Stein & Binnewerg

Stein & Binnewerg from Freital was a German leaf shutter maker of which little information is available.
The company was founded in 1929 and taken over by Heinz Rumberg in 1964.

"Stein & Binnewerg" appears in the German Patent Office's names list of 1930/4th quarter. As well in the German machine, metal, and electric industry addressbook of 1938. In several photo enthusiast web sources the company is referred to as "Stein & Binneweg". Binnewerg is a common family name in Saxony. Thus we may trust those official lists which list the company as Stein & Binnewerg.

Their shutters can be identified by a SB logo.
All their leaf shutters observed so far are of the everset type with speed settings of 25-50-100-B-T.

Results of the investigation by Daniel Sánchez Torres:

The first SB shutters are copies of Gauthier's Vario two-blade shutter. Later Stein and Binnewerg introduced a similar own shutter named Automat with Art Deco style front - similar construction as the Vario copy but with reverse order of the shutter speed scale. Balda may have used SB shutters, but rebadged as Balda products.

The almost similar Stelo shutter made by Gebrüder Werner bears the GW logo, but uses the very same two-blade-shutter mechanism as the Automat - not to be confused with the B&L Automat shutter which was outdated then. Very probably there might have been a close cooperation of some kind between Stein&Binnewerg and Werner, concerning the SB Automat aka Stelo shutter. Both companies were located in just 6 kilometres distance from another.

Usage list

Stein & Binnewerg shutters were at least used on these cameras :

Balda Juwella Beier Beirax Eho Altiflex Eho Altissa Box II Eho Super Altissa Franka Bonafix (pre-ww2 model) Wirgin Auta Hilla (wooden 35mm camera)

left:Stein & Binnewerg shutter insides, right: shutter front with SB logo images by Howard Sandler (Image rights)