Kolar

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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: 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.

Notes

  1. 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.
  2. Box Kolex sold at the 23rd Westlicht auction, in May 2013.
  3. 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).
  4. 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.
  5. Kola seen at Rahn auction Photographica 8 in January 2009.
  6. Kola with 7.5 cm f/4.5 Kolyt and Compur-Rapid shutter, sold at Auction 41 by LP Photoauktioner, on 28 April 2012.
  7. Kolex with Rekolar 7.5cm f/4.5 in Pronto shutter, and brown leather covering, offered for sale but unsold, at the 39th Leitz Photographica Auction, on 20 November 2021.
  8. 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.