs 1 lb. 10.6 oz. without film. To open the lens, or I guess I should say to open the door to expose the lens as the lens is fixed focus, you press the thumb knob on the camera body's upper left as you face the lens. By pressing the knob back, the door to the lens opens. To close it. Press the button to the left of the lens, and the door closes. The camera has a Zeiss Kodak anastigmat lens, f6.3.

The camera uses a cloth focal-plane shutter system with shutter apertures (distances between shutter curtains) of 1/4, 3/4, and 1 1/2 inches. There is a tension regulator on the top of the camera that regulates the shutter speed and the shutter aperture used. There is a graph on the top of the camera showing what shutter speed the camera will fire at depending on the tension and shutter aperture used. Looking at the chart on the top of the No. 0 Graphic, the shutter speeds range from 1/10 to 1/500. Also on the top of the camera is the aperture setting, which varies from f6.3-f32. You move the pointer wheel to the desired setting.

The No. 0 Graphic takes six 1 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches on No. 0 F.P. Kodak roll film. Later the film was called Kodak 121 film, which you would load just like any roll film camera with the take-up spool on the right-hand side. To open the camera's back is simple, pinch the top and bottom springs and pull the camera back off. This method is similar to many of the Kodak Autographic cameras of this era.

 The camera also incorporates an exciting viewfinder system, which allows for discreet photo taking. There is a mirror in the viewfinder which can be placed in either a 45-degree or 90-degree position. The 45-degree position enables the photographer to view from a 90-degree position from your subject. What they call it deceptive angles camera. You can also open the mirror to 90 degrees making the mirror even with the viewing plane to point it forward towards the subject. In the manual, which you can see here.

The camera I own still has the camera strap on the side and the fitted camera case. While the No.0 Graphic I have is missing the leather on the lens door, it's something I overlook as I generally display it with the door open. My camera is serial number 26602, embossed on the camera's bottom, just behind the tripod socket.

No. 0 Graphic camera in the fitted case.

Conclusion

The No. 0 Graphic is a prized camera in my collection, especially with how complete the camera is. The shutter is a bit slow, and since 121 film is no longer available, I might want to see if possibly something like 127 size film might work. The camera is small, and I love the quality they put into the design and display on the camera's top.

 Thank you for taking some time from your busy schedules to look over this post, and I always love to hear from you. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this or any of the other cameras I've written about, please drop me a line.

 Until next week, please be safe.

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Mamiya Six II, Early Version

For the past few years, I've enjoyed shooting with older folding medium format cameras. These cameras are generally smaller and something I can fit into my pocket for easy transportation. They also use larger than 35mm film, so the ability to enlarge or crop the image gives more flexibility. Their lenses are somewhat flat in contrast, but I can change that after processing and digitizing the images. The Mamiya Six camera I have is one of the cameras I like to use often. There are some exciting features built into this camera that make the camera fun to use. The Mamiya Six was the first camera manufactured by Mamiya, and the camera I have, I believe, is the second version.

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My opened Mamiya Six camera.

The Company

Mamiya was started in May of 1940 by Mamiya Seiichi and Sugawara Tsunejirō in Toyko, Japan. The first and only camera they produced for eight years was the Mamiya Six, which incorporates a coupled rangefinder on a 6x6 camera that moves the film plane for focusing instead of the lens. Even though they only made one camera, Mamiya managed to grow and gain success throughout the wartime. By February 1944, Mamiya had up to 150 employees and had moved their manufacturing to a new facility. In March 1944, they also opened a second manufacturing facility that made and assembled their lenses. In October 1945, just a month after Japan's surrender, Mamiya was the first company to receive a substantial order, bringing them back to full production.

In 1947, Mamiya started to produce Stamina shutters and Neocon lenses. In 1950, the Setagaya plant became the company Setagaya Kōki K.K. making their shutters and lenses. The name Sekor that appears on most Mamiya lenses comes from Setagaya Kōki, with the r most likely for Renzu meaning lens. 

I should mention one item I have a real fondness for Mamiya cameras as I was an employee for Mamiya America for about six years during the early 2000s. Some of my fondest memories are working with the wonderful people at MAC Group (Mamiya America Corp.). Phase One purchased a 45% stake of Mamiya in 2009 that changed its dynamic, but they still make cameras and lenses under the Phase One name.

