This is a Salyut (Салют), a medium format SLR produced at the Arsenal plant in Kyiv, Soviet Union between the years 1957 and 1972. The Salyut was the first Soviet made medium format SLR, and is very similar, but not an exact copy of the original Hasselblad 1000 F. It…
This is a Pentacon Six TL, a single lens reflex medium format camera made by VEB Pentacon starting in 1966. The Pentacon Six TL shoots 6cm x 6cm images on regular 120 roll film, and is an evolution of the earlier Praktisix made by VEB Kamera-und Kinowerke first produced in…
This is a Suzuki Press Van, a medium format folding camera made by Suzuki Kōgaku Kōgyō K.K. in 1953. The Press Van is dual format, and can shoot both 6cm x 6cm images on 120 roll film and 24mm x 36mm images on 35mm film. This is the first version…
This is a Bronica S2, a medium format single lens reflex camera produced by Zenza Bronica Kogyo from 1965 to 1969. Originally built as a discount option to the Hasselblad medium format SLR, the Bronica S2 was an upgrade to the earlier Bronica S with the most significant change being…
This is a Super Fujica-6, a medium format folding camera made by Fuji Photo Industries in Japan starting in 1955. The Super Fujica-6 shoots 6×6 images on 120 format roll film and is an upgraded version of the original Fujica Six series that first went on sale in 1948, adding…
This is a Royer Teleroy, a medium format folding camera made in France by Société Industrielle de Technique Optique, or SITO for short, starting in 1950. The Teleroy featured a coupled rangefinder and shoots both 6cm x 9cm and 4.5cm x 6cm images on 120 or 620 roll film. This…
This is a Zeiss-Ikon Cocarette 519/2, a folding bed camera that shoots 6cm x 9cm images on 120 roll film. The Cocarette was considered a premium model in Zeiss-Ikon’s post merger catalog. Originally a Contessa-Nettel model that was first produced around 1919, the Cocarette was continued under the Zeiss-Ikon brand…
This is a Voigtländer Perkeo II, a folding medium format camera produced by Voigtländer AG Braunschweig of West Germany between the years 1952 and 1955. The Perkeo was a mid-level camera that shot 6cm x 6cm images on 120 roll film, built to good quality standards with a quality 4-element…
This is an ANSCO Color Clipper, a rigid bodied scale focus camera that shoots 6cm x 6cm images on 120 format roll film. The Color Clipper was part of ANSCO’s Clipper line which first went into production in the mid 1930s. Like all Clippers that came before it, the Color…
This review is part of the Cameras of the Dead series which I have been publishing every year on Halloween and “Halfway to” Halloween, featuring three cameras that I’ve wanted to review that either didn’t work, or was otherwise unable to shoot. I am republishing each of those individual reviews…
This is a Start B, a Twin Lens Reflex camera produced in Warsaw, Poland by Warsaw Photo-Optical Works or WZFO for short between the years of 1960 and 1967. The Start B was an updated version of the original Start TLR from 1954. WZFO was Poland’s first and only consumer…
This is a Plaubel Makina IIS, a folding medium format rangefinder camera made by Plaubel Feinmechanik und Optik in Frankfurt, Germany from 1936 to 1949. The Makina name was used on a series of professional cameras that date back to 1912 and came with a huge number of features, lenses,…