Links to new additions: In an attempt to write about the Contax rangefinder designs, I encountered quite a lot of conflicting information in modern books and on the Internet. Consequently, I turned to J. Lipinski's textbook published in 1955 where one can find interesting details and comments from a time when the designs were a bit more fresh in the mind. Also, the 1939 New York World's Fair shot with a 1928 Q.R.S. Kamra, and that techno-deco wonder, the 1938 Iris from Univex.
Ever wonder about those Thalhammer tripods seen occasionally on eBay? Meet Karl Thalhammer.
Also, a bit more on John E. Woodbury who designed the first coupled range finder in 1914 which was soon adopted by Kodak in 1915.
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One doesn't usually aspire to become a collector of anything in particular. Normally you wake up to find that you have accumulated a lot of something in particular, in my case, old cameras. Then one will either seek help, counseling, or just unapologetically accept it and go on to figure out what you are going to do with it. In the case of old cameras, I find that building a museum is beyond the scope of my current options. As a consequence, I turn to the Internet to provide a means of displaying the collection that is, for the most part, nestled in bubble wrap.
I have spent my professional life with microscopes, cameras, optical instruments of many kinds, and I hate dirty equipment. Old cameras deserve conservation and protection from continuing degeneration. Old leather bellows and covers need to be cleaned and preserved using the right materials such as British Museum Leather Dressing and formulations based upon pure bees wax which provides effective control over mold and mildew. Old red leather bellows are chromic acid tanned and should never be treated with oil-based products. For useful information I would encourage anyone interested in conservation of leather to go to http://www.garciaaviation.com/conserve.html and further references. Lenses, mirrors, viewfinders, rangefinders, all should be cleaned whenever possible. Optical components can easily be damaged, so a serious collector should learn the basics of maintaining optics. Search out advice and buy the right tools.
It could be pursuasively argued that the camera has changed mankind to an extent greater than any other single human achievement of the past millennium. Of course, statements like this are purely rhetorical normally. However, the capture of images from the world and of daily life has changed the way human beings conceive of the world. Today we take for granted the images that surround us in all aspects of life yet only little more than a century ago a photograph of people simply walking on the street became the subject of front page newspaper headlines. In 1859 the first photographs of pedestrians on the streets of Edinburgh and New York caused a great public uproar. Oliver Wendall Holmes commented on the fact that one could find examples of pedestrians "in every stage of the complex act" of walking. In an age of digital imaging and computer image processing software, you can still find arguments over whether or not photographs should be manipulated - arguments that are basically indistinguishable from those that raged over 150 years ago. Photographic technology evolves but I suppose people don't in some ways.
Peer review seems to have fallen by the wayside on the Internet making it more important than ever to find ways to verify and maintain accuracy. Today we rely on the imperfect method of waiting for feedback to correct errors and add missing details contained on web sites. This site is dependent on such feedback and should not tacitly be accepted as a source of accurate information without proper skepticism.
This site is intended for purely educational purposes and attempts to exhibit a portion of a larger collection of over 400 vintage and classic cameras produced from 1890 through 1980. Interspersed on the pages are some of our photographs taken with various cameras. However, I consider the photographs to be quite separate and distinct from the tools used in their creation. To do otherwise would be tantamount to showing an expensive paint brush next to a painting as if the quality of one were related to that of the other. Good photographers can produce great photographs with basic cheap cameras. Whereas, those of us with more modest talent can produce poor photographs with the very finest camera.
As a collector, I must admit to having no particular inclination toward specialization, nor do I feel a need to become an expert on any one type of camera, manufacturer, or period of time (even though I certainly admire that in others). I'm a generalist and enjoy the wide variety of designs that characterize the evolution and progression from the early cameras of the 1890's through to the precision cameras of the 1950's.
That creativity and personal expression that marked the first 100 years of camera design seriously diminished by the late 1950's with the advent of the successful Japanese SLR design. Although a few notably unusual designs appeared in the 1950's through 1980's, such as the Dial-35 (Canon), designs that deviated from a certain norm were largely ignored in the marketplace. Exceptionally fine companies like Leitz and Zeiss Ikon misinterpreted the market in those days and were late to introduce their version of the SLR, a delay that cost them market share from which they arguably never recovered. Consequently, the Leica and ZI rangefinder cameras of the 1950's through 1980's are actually highly prized and sought after by photographers and collectors alike in part because they are different and reflect a precision and marketable quality that was rapidly going out of style by 1970.
With the emergence of the basic SLR pioneered by Nikon, Minolta, Pentax and others, camera design had by then already passed through a half century of experimentation - a Darwinian process of evolution not only in technical terms but also in style. Ergonomics commonly took a back seat to style in comparison with 21st century cameras.
Keen competition arose in the 1930's between companies like Zeiss Ikon and Leitz which in turn gave rise to different designs rather than imitation of each other's designs. In those times small companies could launch bold new designs of cameras and enter a market already occupied by hundreds of manufacturers rather than the handful that remain today. Meanwhile, large companies like Kodak and Zeiss Ikon maintained production of a bewildering array of camera models, some high-end models firmly rooted in the 19th century (e.g. Kodak 3A Series III) simultaneously with others at the leading edge of technology (e.g. Kodak Ektra).
Between about 1900 and 1950, entrepreneurs and designers brought to the market cameras from Clarus, Perfex, Periflex and so many others, some of which are shown here in this collection. In Japan there was a remarkable proliferation of small camera companies competing from 1911 through about 1960. Cameras like the Well Standard Model I and Green Camera in this collection are examples of the many small, often short-lived Japanese camera manufacturers. The history of the Japanese camera industry is very often ignored and it is tacitly assumed that the advent of the Japanese SLR marked the beginning of the industry in Japan. The past hundred years hold a rich heritage in Japan, one of experimental designs and continuous evolution, coalescence, ultimately leading to the emergence of a very few dominant manufacturers today.
Although some of the cameras in the collection may be uncommon or perhaps even rare, the prime goal of this collection is to preserve an example of a broad range of cameras with particular attention to their design contributions and technological innovations, some successful but not necessarily so.
Many of the photos of cameras shown here are old, taken with my long deceased P&S Toshiba solely for my own personal records. As time permits, I intend to re-shoot all the cameras and post technically improved images to the best of my ability.
Any of the cameras in this collection may be considered available for sale or trade with other collectors. However, I am not in the business of selling cameras though I am interested in expanding and improving the quality of the collection through selling and trading.
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Copyright Note: Unless otherwise indicated as having been licensed from the proper copyright holder, all images contained in all pages linked on this site are the creative works of Elisabetta and L. David Tomei and therefore may come under the Fair Use provisions of applicable copyright laws. If you wish to use any of the images to which we hold legal copyright contained on these pages, please inform me and I will be pleased to provide high resolution jpg images only after receipt of your request. All images contain digital watermarks for identification purposes.
