United States of America

United States of America

Ansco Anscoflex

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The Ansco Anscoflex is an unusual pseudo TLR camera introduced in 1954 by Ansco. The Anscoflex (and Anscoflex II) was crafted by the world-renowned French-American industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the same man whose portfolio includes the iconic Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, several steam locomotives for the Pennsylvania Railroad, various cars like the Studebaker Avanti, Sunbeam Alpine, and Hillman Minx, the interiors of the supersonic Concorde and NASA’s Skylab space station, as well as the livery for Air Force One. Small wonder he was referred to by the press as “The Father of Industrial Design.”

Kodak Hawkeye

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The Kodak Hawkeye (also commonly sold as the “Baby Hawkeye,” “Hawkeye Ace,” and “Hawkeye Ace De Luxe” in several slight variations) is a simple box camera made of leatherette-covered cardboard with a metal face. The Hawkeye was manufactured by Kodak Ltd., London—the British subsidiary of Eastman Kodak—and appears to have only been available in select European markets when it was introduced in 1936.

Univex Model AF-4

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The Univex Model AF-4 is a compact folding camera introduced by the Universal Camera Corporation of New York in 1938. Amazingly, the founders of Universal had no previous experience in the photography market but still managed to create innovative yet easily mass-produced cameras. Much of Universal’s success came from their business plan to sell cameras at very low prices and rely on the sales of their proprietary film cartridge.

Acro Model R

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The Acro Model R is a relatively obscure World War II era rangefinder camera introduced in 1940 by the Acro Scientific Products Company of Chicago. Like Spartus, Acro was part of the “Chicago Cluster,” a group of Chicago-based camera brands that produced a series of nearly identical Bakelite cameras. However, unlike the vast majority of those cameras that were designed to be simple and cheaply made, the R is an upscale model for advanced amateurs.

Ansco Memo

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The Ansco Memo is an unusual 35mm half-frame box camera introduced in 1927 by Ansco. The “Memo” name has been used by Ansco and Agfa Ansco on several different 35mm models (for example the Memo II Automatic) over the years which can sometimes lead to confusion. To combat this, collectors will usually differentiate these models by including the year of introduction to avoid confusion. This particular model—which was the very first camera to bear the name—can also be referred to as the “Ansco Memo (1927 Type).”

Spartus 35

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The Spartus 35 is the direct successor to the original Spartus 35F. After Herold bought out Spartus in 1951, it decided to update the 35 (which was modeled after the Argus A), creating the design you see above which was probably based loosely on the Kodak Pony.

Kodak Instamatic 500

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The Kodak Instamatic 500 is a high-end viewfinder camera designed for the 126 film cartridge and manufactured by Kodak AG—Eastman Kodak’s German branch—starting in 1964. The 500 is arguably the most well-built and highest quality fixed-lens camera in Kodak’s expansive Instamatic line but the title of flagship model belongs to the Instamatic Reflex, an interchangeable lens SLR system camera also built by Kodak AG.

Imperial Instant Load 900

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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.

Kodak No. 2A Brownie Model B

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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.

Ansco Karomat

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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.

Graflex Crown Graphic

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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.

Spartus Six Twenty

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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.

Argus A

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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.

Kodak Motormatic 35F

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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.

Univex Mercury CC

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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.

Polaroid Spectra

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The Polaroid Spectra is the first model in the Spectra System line (also known as “Image System” and the Minolta Instant Pro in overseas markets) of instant cameras introduced by Polaroid in 1986. With this new line of cameras came a new line of instant film named Spectra/Image/1200 film which, apart from producing rectangular instead of square images, is more or less identical to existing 600 series film.

Ansco Memo II Automatic

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The Ansco Memo II Automatic is a 35mm half-frame camera introduced in 1967 by Ansco. The Memo II Automatic and the Ansco Memo Automatic from 1963 are actually the same exact camera, just re-released to reflect the name change from Ansco to General Aniline & Film (GAF). In turn, both cameras are rebadged versions of the Ricoh Auto Half and were manufactured by Ricoh for sale by Ansco. The Memo Automatic from 1963 is not to be confused with the original Ansco Memo, a 35mm half-frame box camera from 1927.

Kodak EasyShare V570

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The Kodak EasyShare V570 is a high-end compact digital camera introduced by Kodak in 2006 and the first ever dual lens digital camera to see production. With its classic lines and minimalist design, the V570 received a gold medal at the 2006 Industrial Design Excellence Award and went on to spawn two more dual lens digital cameras: the Kodak V610 and the V705.

Kodak No. 2A Folding Pocket Brownie

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The Kodak No. 2A Folding Pocket Brownie is an early folding camera introduced by Eastman Kodak Company in 1910 at a price of $7 (about $170 in today’s money). The No. 2A is designed for the now defunct 116 film format which is very similar to 616 but with wider spool flanges. While we may think it’s a bit strange for Kodak to name this brick-sized camera a “Pocket” Brownie, it was considerably more portable than many of its contemporaries.

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.

Nishika 3-D N8000

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The Nishika 3-D N8000 is a lenticular stereo camera produced by Nishika Optical Systems based in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada. The N8000 is heavily based on the tongue twisted Nimstec Nimslo which was developed and produced in the 1980s by Nimstec until it went bankrupt and was bought out by Nishika. Nishika itself went belly up in the 1990s when it was investigated by the United States Federal Trade Commission for using a telemarketing scam to unload cameras on a gullible American public.

Kodak Hawkeye No. 2 Model C

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The Kodak Hawkeye No. 2 Model C is a very basic box camera made of thick, leatherette-covered cardboard introduced in the mid 1920s. Interestingly, the Hawkeye, a name so commonly associated with Kodak, was actually originally manufactured by a little known outfit called the Boston Camera Company. The Boston Camera Company was bought out by the Blair Camera Company in 1890 which was then in turn bought by the rapidly expanding Eastman Kodak Company nearly a decade later in 1899.

Polaroid Land Model 95A

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The Polaroid Land Model 95A is a variant of the Model 95, the first of the flagship Land Cameras (named after Polaroid founder Edwin Land) and the very first practical instant film camera in history. Polaroid is synonymous with instant film and Edwin Land’s name adorned Polaroid’s most advanced instant cameras for well over 30 years until he finally retired from the company in 1982.

Kodak Jiffy Six 20

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When it was introduced, the Kodak Jiffy Six 20 was marketed by Eastman Kodak as the simplest, most user-friendly folding camera ever made. Up until that point, most folding cameras were of the same basic design (example: Kodak No. 3A Autographic). They were relatively difficult to handle, complex, and required users to manually unfold the camera and extend the lens in order to take photos. In the spirit of simplicity, the Jiffy boasts a simple two button operation. The first small metal button can be found on the film advance knob’s side of the camera and releases the front plate, causing the metal struts on either side to snap into place and automatically extend the lens. The second button is the shutter lever which can be found on the side of the front plate once extended.