Acro R- Marvel cameras

After trying to untangle the Ciro and Utility brands, I pulled a shy, unassuming camera off the shelf, only to realize I am still in the same quicksand.  This time it is a Marvel.

In my database, the Marvel model name is found on eleven cameras. Discounting the Hit,  Unis-Broutin and Wirgin, it leaves eight US-made cameras. Further ignoring the 19th-century Putnam and Scovill, which were the same camera, it leaves six modern-era models, some of which have common roots.

The Marvel brand was one of the Sears entry-level lines, where the box models were made by Ansco, a descendant of the above-mentioned Scovill, and the TLR was made by Ciro. That leaves the Marvel Sharpshooter, of which little is known, listed under Utility, and the camera on my desk, marked only Marvel, Chicago, ILL, USA. There is scant information about it; all I found is that it had a sister camera, the elusive Marvette. Not much about the manufacturer. Online searches suggest this camera is a Sears rebrand of the Acro R, but I didn’t find a listing under Sears.

So back to the Acro 35, which is identical to this Marvel. It is indeed a part of the Chicago Cluster brands, a bubbling cauldron of camera brands and models.  See more about the Chicago Cluster in the Utility Manufacturing Company on this site. The Acro is often confused with Arco, a long-defunct US cine camera maker, likely a Chicago Cluster fellow as well, and the Arco of Japan.

About the cluster, I wonder if production was held in different plants with different abilities and quality control. It would make sense if all cameras were churned out from the same production line, but looking at the individual cameras, there are differences in the finishes and seemingly the quality. The camera on my bench is an example of the poor implementation. It is not pretty, but that might be my sole opinion. It is absolutely dead, but that could be blamed upon the original owner. But the poor finishes can be attributed only to the camera maker.

The camera is styled like other so-called Candid Cameras of the time: a heavy body and a fully removable back, which seems to be in fashion. It uses #127 format, at 3x4cm half frame. By the features, it seems to have had high aspirations, which I don’t know if matured. A rule of thumb for assessing historical sales volume is to see how many are currently offered for sale, and here there are hardly any.

• The top, from right, has the uncoupled rangefinder dial, Prominent style; only at the Prominent is the lens coupled with the rangefinder. Here, you set the value received from the rangefinder on the lens distance dial. Next is an exposure calculator, and at the other end the pull-up, spring-loaded, winder knob. Note that the winder does not cock the shutter.
• At the back are two wound windows; the left is the rangefinder, vertically split, tiny and dim, as seen in other Spartus family cameras. The right is the composing viewer, easy(er) to use. The elongated window is an extinction meter, where it shows a line of numbers, and you set the exposure meter to the last number easily visible. See more on Candid Fifty-Five.  From there, use the top-mounted exposure calculator per the meter value.
• The back is fully removable by pulling a slider at the left. Two red lenses covered with a rotating disk are marked ‘A’ and ‘B’. The film is loaded at the right bay, so to get the correct sequence, bring the first number of the paperback to window ‘A’, then continue with the same number to window ‘B’. All that to allow half-frame exposure.
• Note that the default orientation is portrait.
• Inside is a standard issue of the Spartus family, two bays and an image mask.
• The front fascia has four windows. At the sides are the rangefinder windows; the elongated window is the extinction meter, and the larger square window is the viewer.
• At the lens assembly:
  • Closest to the body is the focusing dial; as said, set the distance per the reading on the rangefinder dial.
  • The proudly mounted lever is the shutter trigger, self cocking.
  • The shutter speed pointer and the aperture value pointer are roving over the front ring, easy to read. The lens assembly closely resembles the same on the Falcon F.
• Also borrowed from the Falcon is the folding brace under the lens, keeping the camera stable.

For the collector, it is not groundbreaking, special or outstanding. It is not a pretty or rare model, so it is a safe pass

Camera passport