Rangefinder Archives - Page 7 of 10 - Facts, notes and thoughts about vintage cameras and other trifle matters

April 12, 2024

Yamato Pax

Yamato Pax The Pax, also named Pax I and Pax 35, is the first 35mm camera made by Yamato Koki Kogyo. Earlier models seemed to have been borrowed from other manufacturers and were in Bolta format. There were two additional identical models, the gold-plated Pax Golden View and the Super Dan 35. Yamato used the Pax for several other models,...

35 mm/Japan/Rangefinder/Yamato Comments: 0

April 8, 2024

Yamato model list

Yamato model list I go through my camera shelves, trying to keep an order of what I pick, looking at the simple to review one-off models. I am at the post-war viewfinder/rangefinder models, so I picked up a shy camera from the corner, a Tower. But instead of finishing a page quickly and easily, I got more than I bid...

35 mm/Bolta/Japan/Rangefinder/Viewfinder/Yamato Comments: 0

April 8, 2024

Fujica GER

Fujica GER Today, Fuji is among the top digital camera makers. It was not always like that. Like Kia Motors, it had climbed uphill from the backwaters to the front line in terms of quality and reputation. In the second half of the last century, Fuji offered a mix of low-end point-and-shoots, under-estimated SLRs, professional cameras, and an endless line...

35 mm/Fuji/Japan/Rangefinder Comment: 1

April 4, 2024

Futura Standard

Futura Standard I look at cameras daily; most are similar, different only on the margin. Now and then, a camera stands out, which is the case here. The outstanding cameras have a common denomination: a modest manufacturer of a few models with different take on technology and features. Offering an uncommon feature to a mass-market item is a tall order,...

35 mm/Germany/Rangefinder Comment: 1

March 29, 2024

Iloca Rapid

Iloca Rapid / Iloca Quick Iloca was a short-lived camera maker, lasting for about a decade in the 1950s. It was established in Hamburg, a city known for its heavy industry and peppered with several very early camera makers. The company was founded as a machine shop by Walter Illing, who lent it his name styled as Ilca, short for...

35 mm/Germany/Iloca/Rangefinder/Viewfinder Comments: 0

March 20, 2024

Carl Braun Paxette

Carl Braun Paxette The Carl Braun Paxette seems to have been a popular camera, judging by the number of available cameras on eBay and the abundance of online articles about it. All began with a Pax, a 1950 box model wishing peace upon a troubled post-war world. The closely named Paxina followed in the same year as a no-frills 120-format...

35 mm/Carl Braun/Germany/Rangefinder/Viewfinder Comments: 0

March 18, 2024

Balda Baldessa

Balda Baldessa For the past half-century, I have written about cameras and camera makers. The evolution of two distinct groups, the post-war Japanese and the prewar German, follows a clear pattern. Manufacturers within both groups follow a pattern as if fate was preset for them. Balda, a camera maker who has been active for about fifty years in the middle...

35 mm/Balda/Germany/Rangefinder Comments: 2

March 13, 2024

King Regula Cita

King Regula Cita King Regula made cameras under different name legacies. The early line was the Regula, with later sub-lines like Sprint / Sprinty / Sprintic, Regulette, Picca, Olymatic / Olympia, and Cita. The Cita was meant to be a higher-class camera and priced as such. Kerkmann praises the Cita quality, but the only tangible reference is to the surface...

35 mm/Germany/King Regula/Rangefinder Comments: 0

March 9, 2024

King Regula camera family list

King Regula camera list King was established in Germany in 1936 as a machine shop and entered the camera world in the early 1950s. They made a long list of Regula-named camera models, from entry-level viewfinders to rangefinders, with or without light meters, and several pocket, 126-format and disk models. My records show only one box camera (made by Vredeborch)...

110/35 mm/Germany/King Regula/Rangefinder/Viewfinder Comments: 0

February 22, 2024

Sanei Sangyo Samoca late models

Sanei Sangyo Samoca late models All Samoca models list page Early Samoca models page The early Samoca models were peculiar-looking, basic, sturdy, but able cameras. It offered the entry-level user all needed for picture taking if she/he was immune to odd remarks by other camera owners. To conform with mainstream camera styles, Samoca graduated to classic-looking cameras. As with most...

35 mm/Japan/Rangefinder/Samoca/Viewfinder Comments: 2

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