Bolsey family camera models In my basement, two walls are lined with IKEA Billy cabinets; all have glass doors to keep out dust, which works in theory. My cameras are neatly set on the shelves, which is where it gets tricky. Organizing the cameras can be done by country, type, format, age, and whatnot. Or, perhaps, a smorgasbord of aspects,...
Kodak Pony camera Preamble A few weeks ago I wrote about the Smena camera line, of which I had two models. The early model, known simply as Smena, wasn’t in hand. Enter Maxsold. Maxsold runs local online auctions in Canada and some areas in the US. It is mainly meant for estate or downsizing sales, where, after the valuables are...
International Detrola Corporation Detrola – Detrola camera Next on the viewfinder shelf is a familiar-looking camera: a Detrola. I say ‘a Detrola’, as the company made ten + one models, where the ten were almost identical, and the single one was completely different. While researching the Detrola models, I found that online articles agree on most details but disagree sharply...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Candid Camera Perfex Speed Candid Camera family list Perfex Speed Perfex Forty-Four Perfex Fifty-Five I’m holding the Perfex Speed, and I’m not sure where to begin. At first glance, it seems assembled from unrelated parts, and it remotely resembles the concept of a camera as we know it. Indeed, it has a lens, a viewer, and a superstructure styled after...
Candid Camera Corporation family list Candid Camera family list Perfex Speed Perfex Forty-Four Perfex Fifty-Five The company Candid Camera of America was born in 1938, in the Silent Generation, a time when science had rapidly added many technologies that are taken for granted today. The TV was just a decade old, not yet commercial, as were liquid-fuel rockets. FM radio...