The Camera

Over the years the Mamiya Six was manufactured there have been many changes and modifications. To see some of the changes, you can look here. This is also not to be confused with the Mamiya 6 which was introduced in 1989. I believe the version I have is the Mamiya Six II because the strap eyelets are no longer on the camera as they were on the original models.  Looking at the camera, the first thing I noticed when I bought it was the camera has both a waist-level finder and an incorporated rangefinder, which you can see from the window on top of the camera. Just to the left of the waist level finder window is a small button to open the camera. Depress the button, and the lens extends downward. To me, it resembles the Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 530/16 in size and weight. The Mamiya Six I have is 4" tall by 5.5" wide and 2" deep unopened or 4.5" deep opened, and weighs 1lb 12.5 oz without the case or film.

The Mamiya Six I have has a 7.5cm (75mm) f3.5 K.O.L. Sola Special Anastigmat lens in an NKS-TOKIO shutter with speed from 1-200 & "B." The aperture setting range from f3.5-32. To change shutter speeds, you move the knurled ring on the outside of the lens to the desired shutter speed. There is also a knurled ring on the back of the lens are on the right side that allows you to change aperture settings. It's somewhat hidden and took me a minute to find it, but it's easy to change once found. The pin on the top of the shutter cocks the shutter. There is a self-timer on the bottom of the shutter, which has a red dot. On the top of the camera at the far right are the focus distance and a depth of field scale. My scale only goes to F8, which is standard on the early cameras. The Mamiya Six I have also arrived with a Mamiya Six Y-2 filter.

On the back of the Mamiya Six is the viewfinder window. To the right of that is a thumbwheel that focuses the camera. Looking through the viewfinder is the typical rangefinder for focusing the camera. Once the shutter is cocked and you depress the shutter button on top of the camera, a red window appears in the viewfinder letting the photographer they have taken a photo. Under the viewfinder and to the left is a switch with an arrow pointing to the left. Moving that switch to the left allows you to wind the film to the next frame and also takes the red warning out of the viewfinder. The frame counter is at the top of the camera. It's a small round window next to the film advance knob. On the back of the Mamiya Six is also a red window and cover, which you can see the film advance and stop at the next frame, which is automatic. 

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Close-up of lens & shutter on Mamiya Six camera.

Loading the film is a bit tricky. I always make sure my film counter is at number 1 before loading. Since the film plane moves for focusing, the pressure plate is a removable plate that slides into the film plane. You slide out the pressure plate. Load the film on the right side of the camera. Drag the leader through the slots where the pressure plate goes and wind onto the take-up spool. Slide back the pressure plate into place, and turn the advance knob until you see the starting arrow on the film leader. Close the back and with the rear window open, advance the film to number 1. Now the frame counter and the film frame number coincided with each other. Once you take a photo, slide the switch to remove the red warning label, unlocks the film advance, and wind to the next frame.

Photos

Here are a few quick shots I took walking around my neighborhood.

Conclusion

I enjoy using the Mamiya Six I have. I like the waist level finder, especially when I want to get the camera low to the ground. It's small for a medium format camera, the optics are good, and the aperture goes to F32, which I utilize when in the day time. The Mamiya Six is, in my opinion, a real keeper, especially when I want to put something in my pocket and shoot medium format.

 I appreciate you taking a few minutes to read this week's blog post. I enjoy hearing from you about your experiences with this or any other camera you have in your collection. Feel free to comment if you have a question or concerns regarding this or any other posts I've done.

 Until next week, be safe.

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Stylophot Camera

I have spent hours and hours looking through the many editions of McKeown's Camera Guides in my library as it is the "Holy Grail" of camera collecting & pricing books. I've been reading and collecting his books going back to 1984 and have many other camera collecting price books. Their 12th edition from 2005-2006 is a massive 1200 plus pages of cameras, camera companies, and prices. To this day, I still enjoy just thumbing through and have it on my desk. I don't use it for pricing as much anymore as there are more current ways to look up pricing online.

