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.

All camera makers of the time have since vanished, some within a few short years, and some have lasted a few decades. Furthermore, most newcomers aimed much too high. They burned their wings trying to beat the leading Germans in their game, the east block market saturating with cheaply made products, and the latecomers, the Japanese, who finally won it all.

Different Italian manufacturers aimed at distinct market segments. Entry-level makers such as Bencini or Ferrania, my first camera, catered to first-time users to an extent where it seemed that each Italian household was compelled to have one of them, much like the Polaroids epidemic in the US.

The top market saw overachievers such as the San Giorgio, Gatto, Rectaflex, Gamma, ISO, Comi, Herman, Ducati and GGS; most were busy reinventing the praised Leica models. None have survived, and their only legacy is high resale value and collectors chasing the remaining exemplars. It is noted that Italy saw more copies of Leica than any other country. In the 1980s, I toured Italy’s northern industries, scouting for precision machining instruments and tools, and I would vouch that they were well capable of challenging Germany’s best.

However, there is a snag. If you want a top product, say a Rollex, you need to buy a Rollex. Omega is a fine watch; it costs almost as much and is as good as a Rollex, but it remains an Omega. And that is with Omega’s reputation. I wonder what the elite Italian camera manufacturers had in mind. Leica models were available, and a copy will remain a copy, not to mention coming from an unknown, freshly minted factory. The Italian Leica clones were too complex and dear for the lower market end and not distinct enough for the connoisseur.

The mid-market saw makers like Galileo, Sirio, AFIOM, et al., and Closter, which is the subject of this page.

Closter was established in Rome in 1949 as a split of the Rectaflex team and was named Closter Costruzioni Fotografiche, literally Closter photographic industry. I wonder what the ‘Closter’ means, as no such word is found in Italian. The Rome location lasted a decade and a half, then reincarnated in Milan in 1964 and continued making the same cameras under Nuova Closter. There is no mention of the reason for the move, but the company finally shut down closely thereafter.

Rectaflex was a project by Mario Ronaccia of the Italian optical industry, a serial entrepreneur who established Rectaflex after several attempts in this field.

There is little information about Closter in print or online. I collected data crumbs from all over and compiled the Closter family table below. Errors are sure mine.

Closter kept churning short-run elusive models; all are hardly seen today. The Abundant short-lived models and variants bring to mind Blackberry’s success and prompt self-destruction by offering a succession of inconsistent models. The one website that attempts to be informative is Bencinistory, but byzantine navigation and the impossible extraction of information are beyond frustrating. Looking for a user manual or other article about it yielded only a photo.net thread and a dead-end thereafter. There are only a few online articles about Closter. See the links below.

Closter made cameras in three generations. First came a group named Closter, 35mm viewfinders. Princess models followed, aimed higher, and were a mix of viewfinders and rangefinders. This group lasted till the mid-1950s when the company took a step back with a low-end camera line, including two #127 format models. Closter sold locally via several distributors and rebranded two models under Antopas for a specific reseller. I see no evidence of distributors outside Italy. There is an English ad, see below, but it specified the Italian address.

From what I gather, Closter made its own shutters. The shutter is the most complex part of the camera, so I wonder how a company with scant experience in the field took on such a task. Further, the lens brands they used are not related to known manufacturers. A lens marked Vegar was made by Optical di Milano, of which nothing is known.

The earliest commercially available Closter cameras are the Closter IIa and IIb, which differ only in their lens. The models marked I, Ia, and II have not passed prototype runs.

After the Closter IIa and IIb came the Closter S Sport, a simple, scaled-down model of 1956. Closter introduced an improved line under the Princess’s name between these models. Later, they seemed to lose focus and scaled back with a line of inexpensive, unremarkable cameras before it withered out.

The Princess of 1951 was to be positioned just below Germany’s best but at a competitive price. The early Princess was a compact, 35mm format rangefinder that was sturdy and well-finished.

Probably, Closter was overwhelmed by their courage and immediately offered a step-down model without a rangefinder under Princess Junior.

The Princess 2a and 2b came in 1959. They were based on the original Princess, with some marginal improvements meant to be easier to handle. The 2a and 2b carried different lenses but otherwise were similar. The Princess Record, issued with the Princess 2, was a similar model but without the rangefinder.

The early models, Closter and Princess, are assets for the collector. Not many were made and were sold locally only. They are rarely offered for sale and are inexpensive.

Closter IIa

The Closter IIa is a mixed bag. It looks straightforward till you notice some mystery settings. I could find no user manual, so it requires a good amount of guessing or trial and error, depending on one’s point of view. Not many were made, about 10,000, with the serial number here being 7943.

I got this model from an estate, and the camera has a stuck focusing dial. I tried cleaning, to no avail. I will keep it aside for better days. The camera is pettite, an all-metal body, similar to the compact German models of the time.

