Imperial Reflex 620 Duo Lens
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| image by John Kratz (Image rights) |
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| image by Rick Soloway (Image rights) |
The Imperial Reflex 620 duo lens was a simple plastic box camera made by Imperial for 620 film.
Its most notable feature was a brilliant finder (actually a "Watson" finder with a ground-glass plate and a hood). It was styled to resemble the finder of a TLR . It also had flash-sync contacts and a sturdy plastic strap. In addition to the black and grey and black and cream variants shown here, both with red trigger and knob, there is also a black variant with grey trigger and knob, and metallic grey face-plate.
There was a version of this camera marked "OFFICIAL CAMERA, Boy Scouts of America."
While it appears comparable to, say, a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, as it's a 620 box camera with a brilliant finder and flash contacts, it is a somewhat inferior camera. The finder is of far lesser quality, being quite dim, and as the two lenses are of entirely different sizes and shapes, it is unlikely that it gives a good impression of the focus or depth of field, so it's actually little better than a frame finder. The shutter lacks a bulb exposure setting. However, as cheaply as one can sometimes find this camera at thrift stores and yard sales, it can be a nice introduction to lomography. It can take 120 spools with less friction than a Hawkeye can, and every part of it is quite sturdy.
