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Silvestri is an Italian manufacturer of professional photographic cameras and large format cameras.
The production of the Silvestri cameras started in Florence, Italy, at the beginning of the eighties by the work of Vincenzo Silvestri who designed and developed the original project. The intent was to provide photographers of architecture, indoor and outdoor, with a wide-angle camera that was compact and light-weight, compared to the large view cameras produced in that period, and with the essential movements for perspective correction.
The first camera, the SLV, was born with the 6X7 / 6X9 format, with a rotating back with click stop every 90 degrees and the lens, a Super Angulon 5,6/47 mm in focusing helical mount by Schneider, was not interchangeable. The shift mechanism permitted a total rise or fall of 25 mm, it consisted of a control knob and two counter-posed screws right/left and allowed a precise setting and locking of the shift. The attachment of the roll film back was Graflex compatible which opened the system to the application of various backs like Mamiya, Horseman, Wista, etc. The image viewing and the focusing were made on the round glass using a magnifying lens in a leather bellows. The whole camera structure was made in anodized aluminum and worked with CNC machinery, ensuring constructive exactness and reliability.
From a conceptual point of view, the SLV camera is allowed to shift in any direction by simply placing and leveling the back horizontally or vertically and by orienting the camera body by leaning it to the right or left, or upwards or upside down. Some samples of this first model were made in an almost handcrafted way but meeting a good interest among the specialized photographers, Silvestri was pushed to develop a new and improved model of SLV.
This second model had a bayonet for attaching the lenses and an interchangeable system for the backs. This gave the SLV a major extension and flexibility and the range of lenses grew to 3 Schneider Schneider lenses: Super Angulon 5,6/65 mm, Super Angulon 5,6/75 mm and Symmar 5,6/100 mm, beside the Super Angulon 5,6/47 mm, all lenses had a bayonet attachment and a focusing helical mount. The interchangeable backs allowed to insertion of the extension rings to compensate for the difference in focal distance among the various lenses. The 4 points of 8° attachment, quick and precise to use, also accept backs of different formats like the 6x12cm and the 4x5”.
These modifications opened to the SLV new fields of application and attracted other photographers from Italy and abroad. The SLV was substituted by the T30 camera in 1997, The T30, having 30 mm of shift movement, was more suitable to the new lenses with lager image circle that were introduced on the market in that period. The T30 is still in production.
A further step towards flexibility of use consists in the design and production of the shiftable viewfinder with interchangeable frames. The viewfinder is extremely useful for quick work and in difficult work situations compared to viewing the image on the ground glass.
A new concept camera that renews the characteristics of the SLV, using most of its accessories, has the shiftable viewfinder embodied which coupled with the shift movement gives operative easiness and simplicity of use. The lens-format frames are interchangeable, starting from the Schneider series the including the Rodenstock one too. The camera is now out of production.
The S4 camera was designed later to answer the need for full coverage of the 4x5 inches format, whereas the SLV camera could not give enough versatility with this format. Standard 4x5 inches back with format adapters for 6x9 and 6x12, interchangeable backs with short rotation attachment 8° and bayonet attachment or interchangeable lens boards for the lenses. Large in dimension, it is later provided with front bellows (Flexibellow) that perform the lens focusing, tilting, and swinging. With this accessory, the lenses can be used without a focusing mount and permitted the focus extension on the two orthogonal axes by using the lens tilting and swinging. The S4 camera is still in production.
With the arrival of digital photography and considering that it would substitute le film in a short time, Silvestri began to study a camera able to face the double need of working with film but at the same time can be converted back to digital applications. There were two possible solutions, the scan backs and the matrix ones. The choice selected the matrix backs, creating a compact, easy-to-carry, proportioned to the small size of the high-resolution sensors. Two series of Rodenstock and Schneider lenses, from the 23 mm to the long focal ones, specifically designed for high-resolution digital photography are its range of lenses. The Bicam introduced in the late nineties was added with new accessories and components so to follow the continuous evolution of the sensors’ technology. Its main characteristics are the possibility to work with lenses mounted in helical focusing mount and bayonet, or with a bellows system which adds to the camera all the necessary correction movements typical of view cameras; side shift, rise and fall, tilt and swing; all movements are extremely precise and micrometric. The reversible and interchangeable backs have a large range of accessories, from the sliding adapters with viewing screens and drop-in plates to interface the most popular digital backs: Hasselblad V, Hasselblad H, Mamiya 645, Contax 645, Rollei AFI.
Classical view camera. Designed for studio photography, it has full micrometric movements. All the parts related to lenses and backs are interchangeable. The lenses are on board or bayonet, le lens boards are flat or recessed, and the lenses have no need for a helical focusing mount. The backs and their accessories are in common with the Bicam system. The bellows are interchangeable. The peculiarity of the S5 micron is to be built on two separate shifting blocks that do not interfere between them allowing the two standards to get to touching. This characteristic makes it possible to use extremely wide-angle lenses and to perform adjustment movements otherwise impossible. The S5 camera was published in the ADI Index 2005 for the industrial design award the Compasso d'oro.
Award winner for the best project at the Premio Vespucci 2008. This camera was conceived for on-location works, lightweight (less than 1 kg.), and with absolute precision for the use of high-resolution digital backs. It offers the flexibility of a mini view camera having the same essential correction movements. Rise and fall, rail extension with the micrometric movement of the focus, tilt, and swing. Rodenstock and Schneider lenses on Silvestri bayonet, from 23 mm to 120 mm, back adapter for high-resolution digital backs, T attachment for SLR cameras.
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.
A view camera is a large-format camera in which the lens forms an inverted image on a ground-glass screen directly at the film plane. The image is viewed, composed, and focused, then the glass screen is replaced with the film to expose exactly the same image seen on the screen.
