Gamma Italy Perla

Gamma camera family list
Gamma Alba

The year is 1945; the war has just ended, and Europe is divided into two camps. The East is under Uncle Joe’s caring wings, with all aspects of life controlled by the wise man at the top. In the West, the rebuilding was underwritten by the so-called Marshall Plan, a 1948 USD 13 billion program, about USD 180 billion in today’s terms.  Nearly half of the funds had ended in the UK and France, about 10% helped rebuild (West) Germany, and the rest was spent among the remaining European states not gobbled by the Soviets. Oddly, the neutral Sweden and Switzerland had benefited as well.

Two major currents have now intersected. Due to the war, technology has made a giant leap in the past decade, and the masses of the depressed classes have become the newly minted middle class. In the Soviet sphere of influence, the masses were fed with “Arise, ye prisoners of starvation / Arise, ye wretched of the earth / For justice thunders condemnation / A better world’s in birth”, which was a sterling idea, yet was short of putting bread on the table. On the free side of the Iron Curtain, bellies were filled, opinions were free to be aired, and opportunities were wide open, much of it technology-based, including the optical/photographic industries.  From here, it took several paths. In the West, the Germans led the pack, with dozens of established and new manufacturers serving local and export markets. France, the UK, and Italy saw a similar pattern but on a smaller scale, targeting the home market, with Italy punching above its weight with select camera brands.

On the other side of the Iron Curtain, the Soviets, with camera plants that were moved lock, stock, and barrel from occupied Germany, had used this industry as a massive foreign-exchange generator, churning out cameras by the millions. Am not going to comment about quality and ingenuity.  The East Germans had a mix of existing, smaller pre-war plans and newly established entities, all on a much smaller scale, all of which ended up under Pentacon.

All these makers lived in peace and harmony until the Japanese, who were barred from making armaments, realized this market as their natural domain, and the rest is written in the chronicles.

Back to Italy, where the industry was divided into three. There were:

• The upper crust that took direct aim at the German camera royalty brands, companies such as ISO, Comi, Rectaflex, AFIOM and Gamma.
• The midrange makers, including Galileo, OMI. Fototecnica, and Closter.
• The camera for the masses, say Ferrania and Bencini.

There were many more Italian camera makers at the time. Further, the Brits and French did not aim above the mid-market, save for the odd exception. And lastly, Ferrania deserves a special mention as it was my first camera, some sixty-odd years ago.

Now, to the camera on my bench, the Gamma Perla. As described on the Gamma Camera Family Page, the company began in the il miracolo economico – miracle years of the Italian economy, a period from the late 1940s to the mid 1960s. The early Gamma models had high hopes of dethroning Leitz, which was a noble idea, only a tad unrealistic. Of the three Gamma models made, only a couple of thousand found buyers. The company owners, at this stage a group of investors rather than the visionaries who had conceived it, had taken a step back and scaled down their ambitions.

The camera line, now offered under the Perla name, launched in 1950, was a no-aspirations rangefinder family, targeted at the home market, yet well-made and well-specified compared to other cameras of the era. The price was more palatable, down from 57,000 Lire of the Gamma to 39,000 Lire; in today’s value, approximately USD 1,300 to 900, respectively. The price of the 2^nd Perla was dropped further to about 30,000 Lire.  I am not sure whether the market was there at such prices, as reflected in the meagre sales numbers: about 8,000 for the first Perla and about 5,000 more for the rest of the Perla family.

• The first Perla had a fixed, retractable lens. Shutter cocking was via a lever on the lens assembly. Speeds B, 1-300 and a self timer, with a behind-the-lens Prontor S shutter. There were three lens options: Type A 3.5/55, Type B 2.8/50, and Type C 2.0/50. Unlike the early Gamma and other Italian cameras, the company sourced the lenses from Germany.
• Perla I of 1956 was similar, with an added shutter cocking by the film winder, and a fixed, non-retractable lens.
• Perla II of 1956 had a larger body and a front-facing lever winder, which is very uncommon. Xenar 2.8/50, 2.0/50, Shutter Prontor SVS, speeds B, 1-300 or Synchro Compur, B, 1-500.
• There are notes on the fly about a Perla camera with a light meter, which I believe is the Alba.
• A further model deviation, as a viewfinder only, was introduced under the Stella

The late Perla models were sold alongside the early model.

The camera on my bench is an early Perla, a well-preserved unit considering it is just shy of being 80 years old. It is evidence of the Italian industrial quality, which I praise throughout this site.

• The body is of cast aluminum, and the trim is punched aluminum, as this material was in abundance after the war, once military aircraft production had ceased. See the Land Rover case, an all-aluminum vehicle made at that time.
• The top has the winder button skirted with a manually reset frame counter. The counter setting is by two minuscule pins; probably the mid-century Italians had strong fingernails. The winder stops at each frame, which is dictated by the film strip moving over the double sprocket guide on the film path. The trigger next to it will fire once the sprockets clear a frame, else it is locked. Next to the winder is a mushroom head, pushed forward to allow rewinding, exposing an ‘R’ mark, not sure if it’s for ‘rewind’ or similar in Italian.
• The viewer is blissfully large and vivid, with a clear and bright patch. I think it is the largest viewer I’ve seen in this era cameras.
• An odd inscription is at the back of the cover, saying:

Patented                           Off Gamma Roma (sic).

• Not sure whether it means “Patented by Gamma Roma” or “Patented” on its own, and something is off.
• The back is fully removable, unlocked through a bottom-mounted lever marked ‘A’ and ‘C’, assuming Aperto / open and Chiuso / close. The bottom is well designed with two protruding tabs to keep the camera balanced. An oversized 3/8” thread will require a reducer for a modern-day tripod.  The camera is balanced with a protruding lens as well.
• Inside is the film track, followed by two sprockets, and as mentioned above, the sprockets activate the top trigger single-frame lock. Inside at the right of the lens chamber, is the coupler arm that connects the top trigger button to the actual trigger lever on the lens barrel.
• The retractable lens assembly pulls out and locks in place with a slight right turn. Once it is set back, there is no lock; it just rests there. The lens forward travel is a tiny 5mm / 3/16”, which is probably the reason that on the next Perla model, they gave up on that and used a fixed lens barrel.
• Flush with the body is the focusing dial, with long travel and supported with a finger rest. As with the viewer size, it is friendlier than the other era cameras.
• The aperture selector lever is on the back end of the lens assembly. On my camera, the markings are scratched out and completely illegible. Guess markings were printed rather than engraved.
• In front of it is the shutter cocking lever with a remote port by it. The trigger lever is at 7 o’clock, and it can be fired without winding the film. The self-timer lever is at 5 o’clock.
• The front dial is the shutter speed selector, here engraved and clearly marked.

For the collector, it is a welcome addition to the shelf, a well-made camera representing the post-war era. Not many were made, and as it is reasonably priced today, it is likely to appreciate. For the nostalgic shooter, it is a simple and easy-to-use camera.  Recommended.