A single-lens reflex camera (SLR) is a camera that typically uses a mirror and prism system that permits the photographer to view through the lens and see exactly what will be captured. With twin lens reflex and rangefinder cameras, the viewed image could be significantly different from the final image. When the shutter button is pressed on most SLRs, the mirror flips out of the light path, allowing light to pass through to the light receptor and the image to be captured.
A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder, typically a split-image rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus. Most varieties of rangefinder show two images of the same subject, one of which moves when a calibrated wheel is turned; when the two images coincide and fuse into one, the distance can be read off the wheel. Older, non-coupled rangefinder cameras display the focusing distance and require the photographer to transfer the value to the lens focus ring; cameras without built-in rangefinders could have an external rangefinder fitted into the accessory shoe. Earlier cameras of this type had separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows; later the rangefinder was incorporated into the viewfinder. More modern designs have rangefinders coupled to the focusing mechanism so that the lens is focused correctly when the rangefinder images fuse; compare with the focusing screen in non-autofocus SLRs.
The Instamatic is a series of inexpensive, easy-to-load 126 and 110 cameras made by Kodak beginning in 1963. The Instamatic was immensely successful, introducing a generation to low-cost photography and spawning numerous imitators.
The Pentax Auto 110 and Pentax Auto 110 Super were fully automatic single-lens reflex cameras manufactured by Asahi Pentax for use with Kodak 110 film cartridges. The Auto 110 was introduced with three interchangeable, fixed focal length lenses in 1978. A further three lenses were added in 1981 to coincide with the release of the Auto 110 Super the following year. The camera system was sold until 1985. The complete system is sometimes known as the Pentax System 10, apparently for its official Pentax name, although most Pentax advertising only uses the camera name or Pentax-110. This model represented the only complete ultraminiature SLR system manufactured for the 110 film format, although several fixed-lens 110 SLRs were sold. The camera system also claims to be the smallest interchangeable-lens SLR system ever created.
Schneider Kreuznach is the abbreviated name of the company Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, which is sometimes also simply referred to as Schneider. They are a manufacturer of industrial and photographic optics. The company was founded on 18 January 1913 by Joseph Schneider as Optische Anstalt Jos. Schneider & Co. at Bad Kreuznach in Germany. The company changed its name to Jos. Schneider & Co., Optische Werke, Kreuznach in 1922, and to the current Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH in 1998.
The Pentax K-mount, sometimes referred to as the "PK-mount", is a bayonet lens mount standard for mounting interchangeable photographic lenses to 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. It was created by Pentax in 1975, and has since been used by all Pentax 35 mm and digital SLRs and also the MILC Pentax K-01. A number of other manufacturers have also produced many K-mount lenses and K-mount cameras.
The history of the single-lens reflex camera (SLR) begins with the use of a reflex mirror in a camera obscura described in 1676, but it took a long time for the design to succeed for photographic cameras. The first patent was granted in 1861, and the first cameras were produced in 1884, but while elegantly simple in concept, they were very complex in practice. One by one these complexities were overcome as optical and mechanical technology advanced, and in the 1960s the SLR camera became the preferred design for many high-end camera formats.
Edixa is a brand of camera manufacturer Wirgin Kamerawerk which was based in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The product line included several 35mm cameras and 16mm Edixa 16 subminiature cameras designed by Heinz Waaske from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Retina was the brand-name of a long-running series of German-built Kodak 35mm cameras, produced from 1934 until 1969. Kodak Retina cameras were manufactured in Stuttgart-Wangen by the Kodak AG Dr. Nagel Werk which Kodak had acquired in December 1931.
Lens speed refers to the maximum aperture diameter, or minimum f-number, of a photographic lens. A lens with a larger than average maximum aperture is called a "fast lens" because it can achieve the same exposure as an average lens with a faster shutter speed. Conversely, a smaller maximum aperture is "slow" because it delivers less light intensity and requires a slower (longer) shutter speed.
The Konica F was the first 35 mm SLR camera produced by Konishiroku, released in February 1960.
