SFOM
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Société Française d’Optique et de Mécanique (S.F.O.M.) was a camera-maker in France, from before the Second World War until at least the 1970s.[1] The company was at 93 Avenue Victor Hugo, Rueil-Malmaison, in north-west Paris (except when evacuated during the occupation).
The company is known for a strange range of cameras:
- Espion:[2] 8x11mm subminiature camera, perhaps made for the army, shortly before the War.
- SFOMAX:[3] subminiature camera for 14x23mm pictures on 16mm film, perhaps made shortly after the War.
- SFOMFlex:[4] Scientific camera, apparently, making 24mm-square pictures on 35mm film, of a 3cm-wide field. Lens with ring-lights, on the end of a 9cm polished tube, perhaps for insertion into an apparatus or industrial machine.
- Type 681 Aerial Camera:[5][6]Aerial camera for 6x7cm images on 70mm film, probably made in the 1960s. Uses separate plug-in cloth roller shutter units, each with a fixed speed; the example cited at Leitz Auction has shutters for 1/300, 1/500 and 1/1000 second.
Notes
- ↑ Collection Appareils states that the company relocated to Pau in the Pyrenees during the occupation of France. The aerial camera seen at Leitz Auction is stamped with a 1971 date for the end of its guarantee, suggesting the company was still active then.
- ↑ Espion subminiature camera at Collection Appareils
- ↑ SFOMax subminiature camera at Collection Appareils
- ↑ SFOMFlex reflex scientific camera at Collection Appareils
- ↑ SFOM Type 681 Aerial Camera at Collection Appareils
- ↑ SFOM Type 681 camera offered at the 41st Leitz Photographica Auction, in November 2022. Camera with SFOM Cone 121.mm f/2 lens, with helical focus, and with yellow, orange and IR filters.
