Komlosy
Komlosy was a camera-maker in Dunstable, UK.
The company is known for one aerial camera, for 2¼-inch square pictures on 70mm film, perhaps from the Second World War or shortly after. Serial numbers of the few examples seen are in the range 105 to 192,[1][2] suggesting that perhaps only about one hundred examples were made. The camera is stamped AP 8960; notes at Westlicht state that AP stands for Admiralty Pattern,[2] so the cameras may have been made only for the RAF or Fleet Air Arm.
The camera is metal-bodied, and painted with a dark-grey powder-finish paint. It has a 75mm f/3.5 Ross Xpres lens, with a lens shutter giving speeds 1 - 1/500 second, plus 'B'. The lens focuses down to 5 feet with a scale on the front of the lens, and stops down to f/22. To the right of the lens is the shutter release, a brown bakelite knob, described by some sellers as being oversized for easy use when wearing gloves.[1] On the left is a similarly oversized aluminium film-advance handle. On the top of the camera are a folding frame finder and the frame counter, counting up to 40. Some examples seen are packed in a plywood case, stencilled with the description and serial number of the camera.
Grace's Guide lists Peeling & Komlosy of 181 Victoria Street, Dunstable, showing pages from a 1955 catalogue describing that firm as the sole UK wholesale distributor for Zeiss Ikon,[3] and the company is named as distributor for new Zeiss Ikon products reported in the BJ Almanac of 1954.[4] The Almanac also lists S.W. Komlosy at the same address as a photographic equipment repairer.[5] Peeling and Komlosy was dissolved in 1969.[6]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Aerial camera serial no. 105 listed as lot 133 of the auction General Photographica by Chiswick Auctions, 15 April 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Aerial camera serial no 190 (according to the auction listing; however, the box is clearly numbered for serial no. 192) sold at the 2nd/3rd Westlicht Photographica Auction, in May 2003.
- ↑ Peeling & Komlosy listing at Grace's Guide, with catalogue pages.
- ↑ British Journal Almanac 1954 (with search for 'Komlosy' applied) at Internet Archive.
- ↑ BJ Almanac 1954 as above, p460.
- ↑ London Gazette company dissolution notices, Issue 44917, page 8333, 12 August 1969.
Links
- Aerial camera serial no. 129 sold by Anderson & Garland in Newcastle upon Tyne in April 2019.
- Aerial camera serial no. 142 sold by Fuller's LLC in Philadelphia in November 2011; listing at the LiveAuctioneers site.
- Aerial camera serial no. 168 listed as Ebay item 497114428; listing reproduced at Worthpoint.
