Sterling-Howard
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| 1970 advertising for the Tele-Astranar 400mm image by Voxphoto (Image rights) |
Sterling-Howard was a retailer and mail-order company based in New York City, and later Yonkers, New York. They began national advertising circa 1947 with a mix of darkroom and war-surplus items, then growing to become a full-line camera & accessory dealer. Soon private-label photo items branded with an "Astra-" or "Ami-" prefix became a tradition. Rebadged cameras included:
- Astraflex II (Primarflex)
- Astraflex 35 (Contax D?)
- Astra 35 F-X (Praktica FX)
- Astraflex 1000 (Edixa Reflex)
By the 1970s Sterling-Howard had established their mail-order business in Yonkers, New York, separate from the Bronx retail store. Hereafter advertising narrowed to their Astranar house-brand lenses, and in particular one single product: the Tele-Astranar 400mm f/6.3 telephoto (a preset-aperture, T mount design). Notoriously advertised as "the Girl Watcher" lens this (and a few variations) remained their main mail-order offering until the company appears to have faded out in 1978 or so.
Links
- A selection of Sterling-Howard advertising from period magazines