A twin-lens reflex camera (TLR) is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens", while the other is used for the viewfinder system, which is usually viewed from above at waist level.
A press camera is a medium or large format view camera that was predominantly used by press photographers in the early to mid-20th century. It was largely replaced for press photography by 35mm film cameras in the 1960s, and subsequently, by digital cameras. The quintessential press camera was the Speed Graphic. Press cameras are still used as portable and rugged view cameras.
The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first to combine them all in one camera. It was produced until October 1973 and was replaced by the Nikon F2. Aspects of its design remain in all of Nikon's subsequent SLR cameras, through the current Nikon F6 film and Nikon D6 digital models. The "F" in Nikon F was selected from the term "re-f-lex", since the pronunciation of the first letter "R" is not available in many Asian languages. That tradition was carried all the way through their top line of Nikon cameras until the introduction of the Nikon D1 (digital) cameras decades later.
Sinar Photography AG is a Swiss company based in Zurich manufacturing specialized high-resolution view cameras for studio, reproduction, landscape and architecture photography.
Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH is 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 Plaubel Makina was a series of medium format press cameras. Makina cameras had leaf shutters and rangefinder focusing with collapsible bellows, except for the specialized 69W Proshift model.
The Mamiya C220 is a lightweight twin-lens reflex camera made in the early 1970s by the Japanese camera manufacturer Mamiya. The camera has interchangeable lenses ranging from 55 mm wide-angle to 250 mm telephoto and accepts 120 and 220 rollfilms. The rack and pinion focusing system with a bellows makes it possible for close-up photography without attachments. The straight film path has no sharp turns for absolute flatness of the film.
The Kodak Retina Reflex is a discontinued series of four single-lens reflex cameras made by Kodak in Germany between 1957 and 1974, as part of the Kodak Retina line of 35mm film cameras.
The Micro Four Thirds system is a standard released by Olympus and Panasonic in 2008, for the design and development of mirrorless interchangeable lens digital cameras, camcorders and lenses. Camera bodies are available from Blackmagic, DJI, JVC, Kodak, Olympus, Panasonic, Sharp, and Xiaomi. MFT lenses are produced by Cosina Voigtländer, DJI, Kowa, Kodak, Mitakon, Olympus, Panasonic, Samyang, Sharp, Sigma, SLR Magic, Tamron, Tokina, TTArtisan, Veydra, Xiaomi, Laowa, Yongnuo, Zonlai, Lensbaby, Venus Optics and 7artisans amongst others.
The Topcon RE Super, or Beseler Topcon Super D in USA, was launched by Tokyo Kogaku KK in 1963 and manufactured until 1971, at which point it was upgraded to the Super D and again to Super DM the following year. General sale continued for several years. These later models have a shutter release lock lever on the shutter release collar. It is a professional oriented 35mm SLR camera that had a comprehensive range of accessories available. It has a removable pentaprism viewfinder and focusing screen. It features the Exakta bayonet lens mount for interchangeable lenses. A special accessory shoe is situated at the base of the rewind knob with a standard PC sync. contact next to it. The release button is placed at the right-hand camera front, but there is no mirror-up facility; this was included on the upgraded versions. The standard lens is the RE. Auto-Topcor 1:1.4 f=5.8cm or the slightly slower 1:1.8 version. A battery-operated winder could be attached to the camera base.
Contarex is a line of 35mm single lens reflex cameras (SLRs) made by Zeiss Ikon. It was first presented at Photokina in 1958 and initially scheduled for delivery in the spring of 1959, but it was not made generally available in the United States until March 1960. The first model is popularly known as the Contarex I, the Bullseye, or the Cyclops, after the prominent light meter window above the lens, in front of the pentaprism. The camera was aimed at the high-end and professional markets; in 1961, the retail price was $499.
The Pentax 6×7 is a SLR medium format system film camera for 120 and 220 film, which produces images on the film that are nominally 6 cm by 7 cm in size, made by Pentax. It originally debuted in 1965 as a prototype dubbed the Pentax 220. Since then, with improvements, it was released in 1969 as the Asahi Pentax 6×7, as well as the Honeywell Pentax 6×7 for the United States import market. In 1990, it received a number of minor engineering updates and cosmetic changes and was renamed as the Pentax 67.
Biogon is the brand name of Carl Zeiss for a series of photographic camera lenses, first introduced in 1934. Biogons are typically wide-angle lenses.
The Fuji GX680 is a series of single lens reflex system cameras for medium format film produced by Fujifilm with interchangeable camera lenses and interchangeable film holders for the unusual film format 6×8 cm on 120 and 220 roll film. The distinguishing feature of the Fuji GX680 is the articulating front standard, which runs on a rail connecting lens and camera body by a bellows; the interchangeable lens is permanently mounted to a lens board.
The Mamiya Press is a line of medium-format rangefinder system press cameras manufactured by Mamiya. The first model was introduced in 1960, and the final model was discontinued in the 1970s. It was targeted at the professional press photography market, and a wide array of accessories was offered.
The Mamiya C series is a line of twin-lens reflex medium-format system cameras manufactured by Mamiya between 1956 and 1994. It was developed from the Mamiyaflex series of cameras built from 1949 to 1956. The Mamiya C series was initially aimed at the professional market, but some later models were intended for amateurs.
Plaubel is a German camera maker, founded in November, 1902, by Hugo Schrader, who learned the technology of cameras and lenses as an apprentice at Voigtländer in Braunschweig in the late 1800s before being employed by a Frankfurt camera and lens manufacturer and distributor, Dr. R. Krügener, whose daughter he married. Hugo Schrader and his wife elected to open their own business, Plaubel & Co., as distributors and makers of cameras and lenses, naming it after his brother-in-law because he thought Plaubel was easier to remember than Schrader.
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).
