2015 has come to an end. Like all years, it was a year of ups and downs. Sadly, this year had some pretty big downs. The biggest was the loss of my metal brother, Josh Watkins who lost his 10+ year battle with brain cancer. There’s a more proper medical…
This is a TL-Super 35mm SLR camera made by the Japanese camera company Yashica. In the 1950s and 60s, Yashica was well known for their successful line of TLRs and Rangefinder cameras, but in the 1960s, they also had a line of SLRs that used the same 42mm screw mount…
What is it? Both of these cameras are called the Kodak 35. At first glance, they don’t look much alike, but in reality they are examples of the same model, one from early in it’s life, and the other from near the end. The Kodak 35 was Kodak’s first US…
What is it? This is a Canon T50 35mm SLR film camera. It was the first in Canon’s T-series lineup which would be the last Canon SLRs to use the aging manual focus FD mount. The T50 was an entry level camera with full program mode auto exposure and almost no…
What is it? This is a Kodak Medalist rangefinder camera made in 1944 by the Eastman Kodak company out of Rochester, NY. This camera is considered by many to be the pinnacle of American camera manufacturing. Other highly regarded Kodak cameras were actually made in Germany, but not this one.…
What is it? This is a Leidolf Lordomat interchangeable lens 35mm rangefinder camera made by the Leidolf company out of Wetzlar, Germany around 1953. Wetzlar was home to Leitz who made the famous Leica camera. Leidolf originally started as a subcontractor of Leitz making microscopes and binoculars. Their foray into…
This is an Argus A2F, a 35mm scale focus camera made by the Argus Corporation of Ann Arbor, MI. It was part of the Argus A-series which were the very first American made cameras to use the new 135 format 35mm film. The A2F was the top of the line…
What is it? The AGFA Karat was a series of strut folding compact cameras made from the mid 1930s through the mid 50s. The earlier models used a unique type of Rapid film made by AGFA for this camera. It differed from Kodak’s 135 format 35mm in that the cassettes…
What is it? This is a Zorki 4 rangefinder made by Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ) in Moscow, Russia. The first Zorkis were built by KMZ in 1947 after the FED factory in Ukraine was damaged in WWII. These first Zorkis were near identical copies of the original FED rangefinder which itself was a…
What is it? This is a Nikon EM 35mm SLR camera, which is the Rodney Dangerfield of Nikon SLRs. It came out at a time when the amateur market was exploding and various companies were designing cameras catering to them. Nikon was known for high end pro-level cameras, and when this…
What is it? This an Argus Seventy-Five (originally called the Argoflex Seventy-Five) which is an inexpensive plastic bodied box camera made by Argus out of Ann Arbor, MI. Although it resembles a Twin Lens Reflex, it is still a box camera in that the camera has a fixed focus, and…
What is it? This is a Ciro-Flex Model D TLR made by the Ciro Corporation in Delaware, Ohio in the late 1940s. Originally based out of Detroit, MI, Ciro was a maker of low to mid level American made cameras that offered basic cameras at prices within reach of the average…
