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 on others, so I’ll add my tuppence as well.

The Detrola company was established in 1931 in Detroit, Michigan, named with the ‘- ola’ suffix of the time honoured legacy where the last century saw Victorola, Moviola, Rock-Ola, Amporola, Crayola, Shinola, Granola, Pianola, Mazola, and the most famous of all, Motorola, which was most likely the reason Detrola was named this way.

The company’s founding date was ill-timed; in the wake of the stock market crash, not a good time for a manufacturer in the newly emerging field of consumer electronics. The company’s early scope included radio receivers and record players, and it briefly branched into camera making until WWII, when it received major military supply contracts for aviation and marine radios, military electronics, and mine detectors.

Regrettably, they didn’t leverage wartime technologies and revenue into postwar success and were sold to another industrial conglomerate. Online sources cite that Detrola went under in the early 1940s or was bought by Motorola. One of the versions is likely true.

Both consumer electronics and amateur cameras were in their infancy, being newly introduced disciplines, and it wasn’t uncommon for a startup to shift from one field to another; see the recently reviewed Candid Camera or Bauchet Mosquito. Further, the war machine needs became a springboard for other era technology companies, such as Polaroid, which received sizable military supply contracts that enabled their peacetime expansion.  The crew on the Enola Gay wore Polaroid goggles once the trigger was pulled.

Back to the prewar Detrola camera affair. In 1939, the company had introduced a line of ten affordable cameras, meant for the occasional user. I don’t have exact release dates, but it seems all were released within the year. The cameras were almost the same, except for shutter speeds and lens combinations. Some models had a housing for extinction meter; others didn’t. See table below for details. The camera design borrowed from the Falcon family or the Argus, leaning on extensive Bakelite use with metal accents.  While some praise the design, I don’t find it appealing, and I think the market felt the same, since this style wasn’t widely adopted.

Once this camera line hit the stores, Detrola worked on an overly ambitious project: the Detrola 400, a Leica-class camera. I say ‘overly’ because the company head hailed from Ford Motors’ production floor, and the company had no legacy in this highly specialized field. Many have tried to build Leica competitors; only a precious few succeeded, and, aside from Canon to some degree, none made an impact. I don’t have this camera, but from what I’ve read, it failed spectacularly.

Meanwhile, the Ten Detrola sisters did not gain much following. They were plagued with technical failures, from the Bakelite body to the mechanism. There is no mention as to who made the Detrola shutters, perhaps made in-house, which is an unrealistic objective for an outsider to achieve.  A note about the extinction meter: in some of the models there is a housing for that, but in almost all online images, as well as on my camera, it is nothing there. See the Detrola K image where the meter is seen.

Another worthwhile note: where the thread size on the Detrola 400 is mentioned, it is specified as a 38 mm thread, which is wrong. The US engineers at the time wouldn’t use metric convention even in front of a firing squad. It is a 1.5” x 32 TPI, similar to the Candid Camera line, although I don’t know if its lenses were compatible. Several disastrous events stemmed from mix-ups between the US and the British Empire, which used the same terms but for different volumes, and both differ from the metric system, during the war and post-war.

Detrola’s camera production lasted only two years, when the company shifted focus and was likely salvaged by the impending war.

The camera

The camera on my desk, aside from the design I don’t like, is well preserved and functional. It is basic, but that is what it was intended to be. About the style, I guess this was what the designers could do to keep it within the target selling price, under USD 20 for the Detrola E.

• The body is Bakelite, as usual dressed in black. The breastplate and the back cover are punched steel. It is smaller than the similarly looking Falcon and Argus, and sits better in the hand.
• The top has a wind and mock buttons. Note the film feeds from right to left. In the middle is a superstructure with a tiny viewer and a hollow that had (?) hosted an extinction meter. As noted above, most cameras shown online lack the meter.
• The back is held by two springy arms. It has an elaborate exposure calculator with an unexplained 1-6 scale, which may refer to the meter reading. The camera uses half-frame #127 film, so it includes two red lenses: the user shoots once att the A-marked lens, then again on the same frame number at the B-marked lens.
• The bottom has two rings that are supposed to keep the camera stable; it does not, and it falls on its nose.
• The elaborate lens assembly has an oversized focusing dial, marked feet. In front of it is a serrated ring; grab it and pull the lens out. It does not lock at in or out position. At 11 o’clock on that ring is the self-cocking, spring-loaded trigger arm. At the top front of the ring is the shutter speed setting fin, and at the bottom is the aperture setting fin.

The camera is simple to use, with no complex controls, as were its sisters. For the collector, it is more a conversation piece than a remarkable camera. They are cheaply available, and will nicely grace the shelf.

Camera passport

Detrola camera family list

	Model	Year	Type	Format	Speeds	Lens	notes
	Detrola A	1939	Viewfinder	127	I, T
	Detrola B	1939	Viewfinder	127	I, T, B	Dumicroflex 7.9	Extiction meter
	Detrola D	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Dumicroflex 4.5	Extiction meter
	Detrola E	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Dumicroflex 3.5	Extiction meter
	Detrola G	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Ilex, Detrola 4.5
	Detrola GW	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Wollensak 4.5
	Detrola H	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Ilex 4.5	Extiction meter
	Detrola HW	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Wollensak 4.5	Extiction meter
	Detrola K	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Ilex 3.5	Extiction meter
	Detrola KW	1939	Viewfinder	127	T, B, 25-200	Wollensak 3.5	Extiction meter
	Detrola 400	1940	Leica influenced rangefinder	35mm