Development of the 35 mm SLR
The first 35mm prototype SLR was the Soviet Union's Спорт (“Sport”).[4] Prototyped in 1934, it was a very smart design with a 24mm × 36mm frame size, but did not enter the market until 1937.[5] Therefore, it cannot be claimed as the first 35mm SLR.
Early innovations
Early 35 mm SLR cameras had similar functionality to larger models, with a waist-level ground-glass viewfinder and a mirror which remained in the taking position—blacking out the viewfinder—after an exposure, returning when the film was wound on. Innovations which transformed the SLR were the pentaprism eye-level viewfinder and the instant-return mirror—the mirror flipped briefly up during exposure, immediately returning to the viewfinding position. The half-silvered fixed pellicle mirror, without even the brief blackout of the instant-return mirror, was innovative but did not become standard. Through-the-lens light-metering was an important advance. As electronics advanced, new functionality, discussed below, became available.
Exakta
The real first 35mm format SLR was the Ihagee Kine Exakta, produced in 1936 in Germany, which was fundamentally a scaled-down Vest-PocketExakta. This camera used a waist-level finder.
Various other models were produced such as the Kine-Exakta, the Exakta II, the Exakta Varex (Featuring an interchangeable pentaprism eye-level viewfinder and identified in the United States as the 'Exakta V'), the Exakta Varex VX (identified in the United States as the 'Exakta VX'), the Exakta VX IIa, the Exakta VX IIb, the Exakta VX500 and the Exakta VX1000. Exakta also manufactured less expensive cameras under the 'Exa' camera label such as the Exa, the Exa Ia, the Exa II, the Exa IIa, the Exa IIb (which was generally not considered part of the "official" Exa line), and the Exa 500.
Zeiss
Zeiss had begun work on a 35mm SLR camera in 1936 or 1937[1]. This camera used an eye-level pentaprism, which allowed eye-level-viewing of an image oriented correctly from left to right. Waist-level finders, however, showed a reversed image, which the photographer had to mentally adjust for, while composing the image by looking downward and viewing and focusing. To brighten the viewfinder image, Zeiss incorporated a fresnel lensin-between the ground-glass screen and the pentaprism. This design principle became the conventional SLR design used today.
World War II intervened, and the Zeiss SLR did not emerge as a production camera until Zeiss, in the newly created East Germany factory, introduced the Contax S in 1949, with production ending in 1951. This camera was the first "fixed" eye-level pentaprism 35mm SLR, the historic progenitor of many later SLRs that adopted this arrangement.
Praktiflex Praktica
In 1939, Kamerawerk Niedersedlitz Dresden presented the Praktiflex at the Leipzig spring fair. The camera was a waist type with a M40x1 screw mount and a horizontal cloth focal shutter. This camera is the pattern for most of the 35 mm SLR cameras, and also the japanese and the digital SLR cameras today. After the war, Praktiflex was the most manufactured 35 mm SLR in Dresden, especially for the Russians as reparations. KW changed to the M42 screw mount invented at Zeiss for Contax S. In 1949, it was redesigned with longer shutter speeds. The name was changed to Praktica. In 1958, KW Niedersedlitz became a part of the VEB Kamera- und Kinowerk (old Zeiss), later VEB Pentacon. Praktica was typically a consumer/ amateur camera. Many developments were added. It was produced until 2000.
- 1949 Praktica until Praktica V
- 1964 Praktica Nova
- 1969 Praktica L with vertical metal focal shutter
- 1979 Praktica B with new bayonet mount
Highlights:
- 1956 Praktica FX2 2. version with internal camera stepdown aperture, world standard for more than 20 years.
- 1959 Praktica IV with permanet eye-level pentaprism.
- 1964 Praktica V with instant return mirror.
- 1955 Praktica Mat first european TTL semiautomatic (work aperature) in production
- 1956 Praktica Super TL with centerweighted TTL
- 1969 Praktica LLC world first camera with electric simulation of aperture
From 1952 to 1960 the KW factory/VEB Pentacon also produced the Praktina a system SLR camera for
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professionals and advanced amateurs with a bayonet mount and focal shutter, but the productions was closed partly of political reasons. Praktica was the camera, which could be sold outside DDR and bring foreign currency to the country.
Edixa
Another German manufacturer, Edixa was a brand of camera manufactured by Wirgin Kamerawerk, based in Wiesbaden, West Germany. This company's product line included 35mm SLR cameras such as the Edixa Reflex, which featured a Steinheil 55mm f/1.9 Quinon lens, and an Isco Travegar 50mm f/2.8 lens; the Edixamat Reflex, the Edixa REX TTL, and the Edixa Electronica. The removable pentaprism could be swopped for a waistlevel viewfinder with a pop up magnifier. The lens mount was the same screw thread as the Pentax.
