The Imperial Instant Load 900 is a simple viewfinder camera manufactured by the Imperial Camera Corporation of Chicago. When it debuted in 1963, the 900 was one of the first cameras designed to be used with Kodak’s 126 film cartridge which had been introduced just earlier that year.
The Toyoca Hit is a family of subminiature novelty cameras introduced by the company commonly known as “Toyoca,” a contraction of “Toyohashi” (the city in which they were based at the time) and “camera.” These tiny, inexpensive cameras became extremely popular in post-war Japan and abroad, causing dozens upon dozens of models to be manufactured by a wide variety of companies. One of the most successful of these was the Hit.
The Yashica Rapide (also sold as the “Rapid”) is a vertically oriented 35mm half-frame camera introduced by Yashica in 1961. The launch of the unusually styled Rapide completed Yashica’s entrance into all segments of that era’s consumer camera market with the exception of medium format SLRs. The only other camera that I know of that looks like the Rapide is the Taron Chic. However, since they were both introduced in 1961, it’s unclear as to who copied who or if there was indeed any intentional copying at all.
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.
The Kodak No. 2A Brownie Model B is a basic box camera made of thick, leatherette-covered cardboard introduced in 1911 by Eastman Kodak. The Model B is an early variation of the ubiquitous No. 2A Brownie which saw a production run from 1907 to 1933 with millions of units. Eventually, later versions of the No. 2A Brownie featured bodies made of aluminum instead of cardboard and saw the camera available in a variety of different colors.
The Hasselblad 500 C/M is a medium format single lens reflex camera introduced in 1970 by Victor Hasselblad AB in Göteborg, Sweden. This model is one of the later models in Hasselblad’s V-System, a wildly popular camera system that boasts a wide variety of modular parts like viewfinders, film backs, cranks, and, of course, lenses. The 500 C/M is based on the original 500 C from the late 1950s: the first of many modified Hasselblad cameras to be taken into space by NASA astronauts.
The Franka Rolfix Jr. is a medium format folding camera introduced in 1951 by Franka-Kamerawerk in Bayreuth, then part of the American Zone of Allied-Occupied Germany. Founded in 1909 by husband and wife team Franz and Leoni Vyskocil, Franka produced consumer cameras, many of them on behalf of other brands both in Germany and abroad. Designed to be the cheaper alternative to the normal Rolfix by being equipped with slower lenses and shutter assemblies, the Rolfix Jr. was debuted by Franka near the height of its success, about a decade before the company was purchased by the German manufacturer Wirgin.
The Ricoh Singlex TLS is an MMM (metal, mechanical, manual) single lens reflex camera introduced by Ricoh in 1967. In addition to selling this camera under the Ricoh name, it was also rebranded for sale in France as the Interflex 7L5 and in the United States as the Sears TLS and the K-Mart Focal TLX at their respective discount department stores.
The Ansco Karomat (also known as the Agfa Karat 36 and Agfa Karomat 36) is a 35mm rangefinder camera built by Agfa and introduced in 1951 by Ansco. Although based on Agfa’s original Karat which was designed to use the precursor to Agfa’s proprietary 35mm Rapid Film cartridge, the Karomat actually uses today’s standard Kodak 35mm cassette.
The PowerShovel Demekin Fisheye is a tiny, fisheye lens-equipped camera designed by PowerShovel, Ltd. for the 110 film cartridge. PowerShovel, also known as SuperHeadz was founded in the year 2000 by Hideki Omori after he successfully introduced plastic Russian cameras to Japan. Such cameras were cheaply made and often technically flawed but, much like the Lomography movement that swept through the Western world at roughly the same time, these “toy cameras” gained popularity in Japan through the interesting and unusual effects that their plastic lenses and light leaks often had on images.
The Yashica Auto Focus Motor (also known as the Yashica 5-Star Auto Focus Motor) is a compact viewfinder camera with autofocus introduced by Yashica in 1981. Yashica underwent many changes during the Auto Focus Motor’s three year production life including being bought out by Kyocera and the beginning of Yashica’s departure from the consumer SLR market to focus on budget point and shoot cameras.
The Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor (56/2) is a well-built and relatively advanced box camera (regarded by some as “the king of box cameras”) introduced by Zeiss Ikon shortly after the end of World War II and the subsequent division of Germany. The Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor line is a continuation of the original Box Tengor series manufactured by Goerz before it merged with ICA, Ernemann and Contessa-Nettel to form Zeiss Ikon in 1926. The 56/2 is the final camera to bear the Box Tengor name.
The Graflex Crown Graphic (also known as the Graflex Pacemaker Crown Graphic) is a large format press camera introduced by Graflex Inc. in 1947. The lesser known Crown Graphic is commonly mistaken for the Graflex Speed Graphic which is often regarded as the most famous press camera of all time. The mistake is easy to make, however, since the two cameras are identical apart from an additional focal plane shutter on the Speed.