As I've mentioned in other posts regarding cameras I have in my collection, I'm attracted to them if they are odd, unusual, or colorful. The Stylophot made by Secam in France is just the item that truly catches my eye. It's similar in shape to a large fountain pen and even has a pocket clip just like fountain pens have, so you can clip it to your breast pocket and have it available whenever you need it. I didn't have much luck finding information on SECAM, the camera company, but I did find information on the designer.

Camera Designer

The designer of the Stylophot and many other cameras was Fritz Kaftanski. He has a pretty fascinating story. It's a story that involves many camera designs and the countries he lived in. He was born in 1899 in Essen, Germany. His parents were Giulio and Julie Kaftanski, of Jewish origin. During WWI, he worked for Deutsches Heer, analyzing the photos of the aerial reconnaissance in Berlin. In February 1927, he married Sybille Essen, and in November of the same year, he started Fotofex Kameras with financial help from his father in law. In 1934, Fritz began SIDA GmbH in Berlin.

In 1939 he escaped Germany and moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he started SIDA-FEX camera company. In 1945, he moved to France, where he was involved in FEX-INDO in Lyon in 1938, Kafka in Paris in 1945, and SECAM in 1955, where he designed and made the Stylophot camera. You can see more information on the cameras Fritz Kaftanski designed here.

Stylophot Camera with film, case, instruction manual, and more.

The Camera

I purchased my Stylophot several years ago, and it indeed was a complete kit which included the lens hood, case, box, instruction manual, warranty card, two rolls of film, 1-Plus-x, 1-Kodachrome, & film processing mailers. These all came from what I believe was their distribution company in the US, The Kimac Company, Old Greenwich Conn. The film boxes, processing mailers, and Instruction manual have The Kimac Company on them. I even found a version of the Stylophot camera called The Kimac Private Eye.

Stylophot camera instruction manual, front.

Stylophot camera instruction manual, rear.

Stylophot camera warranty card, front.

Stylophot camera warranty card, rear.

Stylophot camera film order form.

Stylophot camera film processing mailers.

The Stylophot was introduced in 1955 and is a subminiature camera that produces 18, 10x10mm images on 16mm film. This plastic camera measures 4.5" tall by 1.25" wide, including the pocket clip by 1.75" deep, including the lens hood. It's 1.5" deep without the lens hood. The mechanics of the camera appear very well made. There are many different variations on the Stylophot cameras, but all "resemble" a bulbous fountain pen, and all seem to work the same way. There's even a German version distributed by Kunis named Foto-Füller and a Lexus version with a snakeskin cover.

The camera has a fixed focus 27mm, f6.3 coated lens. The "standard version" has two aperture settings for Noir (black & white) F11 setting, or Color, which was F6.3. The aperture settings are under the lens itself. Looking through the viewfinder, if the color is orange, it means the camera is NOT read to shoot. Pulling up on the saw-toothed silver guide on the sides of the viewfinder cocks the shutter and takes the "orange" color away from the viewfinder, so you know it's OK to shoot your photograph. The shutter release is a silver trigger on the right side of the camera below the lens. The shutter speed is 1/50. Sliding in back down advances the film, and put the orange back in the viewfinder as your warning. The frame counter is on the front of the camera, just under the viewfinder window.

There is a sliding lever on the back to load the film. Sliding the lever up releases the cover and exposes where the film is loaded. The film travels from the top to the bottom cassette, as seen in the photos. The pocket clip is attached to the back too. Another oddity is the film cassettes. There is old tape on the outside, and I'm guessing you removed the tape to open the cassettes to load them from one cassette to the other. I haven't removed the tape as it's old and brittle, but I should buy some film to try it someday. There is a small threaded socket, so I imagine you could mount this on a tripod or stand if needed.

Conclusion.

The Stylophot is a unique camera in my collection. I never really had an affinity for the subminiature camera, but I'm guessing that 25% or more are smaller cameras looking through the collection. I enjoy all cameras and photo items. All you need to do is come into my office someday, and you'll know for sure my love for anything photographic.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to look over the post, and I would love to hear from you. If you have questions, concerns, or want to drop me a line about this camera or any other, let me know. If you have friends looking to sell cameras, give them my name, I'm always looking.

