Vintage Cameras by Type

Ricoh Ricohmatic 44

April 1, 2024March 9, 2024 by ivanlo

The Ricoh Ricohmatic 44 is a compact twin lens reflex camera designed by the Riken Optical Company (now Ricoh) for 4x4cm exposures on 127 film. Like several of its contemporaries, the Ricohmatic 44’s color schemes (aside from this example’s grey-blue on beige, the camera also came in dark grey on beige and creme on beige) deviate from the standard black and silver palette in favor of something a bit more playful to set it apart from its larger, more serious 6x6cm siblings.

Fototecnica Filmor

April 1, 2024November 9, 2021 by ivanlo

The Fototecnica Filmor (also sold in Australia as the Hanimex Eaglet) is a simple metal box camera debuted in 1950 by Italian manufacturer Fototecnica Torino. Not to be confused with Germany’s Vredeborch Filmor, Fototecnica had two Filmor models, the one you see here with a rotating waist-level viewfinder and another model with a tube-shaped eye-level finder much like that found on the Herco Imperial.

Carl Zeiss Jena Werra

April 1, 2024June 22, 2021 by ivanlo

The Carl Zeiss Jena Werra is the very first model in a line of sleek 35mm viewfinder cameras produced by VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, Zeiss Ikon’s factory in the city of Jena where the company was originally founded in 1846. After the war, Zeiss Ikon’s assets were divided alongside Germany into east and west. While the company re-established itself as Zeiss Ikon AG in the western city of Stuttgart as the East German government took control and nationalized what remained in Dresden, the factory in Jena also split with much of the assembly line being transplanted to the town of Oberkochen.

Monarch Royal Reflex

April 1, 2024May 14, 2021 by ivanlo

The Monarch Royal Reflex is a pseudo-TLR (a box camera that superficially resembles a twin lens reflex camera) made of an early plastic named Bakelite and introduced in 1939 by the Monarch Manufacturing Company. Monarch (sometimes also spelled “Monarck”), was just one of a many names that made up the Chicago Cluster—a collection of Chicago-based camera brands including Spartus, Acro, and Falcon which appear to be multiple fronts for a single manufacturer. As such, the Monarch Royal Reflex was also sold under different names such as the Monarch Kando Reflex, Remington Flex-Master, and Pickwick Reflex. Its basic design also exists in the form of models like the Metropolitan Clix-O-Flex, Metropolitan Metro-Flex, and the aluminum-bodied Utility Falcon-Flex.

Lumière Scoutbox

April 1, 2024March 7, 2021 by ivanlo

The Lumière Scoutbox is the model name used by French manufacturer Lumière et Compagnie for a number of similar box cameras designed for 120 film from the early 1930s until the early 1950s. This particular version—which was introduced in 1951—is one of the last cameras to bear this name.

Rollei A110

April 1, 2024February 20, 2021 by ivanlo

The Rollei A110 is a high-end subminiature camera introduced by Rollei in 1974. After nearly ten years of the Rollei-16, which used the company’s own proprietary 16mm film cassette, Rollei decided to abandon the ultimately unsuccessful format and tasked legendary designer Heinz Waaske (who designed other innovative and groundbreaking models such as the as the Rollei 35, Rollei A26, and Rolleimatic) to create the A110 as the first of a new generation of subminiatures to use Kodak’s vastly more popular 110 film cartridge instead.

Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex IIa (855/16)

April 1, 2024January 20, 2021 by ivanlo

This Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex IIa, which was introduced in 1953, is the second of two mechanically equivalent but cosmetically different twin lens reflex cameras that share the exact same name and model number (855/16). The earlier Ikoflex IIa from 1950 featured a body which was a natural evolution of the original Ikoflex II while the later IIa has an original design that went on to become the foundation for the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex Favorit, the final model in the storied Ikoflex family.

Spartus Box 120

April 1, 2024December 30, 2020 by ivanlo

The Spartus Box 120 is just one in a series of no-frills box cameras introduced by Spartus in the early 1940s (not to be confused with the similarly named but clearly different Spartus 120 of the 1950s). Designed to accommodate 116, 120, 616, or 620 roll films, these models are virtually identical outside of the designated film format and faceplate design.

Rollei Rolleimatic

April 1, 2024December 12, 2020 by ivanlo

The Rollei Rolleimatic was a compact 35mm viewfinder camera introduced by Rollei in 1980. It has the distinction of being the last Rollei model created by legendary designer Heinz Waaske (whose other works include the extraordinary Rollei 35 and the diminutive Edixa 16) and also, unfortunately, the very last camera that Rollei debuted before the ailing company finally declared bankruptcy. Because of this unfortunate timing, the Rolleimatic did not undergo the same amount of testing that benefitted its forebears and, as a result, is not quite as user-friendly or intuitive as it could have been.

