A selection of cameras, in no particular order.

[Praktica]

   

This is the only English made camera in the collection, A Ross Ensign Ful-Vue Super. The original owner bought it on the ship, when she was off on her OE in the 1950s. It is a box camera, made to look like a twin lens reflex, with a lens that sort of focuses.

[Praktica]

   

A few years ago, a nephew gave me this Konica Autoreflex TC kit - a workmate was going to dump it. The camera and lenses look almost unused.

[Praktica]

Just to show that I don't just have oddities, here's a Pentax S1a.

   

[Praktica]

   

This is a Super Paxette 35 camera, made in West Germany by Braun. Paxettes were first produced in the 1950s, and were a basic, low cost camera which had features added over the years. This model, the end of the line, is from 1964. It has an uncoupled light meter, coupled rangefinder with parallax adusted framelines, and interchangeable lenses. The lens mount is Leica thread, but the back focus distance is not the same as Leica.

This particular camera has a shutter problem, caused, I think, by being dropped. Notice the dent in the lens filter ring?

[Praktica]

   

This is a Contaflex, made by Zeiss Ikon in West Germany, in 1953. It is the granddaddy of lens shutter SLR cameras. 
This camera has no instant return mirror, and the lens is fixed. In 1954, when Zeiss introduced a version of this camera with a light meter, they called it Contaflex II. The original camera became Contaflex I. Ever more complicated versions of the camera were made until the late 1960s.

[Praktica]

   

This unusual looking camera is a Werra 1e, made by Carl Zeiss in Jena. It is named after the river which flows through Jena.
At first glance, there is no obvious way to wind the film - you do this by turning the ring behind the lens.
This is a simple viewfinder model; there were versions with light meters, rangefinders, and the top models had interchangeable lenses.

[Praktica]

   

This handsome beast is a Pentacon D, a name variant of the Contax D SLR, which was made by Zeiss Ikon in East Germany. It was a development of the Contax S, one of the first eye level 35mm SLR cameras - the other, not as successful, was the Rectaflex, which was made in Italy. They were both first produced in the late 1940s.

[Praktica]

   

This is an Agfa Super Silette - a rangefinder camera made in the mid 1950s. This particular one has the f2 Solagon lens - the fastest and most expensive lens fitted to a Silette.

[Praktica]

   

Cameras sometimes come with extras. This Toyoca 35s had a case, box, and manual with it. The outfit had a faint smell of perfume about it, as if it had spent decades in the bottom drawer of a dresser.

This is a simple camera, which worked well after the film winding mechanism was lubricated and screwed back in.

[Praktica]

   

Through the 1960s, Yashica made a series of fixed lens rangefinder cameras, including this one, a Minister 700. this is a rare version of a more basic camera. The base model had an f2.8 lens, this one an f1.7 lens.

[Zurdo]

I used to have a couple of Zenits, I got them when the old guy next door died back in the '80's, and his kids were clearing out the junk. There were no instructions, and I didn't have a clue how they worked - and so had an enjoyable learning curve about 35mm SLR cameras...a bit different to my Instamatic. I found they used the Pentax Screw, and so picked up lenses and light meters and other stuff. 2 bodies, different films etc. Then out came the digital camera, and I could have my photo instantly, with no developing costs. Although I did do a night school course on developing, and collected some old developing gear.

[Praktica]

My first SLR camera was a Zenit - a 3m. That had Leica thread lenses, but with a different back focus. I still develop my own black and white film and scan the negatives. I try to put a film through each of the cameras I buy.

[Praktica]

   

In the early 1960s, Yashica made a range of fixed lens rangefinder cameras. Some of the early ones were distinctly odd looking, but the YL, above, is probably the oddest of the lot.

[Praktica]

   

In 1962, Zenit updated their SLR, incorporating the wind lever of the Zenit 3, and adding an opening back, rather than the removeable camera base of earlier models, and released the 3m.

I bought a Zenit 3m in 1970 - my first SLR. The one above is not that camera, but one I picked up a few years ago.

[Praktica]

   

This is a Praktica VLC2 made in the mid 1970s. These cameras had full open diaphragm metering, and interchangeable viewfinders. I knew this one was faulty when I bought it - the shutter wouldn't cock. Sometimes this is a simple thing to fix, but not on this camera. I've just transplanted a shutter from another Praktica into it, and now it works fine, although the light meter is not accurate. Faulty meters are common on old cameras.

Later note - I have adjusted part of the meter mechanism - a variable resistor driven by gears - and now the meter is accurate.

[Praktica]

   

In the late 1950s, there was a fashion for lens shutter single lens reflex cameras. The earlier ones had fixed lenses, but later versions had interchangeable lenses. These cameras required a complicated shutter - it had to be open for viewing before taking a photograph, but then close, reopen for the exposure, then close again after the exposure. At the same time, the mechanism had to uncover the film gate (a flap covered this while the shutter was open for viewing), and stop down the diaphragm. Winding on lowered the mirror, dropped the flap over the film gate, cocked the shutter, and opened the diaphragm. The complexity made these cameras unreliable. Kowa, who made the Kowaflex pictured above, produced probably the least reliable of these cameras.

The situation for lens shutter cameras was made worse, when instant return mirrors were added to them. One manufacturer, Voigtlander, even made an SLR with instant return mirror and automatic exposure, the Ultramatic, which was the byword for unreliability. 

The camera above is one of the few non working cameras I've seen, which has a mechanical fault. Most faults are caused by dried out lubrication, and dirt.

[Praktica]

   

Kamera Werkstatten, the company which made Prakticas in the 1950s, also made the Praktina camera. This was an advanced camera, with clockwork and electric motordrives, and other accessories, intended for professional use. 

The camera above is the Praktina FX, an earlier model. The later model was the IIA. The camera went out of production in 1960.