OLDEST SLR - Mickey's Idea

[Mark Vaughan]

Mickey, All -

Great idea, and I'll go first: My oldest SLR in the collection is:


Nikon F/FTN, SN 7313940, making it about a 1972 or 73 model. I bought it from a guy in Montreal. My FTN meter works! Camera needs a good cleaning though, as the speeds below 1/8 sec are no longer accurate. Need I say more about the 50mm, f2...love it.

Who's next?

Mark

[herron]

Mamiya Prismat NP

First, a little history.

The odd-looking Russian GOMZ Sport (c.1935) has the distinction of being the first 35mm SLR. Ihagee (a Dutch company totally destroyed in WWII), would be the second. They introduced the Kine-Exakta 35mm SLR in 1936.

However, neither of these innovative cameras used a pentaprism. The honor of being the first pentaprism SLR is generally acknowledged to have been the Zeiss Ikon Contax S (c.1950).

I have a lot of cameras, some as old as 1897, and I have rangefinders going back into the 30s. But, since I don't have either of those SLR trailblazers I mentioned, and my main focus has always been Mamiya ... I'll go with that.

The Mamiya Prismat NP, released in February 1961, was Mamiya's first production single-lens reflex (SLR) 35mm, and is my oldest SLR.

It has no meter, and its lenses featured a semi-automatic aperture with an external Exacta-type linkage (actually introduced by the ill-fated Ihagee) for aperture function. The known Mamiya-Sekor F.C. lenses include a 35mm f/2.8; a 48mm f/2.8; a 58mm f/1.7; and a 135mm f/2.8. There was also a 50mm f/1.9 available, made by Canon (seen in my photo).

[herron]

BTW - the GOMZ Sport, Ihagee Kine-EXATA and Zeiss Ikon CONTAX S

[Randy]

Guess I'll have to drag out the old Kodak from1958.

[mickeyobe]

Here is my oldest SLR. Circa 1916 to 1923.

The Auto Graflex, Folmer & Schwing Division of Eastman Kodak Co.

Sold by Sands, Hunter & Co., London.

It has a unique focal plan shutter that, unlike most, does not have a variable slit. Instead it has six slits of different sizes. The speeds from Time, 36 seconds to 1/1000 second are determined by the size of the slit and the choice of one of four spring tensions which gives a choice of 24 speeds plus time. The handy table on the hood clearly tells which settings to use for a desired speed.

Sheet film or glass plates 3-1/4 x 4-1/4"

It folds to a very compact 5-1/2 x 5-3/4 x 6-1/2".

The pop up hood completely prevents degradation of the screen image.

There are many lenses that will fit it.

Notice the never get lost drop down lens cap.





How much more automation could one possibly desire or dream of?

Mickey

[PeterW]

That's nice, Mickey.

I've got three of these big old SLRs - well, two big ones and one not so big.

The big ones are an Ensign and a Marion Soho, both quarter-plate and both needing some cosmetic loving care. I think they both date from the 1930s.

The little one is a Marion Baby Soho taking 2¼ x 3¼ inch plates. This one was given to me by my Uncle Matt, for many years a professional portrait photographer in Brighton, on the south coast of the UK. It's in pristine condition. Not sure of the date, possibly late 1920s.

All three were packed away when I moved my den downstairs some months ago, and are still packed away. I'm waiting for builders to come in and replace the old Victorian window frame which is starting to fray at the edges. Then will come redecorating and then, with any luck, some shelves to display my cameras. I've almost forgotten what I've got.

PeterW

[PeterW]

Ron,

I know a lot of websites state that the Russian Sport was the first 35mm SLR, but members of the Exakta Circle would take issue with you about that.

Here's a piece from a leaflet produced in 1996 by the Exakta Circle for the Kine Exakta's diamond jubilee:

The first 35mm SLR
Collectors have frequently debated whether or not this distinction should go to the Russian "Cnopm" or Sport. The last year or two has given opportunity for close enquiries to be made in Dresden and in Leningrad and Moscow. In particular information provided by the Polytechnical Museum, Moscow states that a prototype 35mm SLR was made in 1934 and this was improved and developed into the camera that became the Sport. "In 1937 it was perfected and brought into a state for production. The standard production began at the end of 1937, beginning of 1938".

