A Family Tree: From Perfex to Graflex
In 1939 introduced the Forty-Four, the first "modern" 35mm to replace their their very weird Perfex Speed Candid that had been launched barely a year before. During the next decade the company would follow up with no less than six more models, none of which could be considered successful. In addition to the Twenty-Two shown above, these included the Forty-Four (1939-40), Thirty-Three (1940-41), Fifty-Five (1940-47), de Luxe, (1947-50), One-O-One (1947-50), One-O-Two (1948-50), and the Cee-Ay 35 (1949-50). The last three models had abandoned the focal plane shutter in favor of an infinitely more reliable leaf shutter.
The company was in dire straights by 1948. They had eventually incorporated Alphax and Compur-Rapid shutters, and high quality Ektar and Xenon lenses. However, by 1950 they filed bankruptcy and sold the production equipment for their final Cee-Ay 35 model (not shown since I don't have an example in the collection yet) to a small start-up company, Ciro Cameras Inc., located in Delaware, Ohio. The new company manufactured the Cee-Ay 35 and marketed it as the Ciro 35 through about 1954. Ciro applied some modest marketing strategy by offering three variations according to which lens was mounted (the R, S, and T models) in chrome or black. It so happened that about this time a big company, Graflex Inc., decided to enter the 35mm camera market and were looking for an acquisition to launch this new business. Graflex bought Ciro and took over marketing of the Ciro 35 models which soon evolved into the more sophisticated Graflex Graphic 35 by 1955.
Ciro 35 Model S models in black and silver with the original Ciro flash attachment shown right.
After the purchase of the Ciro 35, Graflex introduced push-button focusing and an overall improved design in the Graphic 35 (1955-57). Clearly, the design as well as the materials and build quality of the Graflex models represented a great improvement over the original Perfex camera. None the less, Graflex went off the road and proceeded to add further design complexities including film advance driven by a CO2 cartridge. What did you expect from a descendent of the wierd Speed Candid?
