Photo & film cameras
from the mid to late 1930's
Zeiss
Box-Tengor 54/15
First made by Goerz (1924), the 3
initial Box-Tengor
models in the 54 series were continued after Goerz merged with 3 other
firms to form Zeiss Ikon (1926).
[Affordable Zeiss quality][Hide]
Zeiss Ikon built cameras at all levels of price and features, from the
fabled Contax, Contarex and Twin Lens Contaflex cameras that many
photographers dreamed of owning, but not many could afford, to the
simplest
box cameras and folding cameras. All were Zeiss top quality
construction, some just had more features than others.
Source:
www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/zeiss/tengor/54.htm
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The hexagonal plate around the lens
appeared with the release of the remoddeled variants of the 54
series in 1934.
Rather rare in this 6,5 x 11 cm format, it could be
dated anywhere from 1934 to 1938, when the 54/15 and 54/2 models were discontinued.
Zeiss
Box-Tengor 54/2
Zeiss Box-Tengor 55/2
Replacing
the 54/2 (and all other models in the 54 series), it came out in 1939
but saw limited production due to WW2 (making it quite rare).
Easily recognisable by the rounded decoration around the lens, the post war models featured a
chrome frame.
Detail of the name and model marking on
the back of the camera.
Its succesor, the 56/2 made from 1951 to
1956, was the the last of the (by then some 30 year old) Box-Tengor
family.
Eumig C3 (Solar), 8mm
Released in 1937 the C3 was part of a
revolutionary line of amateur camera's from the 1930's by the famous
Eumig firm.
Note the "Made in Austria" mark on the chromed plate.
[C series][Hide]
In 1928, Eumig began producing
film equipment, and four years later, in 1932, the first movie camera
"Eumig
C 1" for 9.5-mm film was introduced, and a second model, the "Eumig C
2," also for 9.5-mm film, was introduced in 1935. This was the first
movie camera in the world with semi-automatic tracking exposure
control.
In 1937
it introduced the movie cameras "Eumig C 3" (propelled by a spring
mechanism), and the "Eumig C 4," which was the first amateur film
camera in the world driven by electric motor. Overall, about 300,000
units of the C-3-series were built (including post-war production).
During this period, EUMIG benefitted from its employment of some of the
best-known European industrial designers, including Walter Maria
Kersting.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org
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[Eumig][Hide]
EUMIG was
founded in 1919 in Vienna, Austria. At its founding, the company
produced
lighters and cigarette cases and miscellaneous electrical materials.
In 1924, EUMIG began manufacturing
two models of radios, the "Low Loss Detektor Empfänger" ("Low Loss
detector receiver") and a smaller model, the "Eumig Baby." EUMIG
continued production of radio receivers and sound
recorders from 1924 until 1962.
In 1928, Eumig began producing film equipment and later became the
manufacturer of several models of the
well-known "Volksempfänger," or "People's Radio," that the Nazis used
to reach and control a huge audience throughout Germany in the 1930s
and 1940s.
By 1941 EUMIG had grown to 1,000 employees, and during the war years,
in
addition to radios and cameras EUMIG also produced military equipment.
Its factory on the Buchengasse in Vienna was destroyed in 1945 by
bombing, but fortunately, the machines were moved the previous year to
a branch in Micheldorf.EUMIG remained succesfull and grew after the war
untill an abrupt end in 1981.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org
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Standard lens ( Solar 1:1,9 f*12,5 ) by the well known microscope
builder C. Reichert, also based in Vienna (Eumig made lenses only after
1949).
As the very interesting documentary "Mein krieg" shows, these small
cameras accompagnied soldiers everywhere as they fitted
easily in their waffenrock pockets.
Made in 1937 or early 1938, this C3 still runs fine after some 75
years.
[Made in Austria... or Germany?][Hide]
While many sites on the
internet say a black C3 means pre-war (1937-1939) and a grey one post i
found few facts to support this, and although my serialnumber of 31825
seemed quite low on the total of 300.000 i remained unsure and kept
searching.
Googling for more examples i eventually came across an example with
serialnumber 37821, marked "Made in Germany", indicating Austria's
annexation by the German Reich had occured, dating it after 12/03/1938.
I assume this makes mine end 1937, start of 1938. |
[Mein krieg]
[Hide]
"Late in the 1980s, two
documentary film makers found six German men,
all in their 60s and 70s, who had been soldiers in the German invasion
of the USSR in 1942. Each carried an 8mm camera into battle and they
still had their film.
"Mein Kreig" alternates between interviews with
these older men, now apologetic, philosophical, or defiant about their
participation, and the footage they shot. It's chronological: basic
training, the train trip East, roof-top vistas of war-torn Warsaw,
peasants in Belarus, the downing with carbine volleys of a Russian
plane, winter, a holiday at the Black Sea, mud, impassable roads,
death, destruction and retreat. "Home, that was the front," one says. "
source:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0107547/ Link to
docusource: www.youtube.com
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