Welta Penti II

April 1, 2024November 21, 2020 by ivanlo

The Welta Penti II is a flamboyantly styled 35mm half-frame camera originally manufactured by Welta in the German town of Freital and, after the company became part of Pentacon, in their factory in the nearby city of Dresden. Confusingly, the Penti II has a cheaper, near-identical twin called the Penti I (with the only difference being the absence of the II’s selenium light meter) and both of them are successors to the original Welta Penti (which, to avoid confusion, may also referred to as the “Penti 0”). Like its siblings, the Penti II is designed for Agfa‘s Karat film cartridge as opposed to conventional 35mm film and also comes in a variety of colors including cream, teal, and maroon. As its glitzy appearance may suggest, these cameras were marketed primarily towards women with promotional materials depicting the shimmering Penti II alongside a set of jewelry and a pocketbook.

National Instrument Corp. Major

April 1, 2024September 13, 2020 by ivanlo

The National Instrument Corp. Major is a barebones box camera designed for the 620 film format and introduced by the National Instrument Corporation of Houston, Texas. The Major, alongside the Colonel (virtually identical apart from having flash synchronization capabilities), and the upright Camflex were all introduced at around the same time and were the only known models produced during the manufacturer’s brief foray into the photography industry which makes all three cameras relatively rare and difficult to find.

Minox 110 S

April 1, 2024August 20, 2020 by ivanlo

The Minox 110 S is a subminiature 110 format camera introduced in 1975. This slim little camera was first presented to the public alongside the revolutionary Minox 35 EL at Photokina 1974 which unfortunately meant that it was pretty much completely overshadowed by its bigger brother. Produced by Balda on behalf of Minox, the 110 S also had an alternate life as the Balda 1000 but with different lenses. In an ocean of inexpensive 110 cameras like Eastman Kodak‘s Pocket Instamatic line, the Minox 110 S is of surprisingly high quality. Despite its plastic construction, there’s nothing about it that feels flimsy or cheap.

Bencini Comet III

April 1, 2024May 23, 2020 by ivanlo

The Bencini Comet III is an unconventional viewfinder camera built for the 127 film format introduced in 1953 by Italian manufacturer Bencini as the latest model to bear the Comet name. This camera was sold as the Bencini Akrom I in the South American market and also has another clone called, confusingly, the Comet 3 (using Arabic numerals instead of Roman) which features a white pinstriped faceplate along with an unfocusable lens. Unlike its predecessors such as the original Comet and Comet II which feature a more traditional design, the Comet III is vertically oriented which helps set it apart from other Bencinis as well as the overwhelming majority of other cameras from its day.

Marksman Six-20

April 1, 2024April 20, 2020 by ivanlo

The Marksman Six-20 is a no-frills box camera introduced in 1948 and sold by the Bernard Marks & Co. Ltd. of Toronto, Canada. Although both Eastman Kodak and Leica had a long history of manufacturing cameras at their factories in Ontario, many consider the Marksman Six-20 to be one of the only bona fide Canadian cameras in existence, but is it really?

Rollei 35

April 1, 2024March 18, 2020 by ivanlo

The Rollei 35 was a revolutionary viewfinder camera debuted in 1966 by Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke and is still one of the smallest full-frame 35mm cameras ever made. Curiously, the story of this legendary camera begins not at Rollei, but at rival camera manufacturer Wirgin in the early 1960s. Wirgin’s chief designer Heinz Waaske had just finished developing the Edixa 16—a subminiature camera which parasitically made use of its competitor’s proprietary 16mm film cassette while offering itself as a more economical alternative to the Rollei 16.

Zeiss Ikon Ikonette (500/24)

April 1, 2024November 18, 2019 by ivanlo

The Zeiss Ikon Ikonette (500/24) is an unusual, kidney-shaped 35mm viewfinder camera introduced in 1958 by Zeiss Ikon (not to be confused with Zeiss Ikon’s Ikonette (504/12) folding camera from 1929). Unlike anything Zeiss Ikon had produced either before or since, the plastic Ikonette’s primary selling points were its simplicity, price, and looks. It was also, as far as I can tell, the only Zeiss Ikon camera that was ever marketed specifically towards women, stating that their eyes will “light up” as the camera “instantly appeals to the feminine sense of beauty” and that “it’s so easy to operate, she’ll get fine pictures right from the start.”

