Cameras made in Germany (West or East)
This is a Certo Super Dollina II, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Certo Camera Work GMBH Dresden starting in 1950. The Super Dollina II was an update to the pre-war Super Dollina which made it’s debut in 1938. Featuring a coupled split image rangefinder and a unique folding chassis…
As I’ve done for the past 3 years at the end of April, I release a “Halfway to Halloween” post in my Cameras of the Dead series of 3 cameras that no longer work, but are worthy of mention. Each year, I come up with some cheesy tie in to…
This is a Pentina M, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera originally made by VEB Kamera-Und Kinowerke Dresden, and then later by VEB Pentacon Dresden between the years 1963 and 1965. The Pentina was a very unique looking camera with shutter priority automatic exposure, a selenium cell exposure meter, a…
This is a KW Praktiflex, a 35mm SLR camera built by Kamera-Werkstätten AG in Dresden-Niedersedlitz, (East) Germany between the years of 1939 and 1949. The Praktiflex was originally designed by Alois Hoheisel and was the first new camera built by KW after ownership of the company was transferred to Charles…
This is a Futura S, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Futura Kamerawerk GmbH in Freiburg, West Germany starting in 1952. The Futura S was a later variant of the original Futura camera, first released in 1950. All Futura cameras featured a unique screw/breech lock interchangeable lens mount, a leaf…
This is a Leica Model A, made by Ernst Leitz GmbH of Wetzlar, Germany. The serial number of this particular camera means it was made in 1930, but the earliest Model As were first introduced in 1925. The Leica Model A is one of the most historically significant cameras ever…
This is a Tenax II, an interchangeable lens 35mm rangefinder camera made by Zeiss-Ikon in Dresden starting in 1938. It shot 24mm x 24mm square images on regular 35mm film and was created by famed designer Hubert Nerwin who previously designed the Contax rangefinder. It was an unusually designed camera…
This is the Contarex, a professional grade 35mm SLR camera produced by Zeiss-Ikon starting in 1960. This first generation Contarex earned the nickname “Bullseye” for the large prominent circular exposure meter above the lens. The Contarex was one of the first West German SLRs with a focal plane shutter, and…
Another Halloween, another Cameras of the Dead article. This year, as I browsed through my ever growing collection of broken cameras, I started to see a pattern. While sure, I have my fair share of broken Japanese, American, and Soviet cameras, but I’m starting to see more and more European…
This is a Voigtländer Ultramatic CS, a 35mm SLR camera made by Voigtländer Braunschweig AG starting in 1965. The Ultramatic CS was the top of the line model in Voigtländer’s leaf shutter SLR lineup, starting with the lower cost Bessamatic. The Ultramatic CS was the first leaf shutter SLR with…
Back in October 2017, as part of the 4th edition of my Cameras of the Dead series, I wrote a short review about a compact 127 roll film camera called the Ising Puck. The Puck was an interesting little camera made by a small German company called Ising, who at…
This is an Ambi Silette, a 35mm interchangeable lens rangefinder camera made by AGFA Camera-Werk AG Muenchen between the years 1957 and 1961. Upon it’s release, the Ambi Silette was AGFA’s top of the line 35mm camera and would be the best featured rangefinder model they would ever make. Featuring…
