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September 20, 2026

KMZ Narciss

KMZ Narciss camera Preamble Several lifetimes ago, I worked in the industrial cutting tools industry, and as in other trades, tales were passed down from generation to generation. One such legend was that the Americans were invited to a machine tool exhibition in Russia, so they sent a steel rod as thick as a human hair. Once the show ended,...

Categories KMZ/Mini SLR/USSR Comments: 0
September 11, 2026

GOMZ/LOMO Smena

GOMZ/LOMO Smena camera After celebrating the princes of the Soviet camera industry and praising the GOMZ/LOMO’s outstanding products, it is time to pay tribute to the millions of blue-collar cameras in the Smena line. GOMZ of Leningrad was the first camera maker in the Soviet Union, dating back to the 1930s Fotokor. It was temporarily named VOOMP and later LOMO, but...

Categories 35 mm/35mm half frame/GOMZ / LOMO/Rapid/USSR/Viewfinder Comments: 0
September 8, 2026

GOMZ/LOMO Voskhod

GOMZ/LOMO Voskhod camera Last week I wrote about the Sokol camera, which is the first Soviet model I appreciated and really liked. So today I picked up a senior sister, the LOMO Voskhod. The Voskhod is fifteen years older than the Sokol, and a far cry from the run-of-the-mill, mass-produced, lacklustre, and boring Soviet cameras. The maker, GOMZ/VOOMP/LOMO of St....

Categories 35 mm/GOMZ / LOMO/USSR/Viewfinder Comments: 0
September 3, 2026

GOMZ / LOMO Sokol

GOMZ / LOMO Sokol camera I pull out cameras for review shelf by shelf, so I now clear the compact viewfinders and rangefinders. All that, when I avoid the big boys’ cameras, say the Canon Canonet, Minolta Hi-Matic, Olympus 35 or Yashica Electro series; common to them is that each of the lines consists of a header name followed by...

Categories 35 mm/GOMZ / LOMO/Rangefinder/USSR Comments: 0
August 25, 2026

Acro R – Marvel cameras

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...

Categories 127/Rangefinder/Sears/USA Comments: 0
August 21, 2026

Utility Manufacturing Company Falcon cameras

Utility Manufacturing Company Falcon cameras Last week I wrote about the peculiar affair of the Ciro 35 camera, and I thought I was done with intertwining camera brands. It didn’t take long to prove me wrong.   Today’s camera is a Falcon by Utility Manufacturing Company, whose history leaves Ciro in the dust. It is a smorgasbord of brands and...

Categories 120/127/Medium Format/USA/Viewfinder Comments: 0
August 18, 2026

Teiho Optical Blitz 35

Teiho Optical Blitz 35 camera In the endless list of post-war Japanese camera startups, there are some names that had made a splash, and some rare as hen’s teeth. The camera on my desk today is one of the latter. Japan did not have a substantial camera industry prior to WWII. The push that had resulted in a couple of...

Categories 35 mm/Japan/Obscure/Rangefinder Comments: 0
August 16, 2026

Graflex / Ciro, Ciro 35

Graflex / Ciro, Ciro 35 The camera on my desk is a Ciro 35. On the face of it, writing about it should be a walk in the park, but there is more than that. There were cases where different companies sold cameras under the same model name; see Zeiss tributaries where the companies were amalgamated, but here it is...

Categories 35 mm/Candid Camera/Ciro/Graflex/Rangefinder/USA Comments: 0
July 26, 2026

Candid Camera Fifty Five

Candid Camera Perfex Fifty-Five Candid Camera family list Perfex Speed Perfex Forty-Four Perfex Fifty-Five   The two early models made by Candid Camera of America were not a stellar success. The first model, the Perfex Speed, was a unique, unorthodox device that defied most conventions in the camera world. Production lasted only a year, and it was replaced by a...

Categories 35 mm/Candid Camera/Rangefinder/USA Comments: 0
July 26, 2026

Candid Camera Forty Four

Candid Camera Perfex Forty-Four Candid Camera family list Perfex Speed Perfex Forty-Four Perfex Fifty-Five   The first camera by Candid Camera Corporation of America was the Perfex Speed of 1938. Hastily designed by outsiders to the trade, it ended as an exercise in how not to design a practical camera. As a mitigating note, the timing of its introduction was...

Categories 35 mm/Candid Camera/Rangefinder/USA Comments: 0

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