TLR

Ricoh Ricohmatic 44

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Ricoh Ricohmatic 44

The Ricoh Ricohmatic 44 is a compact twin lens reflex camera designed by the Riken Optical Company (now Ricoh) for 4x4cm exposures on 127 film. Like several of its contemporaries, the Ricohmatic 44’s color schemes (aside from this example’s grey-blue on beige, the camera also came in dark grey on beige and creme on beige) deviate from the standard black and silver palette in favor of something a bit more playful to set it apart from its larger, more serious 6x6cm siblings.

Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex IIa (855/16)

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Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex IIa

This Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex IIa, which was introduced in 1953, is the second of two mechanically equivalent but cosmetically different twin lens reflex cameras that share the exact same name and model number (855/16). The earlier Ikoflex IIa from 1950 featured a body which was a natural evolution of the original Ikoflex II while the later IIa has an original design that went on to become the foundation for the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex Favorit, the final model in the storied Ikoflex family.

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.

Spartus Spartaflex

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The Spartus Spartaflex is a medium format twin lens reflex manufactured by the Spartus Camera Corporation of Chicago. Although I found a print ad from the 1940s pricing this camera outfit at an incredulous $47.91 (well over $800 in today’s money), the Spartaflex is by no means a serious answer to the high-quality German TLRs (such as the Rolleicord IId) that had been dominating the market since the late ’20s.

Bolsey Model C

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The Bolsey Model C is a 35mm twin lens reflex camera based on the Bolsey Model B. While the Bolsey Corp. of America produced still cameras, its founder, Ukrainian-born Yakob Bogopolsky (who later changed his name to Jacques Bolsey) is also famous for having founded the cinema camera manufacturer Bolex while living in Switzerland. Once he moved to the United States at the beginning of World War II, Mr. Bolsey produced a series of conventional and aerial cameras for the federal government.

Seagull 4A

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The Seagull 4A is a twin lens reflex camera introduced in 1968 by the Shanghai Seagull Camera Ltd and purportedly manufactured to the present day. The Seagull 4A is considered to be a Rolleiflex copy (the premium version of the Rolleicord) and many Chinese photographers in the ’60s and ’70s regarded it as a professional-grade camera although much of that is probably due to its hefty professional-grade price at the time.

Franke & Heidecke Rolleicord IId

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The Franke & Heidecke Rolleicord IId was introduced in 1947 as the latest edition to the Rolleicord line, the more affordable version of the Rolleiflex line of premium TLRs. TLRs or Twin Lens Reflex cameras are uniquely equipped with two lenses that do different jobs: one is connected to the viewfinder for composing while the other one exposes the film and takes the photograph.