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…
This is a Konica F, a 35mm SLR produced by Konishiroku Photo Industries, Ltd in Tokyo, Japan in 1960. The Konica F was the very first 35mm Konica SLR and was a very ambitious camera with features never before seen on another 35mm SLR before. It was intended to compete…
This is a Keystone K1020 SLR, a single lens reflex camera sold by Keystone Camera Company, Inc, of Boston, Massachusetts starting in 1966. Although branded and sold by an American company, the camera was made in Japan, most likely by Mamiya. The K1020 uses Kodak’s Instamatic type 126 instant-load cassettes…
This is an Adox 300, a 35mm viewfinder camera produced by Dr. C. Schleussner Fotowerke GmbH in Frankfurt, West Germany starting in 1956. The Adox 300 is a pretty unique camera in that it supported interchangeable magazine film backs, a feature not commonly found on 35mm cameras. In the Adox…
This is an Olympus FTL, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera produced by Olympus Optical Company of Japan in 1971. The FTL was Olympus’s first full frame 35mm SLR and was released a year before the Olympus OM-1. Unlike the later OM-series, the FTL uses a 42mm screw mount with…
This is Toko Tone, a subminiature camera made by Tōyō Kōki Seisakusho in Tokyo, Japan starting in 1948. The Toko Tone is part of a class of cameras often called “Midget” cameras, named after a simpler model called the Misuzu Shōkai originally released in 1937. All “Midget” style cameras use…
This is an Argus A-Four, a 35mm viewfinder camera produced by Argus in Ann Arbor, Michigan between the years 1953 and 1956. The A-Four would have taken place in Argus’s lineup formerly occupied by the A-series with the last model being discontinued in 1951. It was an all new camera…
This is an Ansco / GAF Memo II Automatic, a 35mm half frame camera produced by Ricoh in 1964 for Ansco of Binghamton, New York. The Memo II Automatic is a name variant of the Ricoh Auto Half which had been in production since 1963, and is also an updated…
This is a Beacon Two-Twenty Five, an all-plastic medium format camera made by Whitehouse Products Inc, in Brooklyn, New York, USA between the years 1950 and 1958. It is a simple camera with a single speed shutter, fixed focus, collapsible doublet lens, and an aperture setting for Dull and Bright…
