KW

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Camera industry in Dresden
Balda | Certo | Eho-Altissa | Eichapfel | Ernemann | Feinmess | Heyde | Hamaphot | Huth | Hüttig | ICA | Ihagee | Kochmann | Kerman | KW | Eugen Loeber | Ludwig | Mentor | Merkel | Meyer | Mimosa | Pentacon | Richter | Sommer | Stübiger | Unger & Hoffmann | Werner | Wünsche | Zeiss Ikon | Zeh
Camera distributors in Dresden
Stöckig
Camera industry in Freital
Beier | Pouva | Thowe | Welta

KW is a German manufacturer, founded in 1919. KW stands for Kamera Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch. The company was successor of the camera factory Guthe which had been founded in 1915. In 1931 it introduced the first TLR for 127 film, the Pilot. In 1938 the Jewish owners moved to the USA, taking over a photocopying company from Charles A. Noble in exchange for the Kamera-Werkstätten.

The company is mostly known for the Praktiflex 35mm SLR, developed by Benno Thorsch und Alois Hoheisel. The company moved to a larger factory building in the Bismarckstrasse and launched the new camera in 1939, that became the Praktica after the war. KW was situated in the Eastern part of Germany, in the German photo-optical capital Dresden. Thus it was nationalised in 1945 by the Eastgerman postwar Soviet controlled regime. Charles A. Noble was arrested in a working camp in Siberia until President Eisenhower's personal intervention in 1955.

The company launched the innovative Praktina in 1952, and was renamed to Kamera Werk Niedersedlitz. In 1956 it launched the Praktisix 6x6 SLR. In the mid-fifties it was merged with the Eastgerman part of Zeiss Ikon to give VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke, and took over the production of the Contax F, a development of the Contax S. In 1964 it became VEB Pentacon, while continuing the production of Praktica models.

After reunification of Germany in 1990 John H. Noble tried to get back factory and camera brand. He got back the old factory in the Bismarckstrasse, now called Kamera Werk Dresden. It makes the Noblex 35mm panorama cameras.

The Praktica brand stayed in the hands of Pentacon, used for the last Praktica SLRs until 2000, and for OEM-made compact cameras and compact digicams which are produced in East Asia.

35mm film cameras

Viewfinder

Panorama

  • Noblex

SLR

Praktiflex

Praktica

See Pentacon.

Praktina

Contax F

See Contax S.

120 film cameras

Praktisix

See Pentacon.

Other SLR

  • Pilot 6
  • Pilot 6 super

127 film cameras

Plate cameras

Links

In English: