127 Archives - Facts, notes and thoughts about vintage cameras and other trifle matters

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...

127/Rangefinder/Sears/USA Comments: 0

August 21, 2026

Utility Manufacturing Company

Utility Manufacturing Company 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 models, proving...

120/127/Medium Format/USA/Viewfinder Comments: 0

June 24, 2026

Foth Derby camera

Foth Derby camera C.F. Foth of Gdansk/Danzig and later Berlin and Paris was a short-lived camera maker that offered a line of three camera series for a little over a decade. Most of Foth’s camera models did not gain prominence in camera history; the one model still seen is the Derby, which seems to have been its bestseller. There are...

127/Germany/Pop out/Viewfinder Comments: 0

June 23, 2026

Foth camera family list

Foth camera family list Foth Derby page A few weeks ago, I finished the Gallus page, where the next camera should have been Foth, Gallus’s forefather. I pulled it off the shelf and set it on my desk. Nonetheless, I was distracted by other French models, so the little Foth became a fixture next to my mouse pad. Today I...

120/127/Box/Germany/Klapp/Pop out/TLR/Viewfinder Comments: 0

May 22, 2026

Tougodo camera family list

Tougodo camera family list More on Toyoca cameras More on Meisupii cameras The Tougodo company was established in Japan in 1930 as a maker of Yen cameras. During the war, production shifted to military devices. After the war, the company continued in the camera trade, producing an impressive array of Hit as well as TLR models, some styled after the...

120/127/Bolta/Box/Hit/Japan/Rangefinder/TLR/Tougodo/Viewfinder Comments: 0

February 15, 2026

Rodehuser Panta

Rodehuser Panta When I built my vintage camera database, I harvested information from any available source and sieved it for duplications and errors. Having said that, all was done manually. The result is a list of just under 28,000 models, which is user-searchable at camdex.ca. The downside is that much of the information is derived from cameras offered for sale/sold...

120/127/Germany/Viewfinder Comments: 0

January 5, 2026

Gallus Derlux

Gallus Derlux / Derby Lux In a French streak, after the FAP Norca and the Cornu Ontobloc, I continued to the next compact model on the French shelf. The subject is the Gallus Derlux, an odd-looking camera, true to the way the French see the world. The history of this brand is shrouded in mystery, a common trait among early-...

127/France/Pop out/Viewfinder Comments: 0

October 5, 2025

Walz camera family list

Walz camera family list Walz camera origins are shrouded in mystery; there are two versions, one siding with the opinion that they were distributors that sourced cameras from third parties, namely Zenobia, Tougudo, and Okada, while the other version suggests that they were actual manufacturers. There is no cut-and-dry evidence either way. The company first appeared in 1936 as Nihon...

120/127/35 mm/Japan/Klapp/Rangefinder/Walz Comments: 0

December 25, 2024

Light Optical Works Light Super

Light Optical Works Light Super On the Kowa shelf sits an overlooked camera that tries hard to look serious. My records show it has been there for a decade without mentioning the source. Marked as Light Super, made by Kowa in 1960, it was also sold under Zen 99, Super Lark Zxen 99, Kowa Kid and Kowa Harmony. As said,...

127/Japan/Kowa/Obscure/Viewfinder Comments: 0

May 29, 2024

Toa Koki Gelto-D III Gold

Toa Koki Gelto-D III Gold Toakoki was one of the pioneers of the Japanese pre-war camera makers who survived until the early 1950s. Post-war Japan saw an avalanche of camera makers, all aimed at the half a million US soldiers posted there, who had deep pockets and hunted for trinkets to bring back home. The newcomers and the old guard...

127/Japan/Toa Koki Comments: 0

Category: 127