 Until next week, please be safe.

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R. F. Hunter, Gilbert Box Camera

The cameras that caught my eye early in my collecting years were mainly colored cameras. Red, blue, green, brown tan cameras were the cameras I enjoy. If they had the original color bellows, it was that much better, or If the cameras had some design, even better still. Then I started to add red bellows cameras, as well as the odd and unusual cameras. When I first got a look at the Gilbert Box camera, which had the name R. F. Hunter LTD. London, under the lens, I knew I needed to own one. I thought it was not only a great camera but close to a work of art and a mid-century masterpiece.

R.F. Hunter, Gilbert Box Camera with filter

Company Background

R. F. Hunter, LTD. London was an importing and distribution company which was initially located at 40 Doughty St., in central London, England. In their later days before going out of business, they were located at 51 Gray's Inn Road, London. They started in the early 1930s, mainly distributing cine projectors and cameras.

Their main claim to fame was Franke & Heidecke Rollei products in the UK in the 1930s. This was the first distribution of their products outside of Germany, mainly due to Cyril Hunter, the Managing Director of R. F. Hunter's close relationship with Herr Franke. The story goes that Herr Franke brought his son to the UK just before WWII and asked Cyril Hunter to watch him in the UK during the wartime. He did so but needed to report to the authorities frequently with his son.

After the war, Franke & Heidecke went back into full production, but licensing the UK's distribution was limited. It wasn't until 1950 that the country changed the licenses, and robust distribution could of the product started to flow freely. According to advertising for the Gilbert camera, R.F. Hunter introduced it in 1953.

The Camera

The brushed stainless steel body with lizard skin sides are what drew me to this camera. When I first saw it, I needed to have it for my collection, just for the camera's refined look, the shine, the color, and Lizard skin sides. It had everything someone like me coveted. It had it all. Once I bought it and received it and started to play with it, I knew I had a superb camera. The whole viewfinder rotates for vertical or horizontal photos. The camera has a double exposure lock, so you can't take multiple images on the same frame. It takes 8-6x9 negatives on 120 film.

The camera measures 4.5" tall by 3.5" wide by 5" deep, including the lens. The lens is an approximate 105mm lens with two aperture setting (Dull) F5.6 or (Sunny) F11. The aperture settings are controlled by lifting or depressing a tab on the camera's upper right, next to the viewfinder. There are two shutter speeds for taking photos (fast) 1/50 and (slow) 1/30, a tab on the camera's left side. My camera doesn't allow me to pull up the tab to get the "slow" settings, so mine is 1/50. There is another setting located on the shutter release of the camera. If you pull the shutter release away from the body, there s an option for "T" or time exposure if needed. Another oddity about this camera is on the side where you focus the lens. As you rotate the lens, there are settings for 8,12, or 20 feet. I wonder why this was in feet as opposed to meters? Was this made for the US market?

On the left side of the camera is the film advance knob, which also cock the shutter, preventing double exposure. Behind the film advance wheel is a liftable latch that holds the camera's body portion to the lens/shutter area. Lifting the latch and pulling the body away from the lens, opens the camera for film loading. The camera's back has a slight curve outwards to replicate the film plane's arc, and there's a window that opens/closes so the photographer can see the frame numbers pass by when advancing the film.

Looking at the top's rotating viewfinder, you can see the etched line for registering your image for vertical or horizontal photos. I prefer the etched lines instead of the cropped corners many other box cameras have. My camera also came with the yellow filter, which fits snuggly into the lens. Next to the shutter release is a couple of flash sync posts. The camera's bottom has a tripod socket in the middle of 3 legs that prevent the camera from sitting directly on a table or ledge, which keeps the bottom from getting scuffed up.

Images

I loaded the camera up with Ilford Delta 125, black and white film. I only wished I had a faster film to shoot as the day I went to shoot was very overcast, so the photos are a bit dark, but not too bad. These images are also unretouched and quickly scanned for the post.

