Cameras – Page 15 – Facts, notes and thoughts about vintage cameras and other trifle matters

November 11, 2023

AGFA Silette SLE

AGFA Silette SLE AGFA was the European equivalent of Kodak, supplying a full range of photography inputs, from chemicals to paper, film and cameras. Just like Kodak, they stopped short of progress v into the powerful SLR models, and in AGFA’s case, the few SLR models they sold were Japanese rebrands. The roots of AGFA go back to the 18th...

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November 10, 2023

Wirgin Edina / Edixa

Wirgin Edina / Edixa In the 1950s, camera makers turned towards the up-and-coming amateur user base, hobbyists who wanted a simple-to-use camera at a matching low cost. The manufacturers responded with cookie-cutter models, cheaply made, with no soul. At Wirgin, the famed Edinex line was long in the tooth, and the outstanding SLR model line was still on the drawing...

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November 8, 2023

Wirgin Edinex

Wirgin Edinex Preamble Every article about the Wirgin company begins with four German Jews, the Wirgin brothers, that fled the country once the Nazi party came to power, and when the war was over, they came back and got it again. I wonder. Wirgin, pronounced Virgin in German, is not a common Jewish name. Furthermore, four Jewish brothers would be...

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October 30, 2023

Eho Altissa Altix

Eho Altissa Altix Preamble Going through the German viewfinders shelf, I reached the Altix models, of which I have four. After looking at mid-past century boring cameras, the Altix models are a wave of fresh air. From my past articles, it is noticeable that I hold the East German cameras in low regard, on par with the Soviet models. That...

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October 29, 2023

Carl Braun Gloiette

Carl Braun Gloriette / Gloriette B Carl Braun was established as a machine parts manufacturer in 1906 in Nurnberg, Germany. Like many other machine shops, they seized the post-war market revival and branched into making cameras and slide projectors. They followed the usual path of evolving from box models through a few unremarkable Norca klapp models to viewfinders and rangefinders,...

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October 28, 2023

Beier Beirette

Beier Beirette While I work on the mid-last century German viewfinder models, I divert to the other side of the wall with the Beirette. Beier was a pioneer camera maker, established in 1923. Early models were klapp type; not many have survived these days. Several box models followed, as well as early Exakta styles 120 format SLR, the Beier-Flex models....

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October 27, 2023

Dacora Dignette

Dacora Dignette Established in 1946, the Dacora mainly made cheap cameras. In Europe, it sold under its name and made cameras for Porst, Ringfoto, Universa, Ferrania, Ilford, Lumier and others; in the US, it sold under its name. The company had changed hands several times, and the factory had moved to different cities until it closed in 1972. Early models...

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October 26, 2023

Franka Frankamatic

Franka Frankamatic I have two friends obsessed with vintage cars, namely American 1940. A Subaro owner teased them, saying he would keep his car for 60 years to have a collectible model. My friend said no, it isn’t classic to begin with. This classification puzzled me then, and it comes up when I try to decipher why a specific camera...

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October 23, 2023

Leidolf Lordox, Optina, Lordette

Leidolf Lordox, Optina, Lordette The city of Wetzlar is the Jerusalem of the camera industry, the birthplace of the most revered name in the trade, Leica. Minox moved there from Riga, and the Leidolf company was born there, as were two other minor camera makers, Kurt Kuhmn and Oheler. The Leidolf factory was established in 1921, making lenses and associated...

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October 18, 2023

Foitzik Foinix 35

Foitzik Foinix 35 The Rhineland in Germany is predominantly rural and known for its vineyards; that is where the Reisling originates. It was the most unlikely place for Karl Foitzik to move his camera plant from industrial Lubeck, seems as far as it could be. There is a parallel between this and Wohler’s plant, which was located just south of...

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