Say 'Cheese' in Style With These Vintage Polish Film Cameras
We’ve all heard about film cameras like Kodak, Leica and Pentax… But do you know the ‘Sida Optyka’, the ‘Start I’ or the ‘Alfa’? Here, we take a look at these and other film cameras made in Poland.
The first 35mm cameras available to the public emerged in 1913, right before World War I. Film cameras were widely in use until the mid 1980s and 1990s, when they were largely replaced by digital cameras. But film isn’t dead yet – in our increasingly digitised world, it seems to be experiencing a second youth. With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the finest examples of Polish film cameras throughout history.
Cameras produced before World War II
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‘Filma’ cameras, photo: from the collection of http://www.polskie-aparaty-fotograficzne.pl
Before World War II, there were only a few photographic companies operating in Poland. Production was mainly focussed on the domestic market – at that time, they could never compete with the highly developed German market, which was thriving in Europe.
The most famous photographic company at that time was Piotr Lebiedziński’s factory and FOS/Phos Varsovie. FOS operated until World War I started and then moved to St Petersburg, Russia. After Poland regained independence, Polish Optical Factories was founded in 1921 – and been operating ever since.
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‘Sida Optyka’ camera, 1938, photo: from the collection of http://www.polskie-aparaty-fotograficzne.pl
Amongst some of the most famous film cameras produced before the World War II was the Filma – a box-like camera for 6x9 film. Filma’s production began in 1934 in the Kamera Factory in Chodzież. Another interesting camera produced in 1937 was Sida Optyka – it became known as ‘the smallest camera ever produced in Poland’.
Right after World War II ended, the communist authorities in Poland perceived photographic technological development as crucial in supporting their widespread propaganda. In 1945, the Department of Film Propaganda (under the Ministry of Information and Propaganda) was moved from Lublin to Łódź.
In Łódź, the department opened its own independent office – the Fabrication Department, which later changed its name to Łódź Cinematic Works. This is where the first-ever cinema equipment and projectors were produced in Poland.
At the same time, there were new photographic workshops opening in Warsaw. In 1951, Prime Minister Bolesław Bierut founded Warsaw Cine-Technical Works. Oversight of the company was given to the Central Cinematography Committee of Poland, which passed the company to the Heavy Industry Ministry in 1952. The Heavy Industry Ministry decided that Warsaw Cine-Technical Works would specialise in manufacturing photographic equipment.
In March 1953, a team under the direction of Tadeusz Lisowski started working on a film camera. The first prototypes were named the Wisła, Mazur and Jubilat, until finally, the first Polish film camera got its final name: the Start I.
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‘Start I’, ‘Start II’, ‘Start-B’ & ‘Start 66 S‘ cameras, from the exhibition ‘Polskie Aparaty Fotograficzne’ (Polish Photographic Cameras), 2019, Hevelianum, Gdańsk, photo: Grzegorz Mehring / Hevelianum
The Start I was a two-lens reflex camera for 6x6 square-format films. The constructors and technicians working on the camera said that their main purpose was to create a camera which would be widely accessible and become a valuable tool for amateur photographers.
The prototype of the Start was so good that in the same year Warsaw Cine-Technical Works decided to enlarge its production’s scale. Even though it was the first camera produced by Warsaw Cine-Technical Works, its quality did not diverge from cameras produced by other, more developed European countries.
In 1954, Warsaw Cine-Technical Works changed its name to Warsaw Photo-Optical Works (WZFO) and decided to follow up to the successful debut of Start I with another model. Some of the technical aspects of the first version were slightly improved, and the design was changed – including changing the logo’s typeface to a handwritten one. The new model was simply named the Start, without the roman numeral. The Start was produced on a mass scale until 1960.
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‘Zefir’ camera, from the exhibition ‘Polskie Aparaty Fotograficzne’ (Polish Photographic Cameras), 2019, photo: Jerzy Pinkas / www.gdansk.pl
Roughly at the same time when Warsaw Photo-Optical Works finished the second model of the Start I, they started working on another camera with a smaller camera-cage format: 24x36mm. The first prototype was made in 1957 by Feliks Sujkowski and was named the Fenix.
Shortly after the first one, the next model followed – the Fenix II, wit viewfinder and rangefinder lenses which immensely improved the adjustment of sharpness. The Fenix became widely popular and was produced on a large scale until the mid-1960s.
There were many other models that came after the Fenix and Fenix II, such as the Fenix IS, IIS, Ia, IIa, Ib and IIb… For needs of those cameras, Warsaw Cine-Technical Works constructed a brand new object-lens, the Kobar, and the Synchro-Sudor shutter, which offered an expanded exposure time between 1s and 1/300s.
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‘Alfa’ camera by Krzysztof Meisner & Olgierd Rutkowski, 1958-59, photo: Piotr Spek
The next famous film camera was the Alfa, designed by Krzysztof Meisner and Olgierd Rutkowski. The body of the camera had a modern, streamlined shape, and it was varnished with a range of pastel colours, such as light blue or yellow. The front of the camera was covered with a corrugated silver plate.
The Alfa emerged on the market in 1961, and it immediately became a hit – not only in Poland, but in other European countries as well. Unfortunately, although the design of the camera was beautiful, it was not durable enough to work long-term.
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‘Zefir’ cameras, from the exhibition ‘Polskie Aparaty Fotograficzne’ (Polish Photographic Cameras), 2019, photo: Jerzy Pinkas / www.gdansk.pl
The last small-sized cage camera produced by Warsaw Photo-Optical Works was the Zefir. It was designed in 1965 and was supposed to substitute for widely produced Fenix. The design of the Zefir was very minimal and classic – the body of the camera was metal, with a few elements covered with frosted chrome.
There were two models of the Zefir, but in the end, neither of them was produced on a large scale – it turned out that the cost of production was too high, and there were already other cheaper cameras available.
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'Druh' camera, Drzeńsk Wielki, photo: Bartlomiej Kudowicz / Forum
The most widely produced film cameras from Poland were the Druh and the Ami – there were over 2,500,000 of them. The production of the Druh started in 1955. Its design was in the Art Deco style with a fixed-focus lens, and the camera was much easier to operate than the Start.
The Druh ended up becoming super popular in Poland, with people buying it as a Christmas present or First Communion gift for children. The production reached over 1,100,000 cameras; the model was changed over the years, including minor visual adjustments.
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‘Ami’ cameras, from the exhibition ‘Polskie Aparaty Fotograficzne’ (Polish Photographic Cameras), 2019, Hevelianum, Gdańsk, photo: Grzegorz Mehring / Hevelianum
The Ami came later, in 1965. It was made from Styrofoam and was therefore much lighter than its predecessor. Almost immediately after the Ami entered the market, the next model was made – the Ami 2. It had better lens and a snapshot with four exposure times. Altogether, almost 1,400,000 Ami cameras were produced.
Blame it on the magic of film
Most of the cameras mentioned above are currently considered rare collectibles – only to be found in a grandfather’s attic or at a yard sale. However, they all established themselves as proud representatives of Polish film photography and are now back in the spotlight.
With digital cameras easily available everywhere in the world, analogue photography is much more demanding – and that’s the whole magic of it. Making an effort to find your perfect camera, developing the film and not knowing until the very last moment how your photos turn out, vignette effects and other ‘happy accidents’… Figuring it out is half the fun!
Written by Ola Galewicz, 16 Sep 2020
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