Vokar I
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| Vokar I image by Rick Oleson (Image rights) |
The Vokar I camera had been designed by Richard Bills before WWII[1]; but during wartime the Electonic Prodcucts Manufacturing Co. had diverted its resources into making bomb-fuse components[2], delaying the camera's manufacture.
In late 1945 the company renamed itself "Vokar" (after its existing line of photo products)[3]. The Vokar I camera was first advertised in January, 1946 photography magazines[4].
The camera's sleek styling owed nothing to the boxy Argus C3, and for the era its specification was quite ambitious. It offered single-eyepiece framing and rangefinder focus; shutter cocking coupled to the film advance; an f/2.8 lens (at a time when f/3.5 or f/4.5 were standard) and a full range of shutter speeds from 1 to 1/300 sec.
However the small Vokar Corporation failed to make much of a dent in the US camera market, perhaps due to poor distribution. Sales were poor, and the camera disappeared rather quickly, making it a bit of a rarity today.
Notes
- ↑ Glass, brass, & chrome: the American 35mm miniature camera Kalton C. Lahue and Joseph A. Bailey; University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. pgs. 284-285
- ↑ "Trade Notes and News" Popular Photography (US magazine), January 1946, pg. 64.
- ↑ "Available Now: The New Vokar Streamlined Projector" (advertisement) Popular Photography (US magazine), December 1945, pg. 137.
- ↑ "Excellence… Vokar I" (advertisement) Popular Photography (US magazine), January 1946, pg. 107.
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| Back of Vokar I; showing oddly chromed internal parts image by Rick Oleson (Image rights) |
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| Earliest advertisement, January 1946 image by scan courtesy Voxphoto (Image rights) |
