This is the Asahi Pentax, the very first 35mm SLR produced by the Asahi Optical Company of Japan to use a pentaprism viewfinder. The camera is often referred to as the Pentax AP by collectors even though that was never officially documented. The other camera is the Asahi Pentax K,…
This is an Alpa Alnea Model 7 made by Pignons S.A. of Switzerland starting in 1952. It was the 4th and most advanced model of the second generation of Alpa cameras. Featuring both a 45 degree angled reflex viewfinder and a coupled coincident image rangefinder with selectable 50, 90, and…
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 an ANSCO Automatic Reflex 3.5 twin lens reflex camera, made by ANSCO of Binghamton, NY starting in 1947. It shot 6cm x 6cm images on 120 format roll film and had a feature set that compared favorably to top tier TLRs from Germany. The ANSCO Reflex was an…
This is a Nikon M 35mm rangefinder made by Nippon Kogaku starting in 1949. The Nikon M was the followup to the original Nikon rangefinder from a year earlier and was produced in very limited numbers. The “M” increased the exposed image size to 24mm x 34mm and increased frame…
What is it? This is a Praktina FX 35mm single lens reflex camera made by Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz (KW) between the years of 1953 and 1958. The Prakina and all of its variants are historically significant cameras, being the first modern 35mm SLR camera aimed at the professional photographer. It had…
This is a Pentacon FM 35mm SLR made by VEB Zeiss-Ikon Dresden in East Germany between the years of 1958 and 1961. This camera is part of the Contax S series which debuted in 1949 as the first German built SLR camera with a fixed pentaprism viewfinder. It is identical…
This is an Edixa Reflex-C 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera made in West Germany by the Wirgin camera company. Wirgin had a line of 35mm rangefinder cameras also known as the Edixa, but this line of Edixa SLRs was in production under many different submodels from 1954 to around 1971. The…
What is it? This is a Kodak Monitor Six-20 folding camera made in the USA by the Eastman-Kodak company. This was one of the last medium format folding cameras made by Kodak, and is loaded with features including a 9-speed shutter and well built lens. It is the spiritual successor to the…
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.…
