Kodak 135 format 35mm Film
If you’re a frequent reader of this site, I have to imagine that you likely have a passing interest in the history of the stories behind the cameras I write about, after all, it is usually a major part of most posts here. I’ve always been fascinated with history. In…
This is a Signet 40 rangefinder camera made by the Eastman Kodak Company between the years 1956 and 1959. It was the successor to the earlier Signet 35 retaining it’s excellent triangular coincident image rangefinder, and improving upon it with a redesigned Bakelite and stamped metal body, a more flexible…
This is a Robot Junior (sometimes incorrectly called the Star Junior or Junior Star) made by the Robot Berning Company in Düsseldorf, Germany starting in 1954. The Junior was an economy version of the Robot Star released two years earlier which lacked a 90 degree right angle viewfinder, and rewind mechanism,…
This is a Super Paxette II BL 35mm rangefinder camera made by Carl Braun Kamera-Werke of Nuremburg, Germany starting in 1958. This was one of the last, and most advanced in Braun’s successful line of Paxette cameras dating back to the original Paxette I from 1950. This model has an…
These two Prakticas were made by VEB Pentacon as part of the 4th generation of the Praktica 35mm single lens reflex series between the years of 1963 and 1966. The model on the left is a model IV F, and the one on the right is a model V F. …
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…
This is a Mamiya Auto XTL, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera made by Mamiya Optical Co., Ltd. starting in 1971. It was the first in Mamiya’s short lived X-series and upon it’s release in April 1971, was the most advanced 35mm SLR camera in the world. It incorporated a large…
This is a Perfex Forty-Four 35mm rangefinder camera made by the Candid Camera Corporation in Chicago in 1939. The Forty-Four was the first in a series made by the Candid company until the early 1950s at which point the company out of business. Featuring an interchangeable screw mount with a…
This is a Petri Racer 35mm rangefinder camera made by Petri Camera K.K. starting in 1966. The Racer was a compact version of the larger 7 series but came with similar 6-element f/1.9 and f/2.8 lenses, and featured the company’s trademark “Green-O-Matic” system which increased contrast in the coincident image rangefinder. …
This week’s Keppler’s Vault is a “two-fer” offering two separate articles about the 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera, one from August 1957 and the other from February 1960. In the first article, Herbert Keppler and Arthur Kramer take a look at the state of Prism Reflexes and in the second,…
What is it? This is an ANSCO Super Regent 35mm folding rangefinder camera, made between the years 1955 and 1959 for ANSCO by AGFA Camera Werk in Munich, Germany. The Super Regent is a rebadged AGFA Super Solinette, but sold by ANSCO in the United States. Both the Super Solinette…
What is it? This is the Canon MC (short for Micro Compact), a compact fully automatic point and shoot 35mm camera released by Canon in April 1984. The MC was conceived as an ultra portable camera to compete with models like the Olympus XA series, except it added the convenience…
