east germany

Carl Zeiss Jena Werra

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Carl Zeiss Jena Werra

The Carl Zeiss Jena Werra is the very first model in a line of sleek 35mm viewfinder cameras produced by VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, Zeiss Ikon’s factory in the city of Jena where the company was originally founded in 1846. After the war, Zeiss Ikon’s assets were divided alongside Germany into east and west. While the company re-established itself as Zeiss Ikon AG in the western city of Stuttgart as the East German government took control and nationalized what remained in Dresden, the factory in Jena also split with much of the assembly line being transplanted to the town of Oberkochen.

Welta Penti II

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Welta Penti II

The Welta Penti II is a flamboyantly styled 35mm half-frame camera originally manufactured by Welta in the German town of Freital and, after the company became part of Pentacon, in their factory in the nearby city of Dresden. Confusingly, the Penti II has a cheaper, near-identical twin called the Penti I (with the only difference being the absence of the II’s selenium light meter) and both of them are successors to the original Welta Penti (which, to avoid confusion, may also referred to as the “Penti 0”). Like its siblings, the Penti II is designed for Agfa‘s Karat film cartridge as opposed to conventional 35mm film and also comes in a variety of colors including cream, teal, and maroon. As its glitzy appearance may suggest, these cameras were marketed primarily towards women with promotional materials depicting the shimmering Penti II alongside a set of jewelry and a pocketbook.

Certo Certo-phot

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Certo Certo-phot

The Certo Certo-phot is a simple medium format viewfinder camera debuted by Certo-Kamera-Werk in 1958. The first of Certo’s basic fixed-lens 120 models, the Certo-phot went on to become the basis for the Certina which has a new viewfinder assembly and a proper frame advance lever to replace the winding knob.

Certo Certina

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The Certo Certina (also sold by German retail giant Foto-Quelle as the Revue Junior) is a simple, fixed-lens medium format viewfinder camera introduced by Dresden-based Certo-Kamera-Werk in 1966. The Certina is heavily based on the Certo-phot of 1958 with the notable addition of a left-handed frame advance lever.

Agfa Parat-I

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The Agfa Parat-I is a fixed-lens half-frame 35mm cameras introduced by Agfa in 1963. There are a total of three nearly visually identical cameras released in 1963 that use the Parat name with a few key differences: the Parat-I (no meter), the Paramat (fixed shutter speed, automatic aperture control), and the Optima-Parat (automatic exposure system, different lens options).

Agfa Flexilette

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The Agfa Flexilette is an uncommon 35mm twin lens reflex camera introduced by Agfa in 1960 and only produced for about a year. Since the vast majority of twin lens reflex cameras are medium format like the Rolleicord, the Flexilette—along with its successor: the Optima Reflex—joins other oddballs like the Bolsey Model C as one of the only 35mm twin lens reflex cameras ever made.

Welta Penti

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Yashica Rapide (three-quarter view)

The Welta Penti is a stylish compact 35mm half-frame camera introduced by VEB Welta Kamera-Werke in the Dresden suburb of Freital, East Germany for use with Agfa‘s Karat film cartridge. Sometimes referred to as the Penti 0, this particular camera is the first of several Penti models made by Welta and—after Welta merged with other manufacturers like Zeiss Ikon and Altissa to form it—Pentacon. Like the vast majority of camera manufacturers based in Dresden, Welta became a state-run company after World War II as Germany split apart.

Altissa Box

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The Altissa Box is a simple but elegantly styled box camera introduced in 1951 by Altissa Camera Werk. One year after the launch of the Box, Altissa’s owner Berthold Altmann fled to West Germany leaving his company behind to be taken over by the East German government and turned into the state owned “VEB Altissa Camera Werk” with “VEB” being short for Volkseigener Betrieb or “people-owned enterprise.”

Agfa Optima 500

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The Agfa Optima 500 is the second-to-last model in Agfa‘s Optima line and is the direct descendant of the very first mass-produced camera ever to feature automatic exposure: the original Agfa Optima. The Optima 500 is also unique because it was released in 1964 during the corporate merger of Belgium’s Gevaert Photo-Producten N.V. and Germany’s Agfa AG. At the time, Agfa AG was owned by pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG which eventually upped it’s 50% stake in Agfa-Gevaert N.V. to 100% and controlled the company until 1999.