• It has one of the smallest viewers I’ve seen, if not the smallest.
• The top has the wind and rewind knobs, with the rewind knob stays down, which makes it difficult on the fingers.
• The frame counter resets easily via a sizeable serrated dial. It moves by the sprocket on the film path.
• The film path sprocket stops the trigger until the next frame is wound.
• At the back, a sliding lever is marked ‘B’, ‘1’, and ‘2’. By turning the frame counter sprocket, the lever slightly moves from ‘B’ to ‘1’ and sets back. Pushing it from ‘B’ to ‘1’ moves the frame counter one position. Moving it to ‘2’ releases the winder knob to allow film rewind.
• The trigger will not fire without the film loaded.
• The back is marked ‘Made in Italy brev’. There is no evidence that any Closter was sold out of Italy, so I wonder why in English.
• The back is fully removable via a bottom lever marked ‘C’ and ‘A’. I assume ‘A’ – aperto / open, and ‘C’ chiusa / closed.
• Inside is a bottom-hinged pressure plate supported by a spring on the back. An uncommon feature is a spring-loaded ring holding the feeding cartridge.
• The lens barrel holds the focusing dial next to the shutter speed selector, and the aperture lever is at 8 o’clock.
• A lever on the opposite side cocke the shutter.

Closter Princess Junior

The Princess and the Princess Junior are the same, except for the viewer, where the Princess is a rangefinder and the Junior a viewfinder. These models resemble the earlier Closter II, just a tad inflated body.

The Princess could be classified as a mid-market, generic post-war European camera, but there are two quirks.

• The focusing dial is mounted on top by the viewer in the spirit of the Prominent, the Mamiya Six, or the Contax winder. I tried to fiddle with it and found it unfriendly. Using a left-hand finger blocks the viewer, an249032@gmaid it is too far for a right-hand finger. Being a viewfinder, the user sets the distance independently, so I wonder how it works on the Princess rangefinder.
• A swinging lever on top marked ‘B’ and ‘R’. The ‘R’ position enables rewinding.

Otherwise, the rest is self-explanatory:

• The winder pulls the film, which runs over a sprocket in the film path. The trigger fires once until the film winds again. A lever on the lens barrel controls the shutter.
• The trigger will not fire without the film loaded.
• The top has the wind and rewind knobs, a manually adjusted frame counter, the focusing dial and above mentioned lever.
• The back slides entirely off. A bottom lever locks it marked ‘A’ – aperto / open, and ‘C’ chiusa / closed.
• Inside are a cartridge mount, a take-off spool, and a single sprocket on the film path. A pressure plate is mounted on the back cover.
• The Take-off spool requires strong nerves to use, to insert the film leader into a slot that seems one size too thin. Perhaps films at the time were thinner.
• The viewer is tiny, on par with other era cameras.
• The Shuter speed dial is on the lens barrel, with markings on top.
• The aperture dial is at the front end, markings at the bottom. Odd, perhaps the ‘Closter’ engraving took priority.
• The shutter cocking lever is on the barrel at 3 o’clock, where you expect to have the self-timer lever.

Closter family table

Image	Model	Year	Type	Notes	Lens	Speeds
	Princess S	1955	35mm Viewfinder		Aries 3.5/50	B, 1-250
	Closter C6	1956	35mm Viewfinder	As the Princess Record, 2.8/50	Aries	B, 1-300
	Closter II	1949	35mm Viewfinder	See IIa and IIb		T, 25-250
	Closter I a	1948	35mm Viewfinder	No commercial run	Zeiter 6.3/50	B, 25-100
	Closter II a	1950	35mm Viewfinder		Mizar 6.3/50	B, 1-300
	Princess	1951	35mm Rangefinder		Aries 3.5/50	B, 1-300
	Closter II b	1952	35mm Viewfinder		Aries 3.5/50	B, 1-300
	Princess 2a	1952	35mm Rangefinder		Aries 2.8/50
	Princess Junior	1954	35mm Viewfinder		Aries 3.5/50	B, 1-300
	Princess 2	1956	35mm Rangefinder		Aries 2.8/50	B, 1-300
	Closter S Sport	1956	35mm Viewfinder		Aries 3.5/50	T, 30-50
	Princess Record	1956	35mm Viewfinder		Aries 2.8/50	B, 1-300
	Derby	1959	35mm Viewfinder	C62
	Olympic	1959	# 127 Viewfinder		8.0/56
	Standard	1959	# 127 Viewfinder		7.0/50	T, 30-150
	Antopas II Baby	1960	35mm Viewfinder	C61
	Sprint	1960	35mm Viewfinder	C63	8.0/50	T, 30-150
	Closter C60	1960	35mm Viewfinder		Lamboron 7.0/50	I
	Closter C61	1960	35mm Viewfinder
	Closter C63	1960	35mm Viewfinder		7.0/50	B, 30-150
	Closter C62	1960	35mm Viewfinder

Closter IIa images

Closter Princess Junior images