FAP Norca C mt

French industry made cameras since the mid-1800s, when this art was much the domain of a few mad scientists. It looks as if this local had developed in isolation from the industry leaders, the Germans. Looking at the camera concepts at the time shows a clear division between the countries: as the Germans moved into compacts, the French fashioned jumelles everywhere. The common denominator emerged post-WWII, when the market had aligned behind the compact 35 mm format for most, and the #120 format for professionals.

As a side note, the Brits seemed to get stuck with klapp models and made little progress beyond that.

However, while German industry sold all over the world to newly minted middle-class users, the French cameras did not dare cross the border. Perhaps it was because the French industry thought differently. To borrow from the motor industry, in the mid 1970s I drove a Citroen GS, the granddoughter of the legendary DS. It had a manual gear, or as they call it here, a stick shift, but there was no clutch. The indicator arm had to be brought back; no auto-return. The steering wheel had one spoke. There was a hydraulic system that lifted the car to three levels, and to replace a wheel, there was no need for a jack; just set it to the top height, put a log or something to brace the body, and pull the suspension back in.

Back to the early 1950s. As with the rest of the industrial nations, French camera makers geared to offer cameras for the masses. The pioneers were long gone, and some prewar makers, such as Lumier, MIOM, and Pontiac, resumed production. Fresh faces stepped in, such as OPL, SEM, Atoms, Royer, and the subject of this page, FAP.

FAP, short for “Fabrique d’Appareils Photographiques”, literally “Camera Factory,” traces its roots to a minor camera maker with a long name, “Société de Fabrication et de Vente des Appareils Photographiques, des Films Rower”, or “Rower” for short, which had opened in the early 1930s and closed down in 1938. I doubt FAP was active during the war years, if at all, given the market’s little interest in consumer goods. What I did find is that the company was registered by one Joseph Rosenfeld, who probably spent the war in captivity within the German wartime optical industry. Extremely lucky to be alive, he looked west for inspiration.

The first models were carried over from before the war:

• The Rower, a bakelite mini camera, a twin of the American Univex A.
• The Norca, AKA Norca A, a twin of the American Argus A.

The Norca was one of the earliest 35mm format French cameras. What remains to be determined is whether these models were made in collaboration with the Americans or were simply joyfully copied.

Which brings up a question: why did a French manufacturer look to the US for inspiration when just across the eastern border were the industry leaders? Further, aside from a few exceptions, American cameras were way behind the German industry, and Kodak’s best-sellers were German imports. Guess it will never be answered, or that the reason was the anti-Jewish sentiment (read hostility) that prevailed in Germany since 1933, which made Joseph Rosenfeld look across the ocean.

The Rower and Norca A were in production till the early 1950s. In 1945, FAP introduced the Norca B and the Norca Pin-Up. While the (odd) name of the Pin-Up had an American connotation, the camera was the Rower with a crudely superimposed lens and shutter assembly, borrowed from a ‘real’ camera. I have one Pin-Up eBay sale registered in 2018 for 299 Euro, where McKeown suggests USD 350. As of today, one is offered on eBay for USD 350.

Both cameras were made of bakelite, one of the early industrial plastics, which was everywhere at that time. The Norca B was the same as the Norca A, but the lens assembly collapsed with no counter spring.

The next model came in 1947, as the Norca C or Norca C-MT, or sometimes mentioned as CMT. The MT stands for metal. Here, the camera body is cast aluminum, finished in leatherette. The lens face is light brown.

All Norca models were offered with a variety of shutters and lenses, presumably due to supply chain constraints. Shutters and lenses are listed at several sites and in print, but there is little correlation.

In 1948, FAP had presented the Norca III, which did not graduate beyond a prototype, and was buried when the company was shut down. This model aims higher, with a focal plane horizontal shutter. A reflex model was in the works as well; no further information is available beyond confirmation of the concept.

Having no distribution system, FAP cameras were sold by Manufrance, a local wholesaler.

The camera on my desk is indeed a FAP Norca, but I am not sure about the model. The body is metal, assumed to be aluminum, covered with leatherette. So, it should be the C MT. The unnamed shutter is up to 300, as given for the early models. It is all black, while the Norca III images I see online have a chromed top and bottom. The shutter has a self coking single arm, where online it shows as two levers, cocking and trigger. The Norca III shows a light brown ring around the lens; it is less prominent here, see images.

For early post-war cameras, one should take all published specs with a grain of salt. On my desk are guides by McKeown, Kadlubek, Auer and Sugiama, and even they cannot agree on specifications. Manufacturers at that time had to make do with whatever components they could get, so there were many stepchildren and out-of-wedlock nieces and nephews.

The camera is what one would expect from the era it was made in, similar to many other cameras of the time: just a lacklustre body with the bare necessities. It is not pretty,  just utilitarian, ready to work.

• The body is cast aluminum with a steel back. Earlier models were made of bakelite. This model was meant to look upscale, but I guess they missed the point.
• The top has a manual reset frame counter, a mushroom tab for rewind release, a viewer, a cold accessory shoe, and a winder. In the unit I have, there is no front or back glass in the viewer. I wonder whether it was made this way or the glass was lost in its 80-year passage.
• The bottom has a rewind button and a matching ring with the mounting thread.
• The camera will fall forward with the lens extended.
• The fully removable back releases via a side slider, marked with an arrow.
• Inside, there are two roll compartments. Note that the loaded roll is at the right. A double cog bar keeps the film correctly fed. A pressure plate is mounted on the back.
• The lens assembly pulls out with a slight turn. It is spring-loaded, so it will pop out happily. There is an arrow on the cylinder; it should be facing up. To collapse the lens, push it in and turn it to the side so the three tabs on the lens neck engage the housing on the body.
• The shutter assembly have a life of its own. It freely turns around the lens cylinder. Not sure if it is a fault or if it was made this way. What it means is that if the speed selector dial is stiff, the whole assembly will turn rather than just the dial.
• The shutter is self-spring-loaded, so there is no cocking lever. A single pull of the lever will trigger the shutter. A remote trigger port is next to it.
• The serrated shutter speed dial hovers over the speed markings at the front of the assembly.
• The aperture selector is at the bottom of the assembly. Note that, as the front assembly is poorly secured and turns freely, the lever markings could be up, down, or somewhere in between.
• The focusing dial is at the front, having a long travel. Measuring units are unmarked; it is in meters.

As mentioned above, the specs and options described are for my camera. Other cameras under the same name may have different options and parts.

For the collector, it is a camera to have, representing the austerity of post-war France, when industry tried to walk tall again. As history has it, France did not make much of a mark in this industry, so there are only so many models to collect. The FAP models are not easily found outside France, so eBay.fr could be a good place to start. Note that Braun of Germany had three Norca models, no connection to this Norca.