Franka

The Franka-Kamerawerk in Bayreuth was in its time the biggest camera factory in the Bavarian region of Oberfranken. It was bought by Wirgin in 1961. From 1909 to 1966 it built inexpensive cameras. The most distinctive cameras of Franka are the 16mm cameras with built-in meter which were developed together with Wirgin, and the twin-format cameras with two viewfinders.

History

Company names

In 1909 Franz Vyskocil and his wife Leoni Vyskocil had a small factory and shop for cameras and photographic supply in Stuttgart. In the same year they moved to Bayreuth, where they reopened their business as Vysko-Fabrik Franz Vyskocil, St. Georgen und Bayreuth. In newspapers they announced their new mass fabrication of folding cameras. In 1910 their sponsor Weigand from Berneck entered the company, then named Weigand & Vyskocil. In 1912 the company was refounded as Frankonia-Kamerawerk. In 1913 the company was refounded with Weigand as its sole owner and camera salesman A. W. Schulze from Dresden as partner. In 1914 the company was named Hogaschwerk. Five months later it got its final name, Franka-Kamerawerk.

Camera production

Until 1915 the company had been successfully producing plate cameras, among them one for a smaller format. In WWI this camera had been sold with slogans like "Mit Franka in den Krieg" (with Franka to war). The era of the Franka plate cameras lasted until 1930. The earliest cameras by Franka were made of metal. Two thirds of the camera production was made for export.

In 1915 Wolfgang Hirschmann entered the company as bookkeeper. In 1917 he replaced A. W. Schulze in the management. During the war and in the early 1920s the company had some nonphotographic products in its portfolio. In 1919 it moved from Bayreuth St. Georgen into an old liquor factory bulding in Bayreuth, and there the company stayed. The building had to be heightened in 1955. In 1941 Hirschmann's brother Hans and the longterm employee Georg Zettner became the managers. In 1959 Hans and Wolfgang Hirschmann together were owners of the company.

In 1930 the rollfilm era finally reached Franka. Many Franka rollfilm cameras were delivered with a separate frame which could be used optionally in the camera for shooting a smaller exposure format. In 1939 Franka constructed its first 35mm camera, but began its production slowly after the war. In 1955 the next 35mm model was offered, the Kleinbildkamera. It was the time when rollfilm camera production switched from 6×9 to 6×6 format cameras. The last own development was very successful, the Frankamatic Lux, with a selenium meter coupled to shutter, aperture and an underexposure indicator in the viewfinder. A camera conceived by Wirgin was the 16mm camera. Its further development and production was given to the Franka-Kamerawerk.

In 1958 the company had reached its peak with 154 employees and production of 650,000 cameras.

Wirgin

In November 1962 the company was bought by Henry Wirgin. Hans Hirschmann and Georg Zettner lost procurement but stayed in the company. Highlights of the last years of Franka were the cameras for 13×16 exposure format, sold as Franka 16 and Edixa 16. In 1966 the factory's production was stopped. In 1967 the machines were moved to Wiesbaden where they weren't used.

Franka-brand cameras

16mm

• 16

35mm viewfinder

• Kleinbildkamera
• Franka-matic
• Frankarette
• Super-Frankarette
• Francolor

• Champion IV
• Frankamatic Lux

6×6 viewfinder

• Solida Junior (folding)
• Solida-Record TS
• Solida Record (folding)
• Solida (folding)
• Solida I (folding)
• Solida II (folding)
• Solida III (folding)

6x6 rangefinder

• Solida II E (folding)
• Solida III E (folding)

6x6 lightmeter

• Solida II L (folding)
• Solida III L (folding)

6×6/4×4 twin-format viewfinder

• Solida-Record B (folding)
• Solida-Record T
• Solida Record (sold as OGA Solida Record I by Obergassner)
• Solida jr. (folding)

4×6.5

• Bubi

6×9 folding

• Rolf
• Rolfra
• Rolfix
• Rolfix II
• Bonafix
• Präzifix

6.5×11

• Idafix

4.5×6 plate cameras

• Westentaschen-Bubi (=vest pocket boy)
• Achro Bubi

9×12 plate cameras

• Klappkamera
• No. 150

Other

The Franka-Kamerawerk made cameras for camera traders like Porst, and from 1961 for its transferee Wirgin. In the mid-1960s the factory took over a part of the production of Agfa's cameras Silette, Rapid, Isoflash Rapid and Iso-Rapid I.

Sources

Web

• Franka Solida II at antjam65's site
• Franka page at Collection G. Even's site
• Foto-Museum Kurt Tauber (German)

Literature

• Heimatbeilage zum Oberfränkischen Schulanzeiger, Bayreuth Februar 2006 Nr. 326: Fotogeräte und -zubehör aus Oberfranken - Spurensuche, Teil 1: Das Franka-Kamerawerk Author: Bernd Arnal Editor: Government of Oberfranken