The LOMO Smena Symbol is a simple 35mm viewfinder camera introduced by LOMO in 1970. The Symbol belongs to the long-lived Smena (Russian for “relay” or “young generation”) line of cameras that were manufactured by three different Soviet factories (MMZ, GOMZ, and lastly, LOMO) from 1939 until the mid 1990s, effectively outlasting the Soviet Union itself. Smenas like the Symbol, 8M, and the 2 are mostly made of plastic and were purposely designed to be inexpensive.
The Canon FT QL is a manual, mechanical single lens reflex camera introduced by Canon in 1966 and is also the first Canon camera to feature TTL (through the lens) metering. The FT QL belongs to the family of SLRs that were designed around Canon’s short-lived FL breech-lock lens mount which lasted from 1964 until the the FD Mount was introduced in 1970. The FT is very similar to its two older brothers: the FX and the FP with the only real difference being the FX’s lack of TTL metering and the FP’s complete lack of integrated light meter. Also included in this family is the unusual Canon Pellix, the first of only a handful of cameras in history to use a fixed translucent pellicle mirror until the concept was resurrected by Sony in 2010 with its Alpha SLT series. The “QL” designation introduced by the Canon FT QL stands for “Quick Load” which denotes the inclusion of a spring-loaded hinge that assists in the loading of 35mm film. This quick loading system can also be found on other Canon models such as the Canonet QL17 G-III.
The Ernemann Bob 00 is a multi-format folding camera introduced in 1914 by Ernemann-Werke AG. Founded by Heinrich Ernemann in 1889, Ernemann produced both still and cinema cameras as well as film projectors. After its defeat in the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay 132 billion marks in reparations (about 442 billion USD in today’s economy, a mind-blowing sum they spent nearly a century repaying) which laid waste to their national economy. The German camera industry was not spared during this period of hyperinflation and Ernemann was forced to merge with three other companies (ICA, Goerz, and Contessa-Nettel) to form Zeiss Ikon.
The Spartus Six Twenty is a box camera dressed up as a TLR introduced in 1940 by the Spartus Camera Corporation of Chicago. The Six Twenty—so named because it takes 620 format film—is what’s called a “psuedo TLR” which means that it looks like legitimate TLR at a glance but is technically a box camera because the lenses do not focus in tandem (unlike its cousin, the Spartus Spartaflex which has a coupled focusing system). In fact, the lenses on the Six Twenty can’t really be focused at all.
The Argus A is a simple viewfinder camera introduced by Argus in 1936 that played a significant role in popularizing the use of 35mm film in the United States. Although it was already gaining traction in the United States thanks to Kodak and their Retina series of cameras, it took the Argus A’s relative affordability at $12.50 (about $220 in today’s money) to truly bring 35mm film to the masses, sparking a dramatic change in the landscape of consumer photography in America as well as the rest of the world.
The Nikon Pronea S is a fully automatic single lens reflex camera designed for the Advanced Photo System (APS) film cartridge. The now discontinued APS film format was launched in 1996, features an automatically loading cartridge aimed at photographers who were willing to trade a smaller frame size for a hassle-free film loading procedure, and was primarily sold by Kodak as Advantix and Fujifilm as Nexia. APS film had the misfortune of competing directly with a fledgling digital photography market which eventually overtook and completely overwhelmed it. Digital cameras had all but annihilated the APS film market by 2001 but it somehow managed to stagger on until it was officially discontinued in 2011.
The Kodak Motormatic 35F is an automatic viewfinder camera introduced in 1962. The Automatic/Motormatic series cameras were the very first automatic exposure 35mm cameras to be made by Kodak and also the very last of their 35mm cameras to be produced in the United States. As their names might suggest, Motormatic cameras are motor-driven while the Automatic range have a manual film advance. Motormatics also have more shutter speeds.
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.”
The Minolta-16 MG-S is a subminiature “spy” camera made for use with Minolta’s proprietary 16mm film cartridge and introduced by the Japanese camera company in 1970. Ten different Minolta-16 variants were made during its nearly 20 year (1955-1974) production run. The MG-S was the ninth model and widely considered to be the most advanced of them all.
The Yashica EZ-Matic Electronic is a viewfinder camera made for the 126 film cartridge introduced by Yashica in 1969. Its older brother, the original Yashica EZ-Matic, is pretty high-end for what it is with two exposure modes (automatic and aperture priority), accessory shoe, and self-timer. Unfortunately, this EZ-Matic Electronic variant has none of those things.
The Rollei XF 35 was released in 1974 by Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke as the latest addition to the Rollei 35 series which, at the time, were the world’s smallest full-frame 35mm cameras. Compact full-frame cameras like the Rollei 35 series and the Olympus XA pretty much single-handedly destroyed the half-frame 35mm market as they proved that a full-frame camera could be made just as small without compromising image quality.
The Univex Mercury CC is a half-frame viewfinder camera introduced by the Universal Camera Corporation of New York shortly before the beginning of World War II. Founded by individuals with no experience whatsoever in the photography business, Universal created cameras that were innovative but still simple enough to efficiently mass produce. Because they were only usable with proprietary film cartridges, Universal sold their cameras at very low prices, causing the brand to become synonymous in the United States with quirkiness and affordability.
