Yashica Minister D At about the same time as the Yashica Lynx series, Yashica also issued the Minister models. The latter was meant for mid-market users, as Yashica’s home-brewed 35mm rangefinder that replaced the Nicca-based Y models but at a favourable price point. The Minister series debuted between 1960 and 1966 and were followed by the Electro models. The Ministers...
Yashica Lynx 1000 Unlike most Japanese camera makers, Yashica did not go through the early camera styles and dug straight into the TLR models. It began in 1949 as an alarm clock maker, also making camera parts for the booming camera industry. The company name was Yashima, and it sold cameras under ‘Yashima – Camera’ in the US, shortened to...
Steiner Brelland – Hunter 35 A couple of almost identical cameras have landed on my bench. The Hunter 35, a 35mm rangefinder, and the Brelland, a 35mm viewfinder. Other than the viewer and the engraved name, both are the same. Tracing back the manufacturer was easy, although searching for ‘Hunter Camera’ yielded tons of hunting/trail/wildlife cameras. However, once I ignored...
Druopta Vega camera Druopta camera list Czechoslovakia was a country artificially put together in 1918 in a shotgun marriage as a break out of the fallen Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was made up of several reluctant ethnic groups, much as the make of post-war Yugoslavia. It was disintegrated in 1993, split into Czechia and Slovakia, the largest ethnicities. In an overall...
Mimosa – Mimosa II Camera Camera collecting, as with collecting any other subject, can be a sign of some mental disorder, I hope minor. An entirely normal person will not invest resources in a collection of, say, matchboxes, spoons, lighters, or cameras. Having a pet takes less effort, costs less, and gives much more in return. I am yet to...
Konishiroku Konica III M Konica I Konica II Bm Konica III Konica III M The Konica III M is the last of a Konica legacy 35mm rangefinder cameras that began in 1946, as Japan had bailed out of the post-war industry collapse, till 1959. This model was the last pro-use rangefinder that ushered Konica into the era where compact SLRs...
Konishiroku Konica II B-m Konica I Konica II Bm Konica III Konica III M Rangefinders made in Japan in the 1950s. The Konica II is the second generation of the Konica post-war triplets, between the Konica I and Konica III. Each generation had several variants, all paving Konica’s way to the small circle of camera makers that lasted till the...
Closter IIa / Princess Junior Closter IIa Closter Princess Junior Closter family list Images The Italian photographic industry saw pioneers making cameras since the early last century, but products were meant for professionals. Mass market production began at the ‘Italian economic miracle,’ a decade that started some about five years after WWII had ended, where fresh faces entered the field....
ELOP Ucanett The Ucanette roots go back to Jena, Germany, where Franz Robert Neubert, a Zeiss engineer, found himself in the wrong part of post-war Germany. Hoping for a better future, he set up his shop under the Neubert name and began production of two camera models: the Elca, a simple 35mm camera, and the Neuca, a Leica clone leaning...
Konishiroku Konica III / IIIA Konica I Konica II Bm Konica III Konica III M The three early Konica 35mm rangefinder models, named I, II and III, were made from 1946 till the mid-1960s. Although they were of the same family, each generation looked and felt different. The early Konica I was a no-frills camera, a model that emerged from the...