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The overlord of cameras in the 19th century said that the electronic age of cameras belonged to Japan, while the era of mechanical cameras was dominated by Germany. however, before the rise of small and medium-sized cameras in Germany in the 1930s, human photography had been invented for almost 100 years. In the process of 100 years of development, the British camera played a vital role and was the earliest camera kingdom.

Interestingly, the development of cameras in Britain, like its national power, has reached its peak and declined rapidly. Although politically, the German attempt to challenge the British world hegemony failed, the German camera won a landslide victory in the camera.

Today we will talk about the development of British cameras and show you some classic old British cameras. It feels like looking at the Bogu Museum of cameras.

In the first 50 years of the invention of photography, all kinds of photosensitive materials appeared on the scene, and all kinds of cameras appeared continuously. at this time, there was no concept of camera brand, and even the basic structure of cameras was being explored. British, French, American, Dutch, Belgian craftsmen make all kinds of cameras.

Soon, film photography became the mainstream of photography, from the wet version to the dry version and then to the later film, which was exposed one by one in that era, and the name film that we often call it also comes from this era. Later, when we entered the film era, although it was also exposed one by one, it put forward new requirements for the camera.

(British Wet Edition camera, 1860)

In this context, with the strong industrial technology and the formation of capitalist industrial society, industrialized camera production and camera brands began to appear in Britain. More importantly, however, the British began to define how photographic photography requires the design of cameras.

The British invented the modern multi-action large-frame camera and pioneered the large-frame photography technology.

The British invented the full-action large-frame camera, Sham's law is registered as a patent in the UK, and the British have also developed the basic frame size of the large-frame camera to replace the French size in the past. The standards such as 455057810 that we commonly use now are all British standards.

Back to the beginning, the Japanese are the electronic overlords, the Germans are the mechanical overlords, and the British are the pioneers of the camera world and the overlord of the wooden machine age.

Our modern large-frame camera was invented by the Englishman George Hull in 1882. this kind of camera is called Hare camera, which is the ancestor of large-frame camera. In 1895, the Englishman Sanderson added the front group to the Hare camera for pitching movement, which directly promoted the emergence of Sham's law and made the large-frame camera finally take shape. Sanderson is also known as the father of modern large-frame cameras in camera history.

The period from 1890 to 1920s was the most brilliant era for wooden cameras, and it was also the most brilliant era for British cameras. British wood machine is famous all over the world for its high quality, and there are many famous brands.

In fact, wooden machines tested the level of manufacturing, because at that time, the British, as a sunset empire, needed to take pictures all over the world, especially in the humid tropical rain forest, where the wood was easy to crack and cause light leakage. So as early as 1910, the British put forward the concept that the camera needed to adapt to the environment. At that time, the British wooden machine could be used normally in the cold environment of Canada, the humid environment of the rainforest in Africa and the dry environment of the African prairie.

This is adams & Co's Minex Tropical camera, produced in 1920, can be called one of the most gorgeous cameras in the UK wooden machine, we can look at its details, really handsome, 100 years later, we can still feel the quality of the British.

In the 1920s, Britain also began to produce folding metal machines. at that time, German cameras had begun to rise. In the era of folding metal machines, the German Chase Ikon camera Company had risen strongly, and in the 1930s, Chase Icahn has become the largest manufacturer of civilian cameras in the world.

However, before World War II, many camera factories in Britain still mainly produced wooden cameras, and their technical content gradually lagged behind the German cameras that used a lot of precision machines. especially in the 1930s, the technology of German cameras became more and more mature, such as Leica screw shaft, Zeiss contax card side shaft, and even Ecksantai SLR cameras. British camera technology lags far behind Germany.

In the era when German cameras broke out, Britain also had the famous Horton camera Company, which produced a series of ensign cameras, which were very famous.

The company is very old, started in 1840, and unlike some manufacturers that boast antiquity but actually had nothing to do with photographic technology, the company started by making Daguerre-style photographic equipment. Sanderson, the father of modern large frames, just mentioned, is manufactured and sold by Horton, and the brand is Sanderson.

In 1926 Horton merged the then Butcher camera Company, a company founded in 1860. In 1930, Horton established the ENSIGN branch and began to produce metal mechanical cameras, ENSIGN cameras.

