Bilora
Bilora is a German camera maker - Kürbi & Niggeloh, Radevormwald (founded 1909, with Camera production from 1935). The company's history began in 1909 with the foundation of KÜRBI & Niggeloh in Barmen-Rittershausen. In November, 1911 Wilhelm Kürbi and Carl Niggeloh started up with a new fabrication building in Radevormwald, producing, developing and managing in an building area of 1200m². In the following years, K.& N had many good ideas in tripod crafting and in time they started significant camera production.
In July, 1961 the first automation for synthetic parts was installed, because they expected a great future in synthetic parts. Years later the fabrication building was to small again and a second building was built, with 12,000m². Since this time production and stock keeping is settled here.
Cameras were produced from 1935 in Radevormwald. From the first "Box" to the "Bilomatic" line and the fabrication stopped in 1975. Imagine, in 21 years there were more than one million cameras produced.
In later years, the Bilora brand was used for camera accessories, particularly tripods.
Contents
- 1 Camera list
- 1.1 Box cameras
- 1.2 Boxes built after 1945 (Nachkriegsboxen)
- 1.3 OEM Assembly from Box-Cameras after 1945
- 1.4 Bilora Boy
- 1.5 Radix
- 1.6 Bonita-Boxen
- 1.7 Gevaert-Bonita
- 1.8 Bella
- 1.9 Bella 44 and Bella 46
- 1.10 Bella 66
- 1.11 Bella DC - 4
- 1.12 Kleinbild-Camera
- 1.13 Bellaluxa
- 1.14 Bellina
- 1.15 Bilomatic - 126 cartridges
- 1.16 Flash
- 2 Links
- 3 Bibliography
Camera list
Box cameras
- Bilora Box
- Stahl-Box, Wardette
- Box 1 - The first BILORA Box from 1935
- Box 2a - Sperr-Box
- Box 2b
- Box 2c
- Box 3 - Stop-Box
- Box 4 - The second Stahl-Box
- Voigtländer box
|
| Color Box image by Alf Sigaro (Image rights) |
Boxes built after 1945 (Nachkriegsboxen)
- Box 5 - The third Stahlbox
- Box 5a - perfective maintenance
- Box 6a - Blitz-Box "A"
- Box 6b - Blitz-Box "B"
- Box 6c - Blitz-Box "C"
- Box 6d - Blitz-Box "C" Version
- Box 6e - Blitz-Box "D"
- Box 7 - Color-Box
- Box 8 - Stahl-Box (the fourth)
- Box 10 - Spezial-Box
- Box 9a - Stafette Box
- Mikro-Box-Set
OEM Assembly from Box-Cameras after 1945
- Cariphot Box
- Tower Box 120
- Tower Flash 120
- Tower Flash 120 De Luxe
- Tower Model Five
- Tower Flash Model 7
- Tower Flash Model 8
- Wardette Box
|
| Boy image by normandie2005 (Image rights) |
Bilora Boy
- Boy 1
- Boy 2
- Boy 3
- Boy 4 (Mode-Boy black)
- Boy 5 (Mode-Boy red)
- Boy 6 (Boy-Luxus red)
- Luxus-Boy
- Luxus-Boy 2 (Blitz-Boy)
- Tower-Boy
- Tower-Junior
Radix
Bilora Radix 24 x 24 mm KB-Camera (for Karat-/Rapidfilm) c.1948–52
|
| Radix 56 image by Philip Krayna (Image rights) |
Bonita-Boxen
- Bonita 2 - Synchro-Flash
- Bonita 2a - "Elektra"
- Bonita 66
Gevaert-Bonita
Bella
- Bella 1 - The Ur-Bella
- Bella 2
- Bella 3a - Bella 55
- Bella 3b
- Bella 3c
|
| various Bellas image by OZBOX (Image rights) |
Bella 44 and Bella 46
- Ansco Lancer
- Bella 44 - 1
- Bella 44 - 1a
- Bella 44 - 2
- Bella 44 - 3
- Bella 46 - 1
- Bella 46 - 2
- Reporter Max II
- Revue 4x4 - Quelle
- Roxa 4-4
- Tower Nr. 5
Bella 66
- Bella 66 - I
- Bella 66 - IIa
- Bella 66 - IIb
- Bella 66 - IIc
- Bella 66 - 3
- Bella 66 "FLASH"
- GEVA 66
- Bella 66 - 4a
- Bella 66 - 4b
- Bella 66 - 4c "Standard"
- Bella 66 - 4d "Standard"
Bella DC - 4
Kleinbild-Camera
Bellaluxa
- Bella 66 -4e with included flash
- Bellaluxa 1
- Bellaluxa 2a
- Bellaluxa 2b
Bellina
- Auto-Bellina
- Bellina 1a
- Bellina 1b
- Bellina Standard grey
- Bellina Standard black
Bilomatic - 126 cartridges
- Bilomatic C with frame
- Bilomatic C without frame
- Bilomatic CA
- Bilomatic CA Set
- Bilomatic F
- Bilomatic X
- Revue-matic 350 CA
- Yashica Minipac
- Ikomatic A, Ikomatic F, Ikomatic CF
Flash
- Box Leuchte
- Luxa
- Luxa 2
- Luxa 2a
- Luxa 7023 flash
- Luxa 7027 flash
- Luxa de Luxe flash
- Luxi flash
- Luxa K
- Luxa Pan
Links
In German:
- Bilora cameras at www.kameraschaetze.de, presenting a huge number of Bilora cameras
- Bilora cameras at Helmuts Fotokiste
- The current company web site
In French:
Bibliography
- Wache, Peter. BILORA, 40 Jahre Kamerageschichte. Alle Kameras von 1935 bis 1975. Stuttgart: Lindemanns Verlag, 2nd edition, 2006.