Conclusion

I've enjoyed this camera for many years from afar as it was sitting with my other cameras, but I am happy that I took it off the shelf and took photos with it. To me, it's a beautiful camera. I love the design, the look, and the lizard skin coverings. It is a mid-century beauty that I intend to cherish for many more years for an almost seventy-year-old camera.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to look this over. I'd love to hear from you about your experience with the camera and if you've taken it out to use. If you have questions or comments about this or any of the other cameras I've written about, drop me a line. Until next week, please be safe.

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Tom Thumb Camera Radio

As I looked at some of the cameras on my shelf, I wonder what I wanted to write about in this week's blog. The Tom Thumb Camera Radio caught my eye and felt this would be a fun camera to tell you about. Like the Kowa Ramra, which I wrote about previously, this camera, radio combination, is an earlier version using tubes instead of transistors.

Front view, Tom Thumb Camera Radio

Company Background

Automatic Radio Manufacturing Company of Boston, MA. manufactured the Tom Thumb Camera Radio in 1948. They started in 1920 and continued making radios until 1957. The company made radios of wood, Bakelite, and two models of Catalin. They are well known for their line for Tom Thumb Radios, which in the 1930s were some of the smallest made during the time. Another funny thing about this particular camera radio combination is an almost identical item named the Cameradio produced by Universal Radio Manufacturing Company of Elmira, NY. The only difference I can see is the name of the camera and the company around the lens. I found an image of Cameradio on the Collectiblend website, which you can see here.

My Camera/Radio

My Tom Thumb Radio Camera measures 9.5" tall, including the radio knobs and camera finder on top by 4.5" wide, by 4.75" deep, including the front lens. It's relatively heavy, weighing 3 lb. 6 oz without the 2-"D" cells and Eveready 467 batteries needed to power the AM frequency radio. Suppose you factor in 10 oz for the "D" cell batteries and 12 oz for the 467 battery, that just under 5 pounds for the radio and camera.

The radio portion of the camera radio is a four-tube radio with a speaker on the unit's bottom front, hidden by the gold-colored grill. On top of the camera-radio is the on/off and volume knob on the left. The tuner knob is on the right. A 7" panel of the back comes off the camera radio by a screw on the bottom. Removing the back panel allows you to install the two "D" batteries along with the 67.5v 467 battery. The 467 battery attaches by a clip similar to a 9v battery, but just more massive, and fits in between the two "D" batteries, which you can see in the photos. Above the removable panel on the back of the camera is the AM tuner. The Camera Radio comes in a wooden box, covered with red crackle finish on the front and rear and tan coverings on the sides. There is also a thin plastic strap for carrying.

Built into the camera radio is a plastic, pseudo twin lens camera that takes 127 film. On the lens itself, it states f.57.5mm on the bottom and Maestar Lens on top. I'm guessing the camera has a fixed 75mm f5 Maestar lens. The camera radio also has an extremely simple spring shutter with two settings, "Inst." and "Time." Inst. is for regular shooting while "Time" is for long or time exposed photos. On top of the camera radio is the pull-up viewfinder. This nothing more than a couple of pieces of bent shiny metal that forms a waist-level finder. On the back of the one I own, it's stamped, "Pat Pend."

The camera portion and film loading is another oddity. Just above the front speaker is a hinge. If you pull the viewfinder portion forward, the camera's front pulls down and exposes its back. A screw holds on the back in the center, top area of the camera. You unscrew the screw and take the camera back off to load the 127 size film. Once loaded, push the top back into the radio portion, and it snaps back into place. There is no way to see the back of the camera until you pull the camera down. You'll need to do this to advance the film after each photo. Not the most convenient, but it works. The camera seems like a very "Novelty" style camera that I've seen with so many different names. I guess the camera manufactured by Utility Mfg Co. or a similar company.

If you're interested in the schematic and instructions, you can find them here.

Conclusion

I can imagine the people that bought this were families that wanted to listen to their favorite music while at the beach, camping, or at a family get together and had the convenience of a camera in the same place. The Tom Thumb Camera Radio appears to have been a very modern and futuristic product for the after World War II families.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read this post about a product of the future that didn't catch on. I'd love to hear from you about this or any of the other posts I have written. Until next week, please be safe.

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Tom Thumb Camera Radio with Viewfinder up.