From 1930 to World War II, the company mainly produced cameras similar to the Chase Icon metal folding machine, and the following AUTORANGE AUTOSPEED camera is their masterpiece, which was introduced in 1932. It is not only fully functional, with macular ranging (some do not), but also unlike ordinary metal machines, it does not use the inter-mirror shutter but uses the faster focal plane shutter at that time. This camera also comes with a variety of lenses, including Britain's own Dao Mei, Rose, and German Zeiss. Its performance is comparable to that of Zeiss's later folding machine.

However, Horton had been selling German cameras before it mass-produced them, so it also acquired some German technology. Their mechanical cameras mainly imitate contemporary German cameras.

After World War II, Horton merged with Rose, a veteran British optical company, to still produce foldable metal side-axis cameras, which had a market in the 1950s.

The AUTORANGE 16-20 camera, launched by ensign in 1953, uses 645 frames, is very small, and uses the latest viewfinder technology and macular focusing at the time, which shows that they still have some strength in camera manufacturing technology. In addition, their 820 cameras and 12-20 cameras also show a good level of camera manufacturing. However, these skin-cavity cameras simply cannot withstand the impact of emerging cameras such as Leica M3, Hassel 500C, Lulai 3.5, and even Nikon F.

In 1961, Horton stopped making cameras and retired from the stage of history.

Horton is the largest camera company in British history, and its collapse also symbolizes the collapse of the British camera industry.

Since the camera entered the mechanical age, the development of the British camera is to imitate the German camera, while the two old British optical manufacturers, Rose and Dao Mei, are also in decline, in terms of new materials and new designs, they not only lag far behind West German Zeiss, Flenda, and even Japanese Optics (later Nikon), when Japanese companies began to use a lot of rare earth lenses. Not only are materials lagging behind, but British optical designers are also lacklustre. There are no top optical talents like Zeiss's Bertre and Flenda's Turner.

Like France, Italy and Japan, the UK also has its own imitation Leica L39 brand, which is Reid, Reid camera Company. Among the many copies of Leica L39, Reid is of good quality.

Unlike many manufacturers who play Leica for commercial purposes, the birth of the REIDIII imitation Leica camera is a political mission.

During World War II, British spies and military intelligence photography also used Leica cameras, which were imported from Germany before the war. After World War II, Germany was blown up, and in order to ensure the supply of military photography equipment, the British occupation forces forced Leitz to hand over the design drawings of Leica cameras. Because the technical compensation was part of the war compensation, Leitz finally handed over a complete set of Leica IIIb documents.

Reid was originally a parts supplier to Hawk, a famous British aircraft company that made the famous Hurricane and Harrier fighters, and they were selected by the British military as the manufacturer of Leica cameras.

In 1947, Reid successfully imitated the Leica IIIb and made the REID III camera, all of which were used by the British government. The auction price of the camera engraved with the words of the British government is very high.

It was not until 1951 that the REIDIII was sold for civilian use, but production was very low. By the end of production in 1964, only 1600 units had been produced by REIDIII.

The picture below shows five kinds of REID cameras sorted out by the British.

Reid imitates Leica Iphe II penny III, and the output is not large. The REID camera is considered to be the best Leica L39 imitation camera. REID was acquired in 1964 and then stopped making cameras.

There are also imitation cameras in Britain, which also appeared after the war. They belong to the British company MPP, which imitates Lolai's ROLLEICORD and ROLLEIFLEX to make MICROCORD and MICROFLEX cameras. MPP is also the only British company that imitates Lulai from Germany.

Among them, the MICROFLEX camera launched in 1958, using and Lulai 3.5 very close operation and design, can do over the shutter linkage, automatic stop film, and so on at that time 120 camera advanced mechanical functions (do not underestimate these functions, not only difficult to do, and high failure rate, Lulai classic is not bragging) lens aspect is the use of British native Toylar company's 77.53.5 bow lens, Tiansai structure.

There are many famous camera manufacturers in the UK, as well as two very famous optical manufacturers, Rose and Dao Mei. In the past, they were as famous and powerful as the German companies Flenda and Zeiss. However, due to the impact of the war, the collapse of the Japanese empire, and the congenital disadvantage of materials, they finally withdrew from the stage of history.

The emergence of a large number of metal machines and Toylar lenses in the 1950s were the last flashbacks of British cameras, and these prewar outdated products were soon defeated by German mechanical cameras and Japanese bargains entering the battlefield three seconds later.

Later, the British camera even lost the position of the wooden machine, in fact, the wooden machine has been in production, has not stopped, but the British wooden machine has become a collection, and there is no decisive company to continue to produce.

This article is from the official Wechat account: film fan club (ID:jiaojuanmi), author: Shanghai Old dirty Turtle

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