Personal cameras in the UK or Germany in the 1940s?

Hi all,

I got my postwar photos of 2nd Division in ~1949 in the mail today. I was just wondering what sort of camera would they have likely been taken with? The prints are very small - the images are 2" (5cm) to a side with a little bit of a border around them.

 

Sounds like the photos are contact printed directly from the negatives. There were many medium format cameras from the 1930s and earlier available. Best starting point is to try to identify the film format from the negative size and then look at popular cameras available in that format. Although part of the images may be masked out or cropped even further by the contact printing frame used.

Could be a 127 format camera like the folding Kodak Vest series. A 127 negative is 4cm x 6.5cm in size.

120 was/is a slightly larger format that can be masked for sizes such as 6cm x 4.5 cm, 6cm x 6cm, or 6x7cm.

116 film was popular also, with a larger image size at 6.5cm x 11cm.

Lee

 

Why do you ask about cameras in the UK ? Weren't the photos most likely taken and developed in post-war Germany ?

 

I have a Kodak Junior 620 which shoots 6x9cm images on 120 film (other sizes available on this film: 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 or 6x17).

This camera was owned by an Australian in the 2nd AIF who fought in North Africa and PNG.

It's a lovely camera and works perfectly - these negs were contact printed, and given the sharpness of the lens, even these small images would be amazing.

 

True but I was assuming that the camera would have been British made. Now that you pose the question - you're right, it might not have been!

 

Cameras in the UK were classed as 'Luxury Goods' and subject to duty and purchase tax from the 1940s through to the 1970s. During that period, travellers were advised to take their purchase receipt with them when travelling abroad in order to get it back to the UK. Plenty of cameras in Germany though (they'd had five years to steal them all over Europe) and they could be swapped during the immediate post-war period for a packet of cigarettes or a couple of bars of chocolate.

 

The prints are 55mm square (possibly a partial mm off). Borders about 2mm on a side within that size.

I had forgotten that the back of the paper has some sort of watermark - "Agfa-Lupex". Well, that at least indicates they were printed in Germany. No numbers or anything like that.

 

I hold copies of approximately 200 photos from family connections of men who served in WW2. Very few are from 1939/40. A few officers had cameras often bought on pre-war holiday. Coincidentally letters are found in similar proportions.
!940 revealed very little in the post so one assumes that there were few materials available and with possible imminent invasion security was tight. The public were suspicious of enemy spies.
1941/42 photos are small in number and mostly official photos of officers or men on courses.
It was not until the end of hostilities in Tunisia that photography really took off. With the fall of Tunis everyone seemed to be buying reputable brands and swapping cameras between all ranks. This theatre was also where for many, the Americans were first encountered. Italy produced many photos, even in the ranks of men enclosed on the Anzio Beachhead. Once they broke free personal photographs became fairly common so one assumes that they were able to get them developed and printed by Italians. Some were obvious Kodak type camera sized films but many were more in the line of small "proofs" samples sold for customers to select the pictures that they wanted enlarged. Approved local photographers were listed on some Part 2 Orders. Palestine was prolific with many medium and large group photos which I put down to the soldiers being based in or near RAF bases where they no doubt had photographic equipment, labs and materials available in quantity and time on their hands to visit sites and take photos. I suspect that much depended upon which units the amateur photographers served in.

 

"Lupex photographic paper for enlargement work was first offered in 1927 and was produced until the mid-1960s."

according to this link:

S/W Fotopapier Agfa Lupex :: Industrie- und Filmmuseum Wolfen :: museum-digital:sachsen-anhalt

 

Thanks all! Even if the exact camera is not identifiable, I've learned a lot

 

120 6cm x 6cm format film.

As the contact prints have white borders then the negatives have been held in a contact printing frame which will crop a couple of millimetres off each side. They were a pain in the backside to use, much easier to contact print under plain glass.

 

"The Photo-Amateur's Pocketbook 1955" published by Focal Press gives these pages, so not 1940's, but close....

 

A list of roll film cameras from the same volume, 1955:

Abbreviations

Country of origin:

A = Austria
B = Britain
CZ = Czechoslovakia
F = France
G = Germany
I = Italy
S = Switzerland
SW = Sweden

Shutters:

E4 = Epsilon ( 4 speeds to 1/300 sec.)

E8 = Epsilon ( 8 speeds to 1/300 sec.)

FP = Focal Plane

P = Pronto ( 4 speeds to 1/200 sec.)

PS = Prontor S ( 8 speeds to 1/300 sec. )

PSV = Prontor SV ( 8 speeds to 1/300 sec. )

PSVS = Prontor SVS ( 8 speeds to 1/300 sec. )

SC = Synchro-Compur ( 9 Speeds to 1/500 sec. )

SCL = Synchro-Compur with light values ( 10 speeds to 1/500 sec.)

Special Features:

SR = single-lens reflex

TR = twin-lens reflex

CRF = coupled rangefinder

RF = non-coupled rangefinder

IL = interchangeable lenses

PEX = photo-electric exposure meter

BR = brilliant reflecting finder

BX = box type camera

X = synchronised

XM = speed-synchronised for flash.

 

I heard the thing about it being encouraged as well.

Bilder des Zweiten Weltkrieges: Als die Kamera zur Waffe wurde

My grandfather took his camera to war, but had it before hostilities started so didn't need to steal anyone elses. He didn't come from a rich family, middling farm in Lower Saxony, not an officer but started as enlisted.

All the best

Andreas

 

From "Australasian Photo Review" for April 1942 ( found on "Trove" ):



" Control of Photography in Wartime" from the same issue:



Not quite a Leica: