The following article was written by Dr. Jeffrey Alexander as his masters thesis while he was studying at the University of British Columbia in 2001. It originally appeared on the university’s web portal in text format but has since transformed into a PDF only that can be read in the…
Prologue Throughout a large portion of the 20th century, the photographic industry was heavily tied to Germany. In addition to cameras and lenses, Germany was also tied to a whole list of atrocities committed by it’s government and the Nazi regime. This is a topic that is very sensitive to…
I realize saying Happy New Year on January 28th is a bit late, but as you may (or may not have) noticed, I haven’t published anything new since December 18th. My hiatus was due to a well needed break from the site to enjoy the holidays and catch up on…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex Super, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex leaf shutter camera made by Zeiss-Ikon AG in Stuttgart, West Germany between the years 1959 and 1962. It was part of the long lived Contaflex series that saw many variations between the original Contaflex I in 1953 all the…
For much of the world, Christmas is a time spent with family, decorating trees, baking cookies, and watching corny movies. For those of us with one (or hundreds) of cameras, we spend at least a portion of this season taking pictures of it. Yet, photographing holiday or wintry scenes isn’t…
This is a Penti II originally made by VEB Welta-Kamera-Werk in East Germany between the years 1961 and 1977. Welta would be absorbed into VEB Pentacon in 1964 while this camera was still in production, so many were made after the merger and were then called the Pentacon Penti II. The…
One of the thrills of shooting old cameras is stepping back in time and experiencing what a photographer likely experienced years ago before the widespread use of plastics, LCD screens, and microprocessors. Cameras were made of metal and glass, and used springs, gears, and levers to accomplish the same task…
This is a Fujica 35 Automagic, a 35mm scale focus camera made by Fuji Photo Film Co. LTD starting in 1961. Although an entry level camera, it was one of the very first Japanese made 35mm cameras with automatic exposure. Using the built in selenium “electric eye” below the lens,…
This is a Voigtländer Vitessa L, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Voigtländer AG Braunschweig between the years of 1954 and 1957. This model was an update to the original Vitessa A from 1950 with the addition of an uncoupled selenium light meter and all new LVS (Light Value System) scale. The…
This is a Voigtländer Superb, a twin lens reflex camera made by Voigtländer AG Braunschweig between the years of 1933 and 1939. The Superb was Voigtländer’s first and what would end up being the company’s only true TLR camera they would ever make. It was designed to compete with the Franke &…
This is a Voigtländer Bessamatic Deluxe made by Voigtländer AG Braunschweig between the years of 1962 and 1967. It is a slightly improved model to the original Bessamatic from 1959 with the addition of a T-shaped “Judas window” above the exposure meter which allows both aperture and shutter speed settings to be…
This is a Voigtländer Prominent 35mm rangefinder camera made by Voigtländer AG Braunschweig between the years 1952 and 1958. At the time of it’s release, it was Voigtländer’s top of the line 35mm camera and was designed to compete with Ernst Leitz’s Leica series. It has an interchangeable bayonet lens mount, a coincident…
