Kolar

Václav Kolář was a camera maker in the Modřany area of Prague in the 1930s. McKeown states that the company stopped operating in 1935.^[1]

Cameras

Box Kolex: box camera for 4.5x6 cm plates in single holders. Metal body with brown leather covering. 7.5 cm f/6.3 Rekolar with front-element focusing and Vario shutter, and large folding frame finder on one side.^[2]^[3]
Box-Reflex: pseudo-TLR for roll film, similar to the Brillant. Bakelite body, 7.5 cm f/6.3 Rekolar with front-element focusing and Vario shutter.^[3]
Kola-Flex: similar bakelite camera, but with externally gear-linked viewing and taking lenses, so a true TLR camera,^[1] with 75 mm f/3.5 Kolyt and Compur shutter.
Diar (or perhaps Kola-Diar): a metal-bodied camera for paper-backed 35-mm roll film. The lens-tube collapses into the body. Československé fotoaparáty shows an example with an un-named lens (without an obvious focus control), simple shutter and folding frame finder.^[3] A Polish collector's site shows two better-specified examples, one with an f/6.3 Kola-Diar Achromat and another with an f/3.5 Radionar, both with front-element focusing and with a Vario shutter.^[4] Notes on the camera at that site state that the camera makes twelve exposures, 32 mm square, on a roll.

Kola with Rekolar f/6.3 f=7.5cm lens (Image rights)

Kola: camera for 4x4 cm exposures on 127 film. Box-shaped metal body, with the back fastening with spring clips which grip the front plate. 5 cm lenses including Kolar's own f/3.5 Rekolar,^[5] f/4.5 Laack Dialytar and f/3.5 Tessar,^[3] and Compur shutter. Some examples have front-element focusing; others have helical focusing, with a large ring behind the lens and shutter. Film advance knob with frame-counter (no red window). At least some early cameras have a folding reverse-Galilean viewfinder;^[3] most examples seen, however, have a small tubular one. A special long-lens model was made with a 7.5 cm f/4.5 Kolyt lens mounted on a short lens-tube.^[6]
Kolex: folding 4.5x6 cm plate camera, vertically-oriented, with any of several 75 mm lenses, including the Rekolar in apertures from f/6.3 to f/3.5.^[7]
Box-Kolex:
Kolarex: folding viewfinder camera for 4x6.5 cm exposures on 127 film.^[3]
Klaskop: Stereo camera, 30x40 or 40x40 format
Kolette: 4,5x6 format
Kolimax
Prototype 35-mm camera:^[8] apparently for paper-backed film (it has a red window), with 5.5 cm f/4.5 Kolar anastigmat and Koilos shutter, mounted with a helical focus ring. The camera has a tubular reverse-Galilean finder on the top plate, and a brilliant finder for vertical use. The example cited is the only one known to exist.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p536-7.
↑ Box Kolex sold at the 23rd Westlicht auction, in May 2013.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 ^3.4 ^3.5 Kolar cameras formerly shown at Georgios Kostikidis' Československé fotoaparáty... (Czechoslovak Cameras); unfortunately only available as an archive, with only thumbnail pictures, at the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine; showed pictures of the Box Kolex, Box-Reflex, Kolarex, Diar, and four examples of the Kola with different lenses (one described as the 'first model', the only example seen with a folding viewfinder).
↑ Diar with Achromat and with Radionar at Kulviecki's Moje Małe Foto-Muzeum (My Little Photo-Museum) - text in Polish with several pictures of each camera.
↑ Kola with 5 cm f/3.5 Anastigmat Rekolar, sold at the Photographica 8 sale, on 25 January 2009, by Rahn AG.
↑ Kola with 7.5 cm f/4.5 Kolyt and Compur-Rapid shutter, sold at Auction 41 by LP Photoauktioner, on 28 April 2012.
↑ Kolex with Rekolar 7.5cm f/4.5 in Pronto shutter, and brown leather covering, offered for sale at the 39th Leitz Photoraphica Auction, on 20 November 2021.
↑ Kolar prototype 35-mm camera with 5.5 cm f/4.5 Kolar anastigmat and Koilos shutter, sold at the 24th Westlicht auction, on 23 November 2013.