Zenith Comet

April 1, 2024November 13, 2019 by ivanlo

The Zenith Comet is a vertically-oriented viewfinder camera debuted by the Zenith Camera Corporation of Chicago in 1947. As part of the Chicago Cluster, a group of Chicago-based brands active in the 1940s including Spartus, Falcon, and Rolls which are generally believed to be multiple fronts for a single company, Zenith produced only a handful of basic models including the Comet’s close sibling: the Zenith Comet Flash. As its name might suggest, the only real difference between the Comet and the Comet Flash is the ability to use an accessory flash unit. Other than that, both models are functionally identical.

Mithra 47

April 1, 2024October 3, 2019 by ivanlo

The Mithra 47 is a box camera built in Switzerland and named after the year it was introduced: 1947. Not much other concrete information is known about this camera except that it came in different colors (black, brown, and reportedly red and green) and there was a very similar box camera with sharper corners called the Mithra 46 that came out the year before which was also rebadged and sold as the “Starmetal Goldy” by French camera brand Goldstein. Most of the sources I’ve come across regard Mithra as its own standalone brand but there are also rumors that suggest that it was manufactured by Agfa‘s subsidiary in Switzerland.

Minox 35 GT

April 1, 2024July 26, 2019 by ivanlo

The Minox 35 GT is a compact viewfinder camera introduced in 1981 as the third variant of the Minox 35 EL which is arguably the smallest full-frame 35mm camera ever made (other contenders include the Rollei 35, Olympus XA, and Minolta TC-1). With the exception of the Minox 35 ML and MB (which had a more rectangular body) as well as the 35 PE (which had a built-in flash on the side), the Minox 35 GT and its siblings are virtually identical with the only real differences between them being internal. In one form or another, the Minox 35 was manufactured from 1974 to 2004, giving it an impressive 30 year production run.

Leica IIf

April 1, 2024July 9, 2019 by ivanlo

The Leica IIf is a high-end 35mm rangefinder debuted in 1951 by Ernst Leitz GmbH and produced in the German city of Wetzlar. This model is essentially identical to the Leica IIIf but without the capability of shutter speeds slower than 1/25 of a second. However, even the IIf model itself has several variants. This particular example has red flash sync numbers around the base of the shutter speed dial as opposed to black and a fastest shutter speed of 1/1000 as opposed to 1/500.

Ansco Century of Progress

April 1, 2024June 26, 2019 by ivanlo

The Ansco Century of Progress is a commemorative version of the Ansco No. 2 Box camera made by Agfa-Ansco to be sold at the 1933 “Century of Progress” World’s Fair which took place in Chicago, USA. There were several branded cameras available at the 1933 World’s Fair including one based on the Kodak No. 2 Brownie as well as the cheap and cheerful “Yen Camera” from Japan.

Taron Eye

April 1, 2024May 29, 2019 by ivanlo

The Taron Eye is a premium 35mm rangefinder camera debuted in 1960 by Taron. The Eye is the predecessor to the very similar Taron Eyemax that was introduced shortly afterwards. However, unlike the Eyemax which came with a choice of two lenses with different maximum apertures, the Eye appears to have only been offered with the relatively high-end 45mm f/1.8 Taronar lens.

Kodak Duex

April 1, 2024April 30, 2019 by ivanlo

The Kodak Duex is a collapsible basic medium format viewfinder camera introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1940 for 620 roll film. The Duex is the spiritual successor to the Kodak Duo series of 620 cameras which were designed by Dr. August Nagel (founder of Nagel, Contessa, and thus co-founder of Zeiss Ikon) and produced in the Nagel factory in Stuttgart shortly after the company was sold to Eastman Kodak. The Duo was made in Germany until Kodak shifted production to the United States due to the looming threat of conflict. Then, with the Second World War cutting off access to its German division, Kodak transitioned their 620 offerings from high quality folding cameras to inexpensive and relatively primitive models like the Duex.

Kalimar Reflex

April 1, 2024March 13, 2019 by ivanlo

The Kalimar Reflex (also known as the Soligor 66, Haco 66, and Fodor 66) is an unusual looking 120 format single lens reflex camera originally manufactured by Fujita Kogaku as the Fujita 66 and then rebranded by American distribution company Kalimar (and others) for sale. The Fujita 66 and its clones are heavily based on an upright medium format SLR system developed by the German designer Heinz Kilfitt who also created the Metz Mecaflex as well as the original prototype upon which Robot modeled its cameras.

Wirgin Edixa Flex

April 1, 2024January 29, 2019 by ivanlo

The Wirgin Edixa Flex is a 35mm single lens reflex camera designed by Heinz Waaske (who eventually went on to create the ground-breaking Rollei 35) and introduced in 1958 by the German manufacturer Wirgin. This camera is essentially a slightly simplified clone of the already established Wirgin Edixa Reflex with fewer shutter speed options and is one of many Wirgin cameras to utilize the Edixa name.