The leaflet also says that Karl Nuchterlein, who designed the Kine Exakta, had the design down on paper in 1932 but work on it was held until the standard (127) Exakta was in production in 1933. Then the Kine Exakta was built, developed and finally went into production in 1936, a year before production of the Sport started.

Both cameras took about three years from prototype to production and I'm inclined to go along with the Exakta Circle that the Kine Exakta was first.

It's possible that Nuchterlein and his Russian counterpart, whose name I don't know, heard rumours of what the other was doing, but Ihagee kept the Kine a secret so as not to spoil sales of the 127 model, and the Russians were almost paranoid about keeping engineering developments secret, so I don't imagine there was any interchange of information. The two cameras show a very different approach to the same basic idea.

PeterW

[PeterW]

As a by-the-way, or aside, to this thread, Ron mentioned the Contax S. There’s a little bit of unimportant but interesting history associated with this name.

Designs for a Contax with a pentaprism were drawn up during the war by Hubert Nerwin who was then Zeiss Ikon’s chief designer. During the bombing of Dresden in 1945, these drawings were destroyed, and after the war Nerwin moved to Western Germany to join the ‘new’ Zeiss Ikon.

His successor in Dresden, Wilhelm Winzenburg, was given the job of reviving the idea and in 1948/49 produced the Contax S (S for spiegel, or mirror).

Originally, Winzenberg registered the name Pentax for the new camera – Pentax from PENtaprism conTAX, but the powers that be in Zeiss Ikon in Dresden didn’t care for it.

When Zeiss Ikon in Dresden lost the legal battle to use the name Contax they reconsidered Pentax but still didn’t like it. They wanted CON in the name as a link to Contax, so they decided on Pentacon – PENTAprism CONtax, and in 1954, or thereabouts, VEB Zeiss Ikon, as it had become, sold the name Pentax to Asahi in Japan together with a licence for the M42x1 lens mount design.

Not, in my humble opinion, one of the best decisions VEB Zeiss Ikon, later VEB Pentacon, made.

PeterW

[mickeyobe]

And furthermore ---------- Re: Folmer & Schwing Auto Graflex.

The focus hood is as black as the rest of the camera.
For some reason it photographed maroon.

Why??

Mickey

[Deleted]

My oldest SLR is an Exa I, circa 1959-'60--my first SLR.


www.zorki1c.com/camera/exacta.html

Wayne

[olroy2044]

The oldest SLR in my bunch is this rather dog-eared Mamiya Sekor 500 DTL. Came from the Bay of Evil in nonworking condition. Purchased for the Chinon lens that was on it. The Mamiya lens seen here is from my long gone 1000 DTL. I've got the shutter working, and work on it periodically. One of these days it'll take some more pix.

[photax]

My oldest 24x36mm SLR is the 1947 Praktiflex II from Kamera-Werkstätten Guthe&Thorsch, the oldest roll-film (6x6/4.5x6cm) SLR is the 1939 Pilot Super from the same manufacturer. The oldest SLR ever are two Camera Obscura`s from the 19th century, but these are not for taking pictures on film, but for drawing purposes...

MIK

[GeneW]

I don't have a photo of it, but my first SLR was one of the Exakta models without pentaprism that I purchased new, with lens, from Olden Camera, NY, for $40 in 1963.

I took this shot of bullwhip seaweed (Laguna Beach, CA) with it. It's my oldest surviving picture, taken when I was 18. Shot on Kodachrome II (ISO 25)



Gene

[olroy2044]

Taken at age 18? Shoot, at 18 I barely knew what a good camera looked like! Very nice, Gene. Sometime around then I bought my first "real" camera, a Contaflex II. it's still in the family, with my son's widow. Roy

[pompiere]

I got my SRT200 when I was 17, but it's not the oldest SLR I own. That would be a Petri Penta V6 that was a gift from a neighbor. Heavy camera, but easy to use. For the longest time they were the only SLR's that I owned, then last fall I found four more in a short period.