The Minolta CLE is a TTL-metering automatic exposure aperture-priority 35 mm rangefinder camera using Leica M lenses, introduced by Minolta in 1980.
The Contaflex series is a family of 35mm Single-lens reflex cameras (SLR) equipped with a leaf shutter, produced by Zeiss Ikon in the 1950s and 1960s. The name was first used by Zeiss Ikon in 1935 for a 35mm Twin-lens reflex camera, the Contaflex TLR; for the earlier TLR, the -flex suffix referred to the integral reflex mirror for the viewfinder. The first SLR models, the Contaflex I and II have fixed lenses, while the later models have interchangeable lenses; eventually the Contaflexes became a camera system with a wide variety of accessories.
Heinz Waaske was a German camera designer, notably father of the Rollei 35.
Kodak Retinette is the name of a classic series of cameras manufactured by the Eastman Kodak company. They were introduced in 1939 as a less expensive alternative to the Kodak Retina series. The first models were of the folding type using bellows and their lenses had three elements as compared to the four element Tessar lenses of the Retina series. The first non-folding (rigid) variant was introduced in 1954 with the model 022. They most often featured Schneider Kreuznach Reomar lenses but, sometimes, Rodenstock Reomar lenses were installed. The Rodenstock lenses were based on the original Schneider Kreuznach triplet design. Kodak Anastigmat Angénieux lenses were also used especially for the French market. Common shutters included Compur–Rapid as well as various Pronto, Vero and Kodak models.
The Bessamatic was a line of 35mm SLR cameras made by Voigtländer in the 1960s, featuring a selenium meter. It uses a leaf shutter, similar to competing SLR cameras manufactured by Kodak and Zeiss Ikon in Germany, rather than the focal plane shutter almost universally adopted by Japanese SLRs such as the contemporary Nikon F and Pentax Spotmatic. The Bessamatic was supplemented by the Ultramatic in 1963, which used the same lens mount and added a shutter-priority autoexposure mode.
The Kine Exakta was the first 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) still camera in regular production. It was presented by Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen GmbH, Dresden at the Leipziger Frühjahrsmesse in March 1936. The Exakta name had already been used by Ihagee on a roll film rangefinder RF camera line since 1933, among these the Vest Pocket Exakta Model B from which the Kine Exakta inherited its general layout and appearance. The word Kine never appeared on the camera itself, only in the instruction manuals and advertising to distinguish it from the roll film variants. Several of its features constituted the foundation for the majority of 35mm SLR cameras produced ever since, although at this stage in a relatively primitive state.
Friedrich Deckel GmbH, also known as F.Deckel, was a German company founded by Friedrich Deckel and Christian Bruns in Munich as Bruns & Deckel in 1903. Its most famous product is the Compur line of leaf shutters used on many photographic lenses starting from 1911. Bruns and Deckel previously had worked together at C. A. Steinheil & Söhne; Bruns was an inventor responsible for developing leaf shutters while Deckel was a laboratory mechanic.
Rodenstock Photo Optics traces its origins to a mechanical workshop founded in 1877 by Josef Rodenstock and his brother Michael in Würzburg, Germany. The company relocated to Munich by 1884 and became an important manufacturer of both corrective lenses for glasses and camera lenses by the early 1900s. These two lines began to diverge in the 1960s as the center of photographic lens manufacturing shifted to Japan; the ophthalmic business continued as Rodenstock GmbH while the remaining camera lens business was repositioned to serve the large format and industrial precision optics markets, then spun off in 1996 as Rodenstock Präzisionsoptik. Since then, the precision optics brand has been acquired in succession by LINOS Photonics, Qioptiq Group, and Excelitas Technologies (2013).
The Vitessa was a line of 35mm compact rangefinder cameras made by Voigtländer in the 1950s, equipped with leaf shutters, similar in concept to and marketed against the competing Kodak Retina cameras manufactured by Kodak. Most of the Vitessa cameras were fixed-lens models equipped with collapsable lenses for portability. One of the later Vitessa models, the Vitessa T (1956), introduced the Deckel (DKL) bayonet mount for interchangeable photographic lenses.
