In or about 1840, designer/manufacturer Charles Chevalier of Paris produced Le Photographe, a similar but smaller, collapsible camera modeled after the Daguerre camera. Daguerre’s was soon tagged “whole plate” and Chevalier’s, and others that followed, acquired the labels of half, quarter, and sixth plate. Chevalier’s camera could accommodate full plates when rigid,

The year 1888 saw the introduction of the original Kodak camera. In the same year, Albert Darier was granted the first Swiss patent for photography, number 17, for a light-weight, handheld camera he called the Escopette. It used Kodak original roll film to create 110 exposures (size 68 x 72

PHSNE’s Camera of the Month section features a lot more than just one camera this month. In fact, there are over 90 cameras, lenses and photography accessories listed in the 2023 PHSNE Auction. You can get started by DOWNLOADING THE AUCTION LIST (pdf) HERE. This year’s auction has a number

The Linhof Technika 70 “is an exceptional, beautifully-made, and very expensive combination of the rollfilm camera and the technical camera.” (Collecting and Using Classic Cameras, Ivor Matanle, 1986, p.10) “Designed for news, fashion, sports and press photography,” the camera “seems to have inspired competing products, including the Graflex XL (1965)

Introduced in 1963, the Olympus Pen F* was a small, beautifully designed camera that achieved rapid market success. “The concept of a camera that could be carried and used as easily as a writing instrument was the inspiration for its name” (McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique & Classic Cameras, 1997/1998).

Combination cameras were manufactured in Boston by the Blair Tourograph & Dry Plate Company from 1882 to 1894 and “are traditional field designs offered with a unique [patented] accessory plate-holder extension mounted at the rear” (https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/226546-blaircombination-camera-1882). In an 1882 pamphlet, the company claimed that with the extension, “the camera is

The Canon EF (1973-1976) is a high-quality 35mm SLR which blended elements of Canon’s professional F-1 (1971-1981) system (FD breech-lock lens mount, all-metal body in black enamel) with many innovative features. While the EF did not have a removable prism, interchangeable focusing screens, or motor drive capabilities, its ergonomics and

Closely tied to the German photographic industry, Czech cameras were popular from 1885 to WW I, and production continued until competition from Japan and Germany in the 1960’s delivered a crushing blow. Earlier Flexette models gave way to the Flexaret line after WW II, produced by Meopta until 1970. All

The Tenax name dates back to 1907. It appeared on folding plate cameras manufactured by the C. P. Goerz company in Berlin. It’s easy to be confused by the chronology of the Tenax cameras since “the advanced 1938 model is known as mark II, or just Tenax II, while the

The PHSNE warehouse team recently discovered an original 1959 Canonflex (https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/film38.html) —minus its lens. While members are searching for a lens that would complete the camera, a substitute is in place temporarily. Acknowledging its relatively brief run, Cameraquest’s Stephen Gandy noted: “Nice camera, but blown away by the Nikon F.” 

The Utility Manufacturing Co. of New York (1934-1941) manufactured a variety of cameras including folding cameras, box cameras, and its main camera line of Falcon cameras, a name associated with half-frame, sixteen exposure 3x4cm cameras utilizing 127 film. The Falcon F, c.1938, is a good quality camera, with a Bakelite

To appreciate the Universal Vitar, one must first know how it came to be. Universal Camera Corp., with headquarters in New York City, was founded in 1932 by Otto Githens and Jacob Shapiro. The company produced several cameras during the 1930’s and 1940’s starting out with less expensive plastic cameras and moving