Spartus Full-Vue

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The simple Spartus Full-Vue plastic pseudo TLR was made from 1948 to 1960 by American manufacturer Spartus, later Herold Products. This model exposes 2¼" square images on 120 film. The lens of its viewfinder is larger in diameter than its taking lens, giving a bright finder image on the hooded matte screen.

The name "Full-Vue" resembles another box camera with big reflecting finder, the British Ful-Vue. In fact, the more direct connection is to the Falcon Magni-View from Utility Mfg. Co. of New York, several of whose models were reissued by Spartus[1]

Spartus used various metal face-plate designs and plastic moldings over the production period. Early examples were made of Bakelite, although later models may have been other plastics.

The Full-Vue is also seen labeled with "The Spencer Co." or "Galter Products Co." as the manufacturer's name—a nebulous distinction, as all these entities shared the same address on West Lake St. in Chicago[2].

Notes

  1. See this 1940 Magni-Vue advertisement for a sense of the similarities. From Popular Photography magazine, June 1940 (Vol. 6, No. 6) page 92.
  2. If you examine the Spartus Full-Vue manual linked to below, the camera pictured on its cover distinctly reads "Galter Products" below its lens; yet the company name used in the manual is "Herold Manufacturing Co, Not Inc."

Links



See The Chicago Cluster for more probably-related cameras and "companies"