No. 4 Screen Focus Kodak Camera

When I started to put this week's post together, it was on a different camera. I had the first 6x7cm camera picked, National Graflex. It was in excellent working condition, but when I went to load the camera with film, the shutter failed and needed to jump to a different camera. I had the No. 4 Screen Focus Kodak picked for next week, but all the best plans need a backup, and this is mine.

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Front view with film chamber up for focusing

Company Background

I find it fascinating that one of the largest companies in the history of photography, if not the largest at its height, didn't adapt to photography's future. I'm sure many of you know the story of Kodak and George Eastman, but researching the post, I found some pretty fascinating facts about the man and the company. Especially in the early part of the Kodak story.

George Eastman was born on July 12, 1854, in the small town of Waterville, NY. When he was four years old, the family moved to Rochester, NY, where his father started Eastman Commercial College. Tragically his father died, and the college failed. He had dropped out of high school to support the family and got his first job at 14.

When George was 24, he had planned on taking a trip to Santo Domingo when a friend told him he should document the journey. At the time (1878), the photographers would coat the wet plates themselves. He realized the amount of equipment needed to take on the trip was enormous, but this is where he fell in love with photography. He wanted to make the process more simplified and had read in the British Journal about people experimenting with gelatin emulsion. After working for almost three years trying to perfect this, by 1880, he invented a dry plate formula and the machine to produce them in quantities.

In 1883, Kodak shocked the industry when he introduces the first film on a roll. In 1888, the company introduced the first camera with a roll of film with enough exposures for 100 photos. The camera sold for $25.00 and would be returned to the company to have the film processed, prints made, and re-loaded with another roll for $10.00. If you want to read more about the man and the company, you can do so here.

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Film chamber down.

The Camera

The No. 4 Screen Focus Kodak is a very odd and unusual camera and produced between 1904-1910. According to records, there were only 4000 made. It's like having a roll film and 4x5 view camera in one camera. Well, that's pretty much what this camera is. It allows the photographer to load a roll of No. 123 film in the camera. Putting in the dark slide, swing the roll film up. You'd attach a focusing screen for focus, then swing the film back into place to take the photo. Another great thing about this camera is you'd get twelve 4x5 images on the roll of film. I believe it was competition for the Blair Focusing Weno Hawk-Eye introduced in 1902.

Here's a look at my camera. It measures 10.25" wide x 5.75" tall x 3.5" deep and weighs just under 4 lbs, 3 lb. 13.8oz to be exact, without film. My camera still has the handle attached, which is a nice feature. To open the front door, you press a concealed button on the top towards the camera's right side. Pinching the two locking grips just below the lens and sliding the beautiful red bellows onto the rosewood focus track is smooth. My camera has a rapid rectilinear lens in a Kodak automatic shutter. Just above the lens is a brilliant two-way finder with a bubble level next to it. There is also a knob that allows the rise or fall of the lens. On the side of the lens-bed is a critical focusing knob if you're using the ground glass.

A small button on the top towards the rear and the right allows the back to slide off, allowing the photographer to load the film. This is where the photographer would also attach the optional glass plate adapter. Mine doesn't have this, but I'm still looking to find one. Also, on the back of the film back is the red window to see the film numbers when you advance the film and the holder for the ground glass used for focusing.

Once you have the film loaded and the lens pulled out, you're ready to make the exposures. On top of the camera is a dark slide. Make sure it's in the camera. There is a little "L" bracket that holds it into place. On the right side of the camera, the bottom front corner is another concealed button that, when pressed, allows the film area to swing up over the camera. Pull out the ground glass, and attach it to the back of the camera via two small clips that allow you to slip it into place. Open the lens for focus. You could check the depth of field too by stopping down the lens. Close the lens. Now it's time to lower the film chamber. On the left side is a release that allows the film chamber to be lowered back into place. Set shutter speed, and aperture, pull the dark slide out, and expose the film. Then wind the film to the next frame via a knob on the top left. See, It's simple.

I wish I had images from this tremendous camera, but I don't have the glass plate holder, which I might be able to use film in or have the ability to find a roll of No. 123 film, which ended production in 1949.  

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Front view

I appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your day to look this post over. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this or any other I've posted. Until next week, please be safe.

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