This is a Canon VT de luxe, a 35mm rangefinder made by Canon in Tokyo, Japan starting in May 1957. There were three different versions of the Canon VT de luxe, all with subtle changes and identified internally as the VTD, VTDZ, and VTDM. This camera is the first version,…
This is an Epson R-D1, a 6.1 Megapixel APS-C digital rangefinder camera designed by the Seiko Epson Corporation and built by Cosina of Japan between the years 2004 and 2007. The Epson R-D1 is historically significant as it was the first ever digital rangefinder camera and features a body with…
This is an Inflex, a compact twin lens box camera produced by Paul Vieth AG in Solingen, West Germany around 1950. The Inflex produces twelve 4cm x 4cm images on a roll of 127 format film. The Inflex has a crackle paint finish Bakelite body with mostly metal controls and…
This is a Yasuhara T981, a 35mm rangefinder camera created by Yasuhara Co. Ltd. but built in Jiangxi, China by the Phenix Optical Company. The Yasuhara T981 was conceived by an ex Kyocera employee named Shin Yasuhara who created his own company with the intent of building cameras. The Yasuhara…
This is a Samoca 35 III, a 35mm viewfinder camera made by Sanei Sangyō K.K. in Japan starting in 1955. The Samoca 35 III was part of a long running Samoca family of cameras made from 1952 to about 1961. All Samoca cameras were simple. but well built mid-level cameras…
This is a Peggy II, a 35mm rangefinder camera produced by Gustav Adolf Krauss in Stuttgart, Germany starting in 1932. Two versions of the Peggy were made, the Peggy II upgrades the base model with a coupled rangefinder. The Peggy has a collapsible lens and shutter mounted to a metal…
This is LOMO 135BC, a 35mm scale focus camera made by Leningradskoe Optiko Mechanichesckoe Objedinenie, or LOMO for short, between the years 1975 and 1982 in the former Soviet city of Leningrad. The 135BC has a design that is loosely inspired by the Rollei 35, but adding a wind up…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Hologon Ultrawide a 35mm camera made by Zeiss-Ikon AG in Stuttgart, West Germany starting in 1970. The Hologon Ultrawide is unusual as the camera itself is nothing more than a vessel to use the Carl Zeiss Hologon 15mm f/8 lens on a body other than the…
The 1950s camera industry was known for two major events, the first was the rise of Japan’s dominance in the market. What was just a curiosity in the years before, during, and immediately after World War II, by the end of the 1950s Japanese cameras were outselling many German models…
This is a Minolta SR-2, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera produced by Chiyoda Kogaku Seiko K.K. in 1958. The Minolta SR-2 was the very first SLR released by Chiyoda Kogaku, launching an era of highly successful SR-mount SLRs that would last through the 1980s. Despite being the first ever…
This is a Mamiya 6 Model V, a medium format roll film folding camera, produced by Mamiya Optical Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan between the years 1953 and 1955. The Mamiya 6 series dates back to 1940 and received continual updates throughout it’s life, this model being the first with…
Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of collecting and shooting cameras is the quality of lenses that have been around for well over a century. The formulas used in lenses we use today were perfected around the turn of the last century. Perhaps the most famous lens design of…
