Graflex / Ciro, Ciro 35

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 a tad more complicated, with three different companies at the helm.

Phase one, Candid Camera Corporation.

Initially, Candid Camera Corporation of America (CCC) manufactured and sold the Cee-Ay as its last model. CCC had a very short existence in the camera universe and was known for producing odd, impractical, and unreliable cameras until it went belly up. The Cee-Ay was an attempt to produce a conventional compact camera, but it was too late, and, burdened by a poor reputation, it stood no chance of saving the declining company.

Phase two, Ciro.

Ciro, a small Detroit-based company, made entry-level TLR cameras from 1941 to 1951. Making TLR cameras is relatively simple. Get a pre-war Rolleicord or Rolleiflex, dismantle it, copy the punched metal body, add a shutter and lens from a specialized maker, and Bob’s your uncle. The keyword here is pre-war, a time when this style was popular. In the mid-1940s, it lost its appeal for compact 35mm cameras, which were easy to use, handle, and compose with, offered more exposure. German and Japanese suppliers widely offered 35 mm compacts, using the camera industry as a foreign-exchange generator for their shuttered economies. Guess Ciro management saw where the wind was blowing and planned to steer into the up-and-coming 35mm domain. The company was too small to develop its own model, so it turned to CCC, a fellow American manufacturer. Ciro sold the rebadged Cee-Ay as the Ciro 35 until CCC closed, after which Ciro bought the Cee-Ay line and continued manufacturing it under its own roof. Both companies sold the same camera at the same time under the different names. As Ciro looked to broaden its product base, the once-giant Graflex sought a diversion from the large press cameras associated with it. So, Graflex sourced the Ciro 35 from Ciro and sold it under the same name, again parallel to Ciro. Ciro also supplied Graflex with the Ciro Flex models.

As with CCC, Ciro’s transition to a fresh concept was too late, and the company had closed down as well.

Phase three, Graflex.

Graflex was one of the iconic US camera makers, dating back to the late 1800s under the Folmer and Schwing brand. By the dawn of the 20^th century, they offered their first camera: a mighty large-format reflex model. It didn’t take long for Kodak to buy them, as Kodak did with any startup in this industry. The company continued as the Folmer Graflex Division within Kodak. The Graflex name was associated with the Speed and Crown press cameras often shown in period movies, even more so with the flash-gun post that was immortalized as the hilt of the lightsaber in the first Star Wars instalment.

After Ciro’s demise in 1951, Graflex took over production of the Ciro 35 and continued to produce it with little success. It continued until 1954, when Graflex offered the Graphic 35, a modernized Ciro 35. The Graflex affair with home-made 35mm compact cameras ended in 1959, with the introduction of the  Graphic 35 Electric, a rebranded Iloca, and the Graphic 35 Jet, and  more, made by Kowa.

The Graflex Ciro 35 came in three flavours,

• Model R, similar to the original, black body, Wollensak 4.5/50 lens and Synchro Alphax shutter.
• Model S, satin chrome body, Graftar 3.5/50 lens and Century shutter, which is the camera on my desk.
• Model T, black or chrome, Wollensak 2.8/50, Rapax shutter. Meant to be a premium model but the message had failed.

The Ciro 35 and the other compact Graphic models did not steer Graflex into the amateur market, so in 1956 the company was fire-sold to the Singer Corporation, as part of their entertainment division. Singer made some attempts to revive the brand with the XL models, to no avail. The Graflex name was finally abandoned in 1973.

The camera

• Looking at the camera, it bears no resemblance to the earlier CCC models, let alone the hideous Perfex Speed. In its first incarnation, this model came on stage just a decade after the Speed, but cannot be mistaken as a product of the same plant. It has the air of the German postwar cameras, which I assume had influenced both style and technology. The finishes have survived 70 years of age, as did the mechanics; all eagerly click and buzz as if it came off the line today.  This is not to say the camera looks modern; I would question the human interface and the way the controls are designed, but for mid-last century it was just perfect.
• For a US-made camera of that class, the body is aberrantly small and light, and rests nicely in the hand. It has a cast aluminum body with a steel punched top and bottom, all immaculately finished.
• All settings are easily found and are self-explanatory; no mystery levers or hidden features.
• The top has two equally sized wind and rewind buttons, a rewind pinhead by the winder to allow for rewind, a manually reset frame counter and a hot accessory shoe.
• The winder only pulls the film; it does not cock the shutter.
• At the back fascia are two windows. The left, tiny window is the rangefinder, showing a horizontally split image. The right window, much larger, is the viewfinder for composing the image.
• The removable back is released via a thumb latch at the bottom, clearly marked ‘open’ and ‘lock’.
• On the back panel is a well-made pressure plate, and a large pin at the bottom to keep the feeding cartridge in place. Neither was typical in US-made cameras of the era.
• Inside the body are well-finished bays for the cartridge and the take-off pivot. A roller with two cogs guides the film and also actuates the frame stop.
• The front top has three windows. The two elongated ones are the rangefinder windows, where the left could be confused with an extinction meter that was on the early Perfex models.
• The lens assembly is different from other cameras of the time.
  • Flash to the body is the focusing apparatus. Unlike the common dial, this has a lever for the left-hand finger and a pointer on the other side of the lens pointing to the distance, marked in feet.
  • The shutter assembly is at the front, with the self cocking trigger lever at 10 o’clock.
  • In front of it, the shutter speeds are marked on a serrated ring. I wonder why it is serrated, as it is stationary, which confused me. The shutter speed is selected via a sliding lever that points at the speed marks.
  • At the bottom of that dial is another pointy lever that selects the aperture value.
• As mentioned above, all are self-explanatory, though it may take a few minutes to verify what is what.

For the collector, it is highly recommended, if only as a conversation piece of a camera model made by three manufacturers. It is an atypically fine example of the post-war US-made cameras. They are easily available, at a modest cost.