Rise of the Japanese SLRs
The earliest Japanese SLR for rollfilm was perhaps the Baby Super Flex (or Super Flex Baby), a 127 camera made by Umemoto and distributed by Kikōdō from 1938.[10] This had a leaf shutter, but two years later came the Shinkoflex, a 6×6 camera made by Yamashita Shōkai, with a focal-plane shutter and interchangeable lenses.[11] However, Japanese camera makers concentrated on rangefinder and twin-lens reflex cameras (as well of course as simpler, viewfinder cameras), similar to those of the Western makers.
Pentax
The Asahi Optical Company took a different manufacturing path, inspired by the German SLRs. Its first model, the Asahiflex I, existed in prototype form in 1951 and production in 1952, making it the first Japanese-built 35mm SLR. The Asahiflex IIB of 1954 was the first Japanese SLR with an instant-return mirror. Previously, the mirror would remain up and the viewfinder black until the shutter was cocked for the next shot. In 1957, the Asahi Pentax became the first Japanese fixed-pentaprism SLR; its success led Asahi to eventually rename itself Pentax. This was the first SLR to use the right-hand single-stroke film advance lever of the Leica M3 of 1954 and Nikon S2 of 1955. Asahi (starting with the Asahi Pentax) and many other camera makers used the M42 lens mount from the Contax S, which came to be called the Pentax screw mount. Pentax is now part of the Ricoh Corporation.
Miranda
Orion's (later name-changed to Miranda's) Miranda SLR camera was sold in Japan from August 1955 with the launch of the Miranda T camera. The camera was narrowly the first Japanese-made pentaprism 35mm SLR. It featured a removable pentaprism for eye-level viewing, that could be removed for use as a waist-level finder.
Yashica
The Yashica Company introduced its own SLR in 1959, the Pentamatic, an advanced, modern 35mm SLR camera with a proprietary bayonet-mount. The Pentamatic featured an automatic stop-down diaphragm (offered only with the Auto Yashinon 50mm/1.8 lens), instant-return mirror, a fixed pentaprism, and a mechanical focal-plane shutter with speeds of 1-1/1000 second, along with additional interchangeable lenses.
Zunow
The Zunow SLR, which went on sale in 1958 (in Japan only), was the first 35mm SLR camera with an automatic diaphragm, which stopped down to the preselected aperture upon release of the shutter. (Although this invention had been anticipated by the 1954 Praktina FX-A which featured a semi-automatic diaphragm, which stopped down automatically, but had to be opened manually after the exposure.[12]) The automatic diaphragm feature eliminated one downside to viewing with an SLR: the darkening of the viewfinder screen image when the photographer selected a small lens aperture. The Zunow Optical Company also supplied the Miranda Camera Company with lenses for their Miranda T SLR cameras.
General operation of a 35 mm SLR
A photographer using an SLR would view and focus with the lens diaphragm (aperture) fully open; he then had to adjust the aperture just before taking the picture.
- Some lenses had manual diaphragms—the photographer had to take the camera down from his eye and look at the aperture ring to set it.
- A "pre-set" diaphragm had two aperture rings next to each other: one could be set in advance to the aperture needed for the picture while the other ring controlled the diaphragm directly. Turning the second ring all the way clockwise gave full aperture; turn it all the way counterclockwise gave the preset shooting aperture, speeding up the process. Such lenses were commonly made into the 1960s.
- A lens with an "automatic" diaphragm allows the photographer to forget about closing the diaphragm to shooting aperture; such diaphragms have been taken for granted for decades. Usually this means a pin or lever on the back of the lens is pushed or released by a part of the shutter release mechanism in the camera body; the external automatic diaphragms on lenses for Exakta and Miranda cameras were the exception to that. Some lenses had "semi-automatic" diaphragms that closed to shooting aperture like an automatic diaphragm but had to be re-opened manually with a flip of a ring on the lens.
When the shutter release is pressed the mirror flips up against the viewing screen, the diaphragm closes down (if automatic), the shutter opens and closes, the mirror returns to its 45-degree viewing position (on most or all 35 mm SLRs made since 1970) and the automatic diaphragm re-opens to full aperture.
Most but not all SLRs had shutters behind the mirror, next to the film; if the shutter was in or immediately behind the lens it had to be open before the photographer clicked the shutter and then had to close, then open, then close.
Standardization of designs
In the following 30 years the vast majority of SLRs standardized the layout of the controls. The film was transported from left to right, so the rewind crank was on the left, followed in order by the pentaprism, shutter speed dial, shutter release and the film advance lever, which in some cameras was ratcheted so that multiple strokes could be used to advance the film. Some cameras, such as Nikon's Nikkormat FT cameras (marketed under the brand-name 'Nikormat' in European countries and elsewhere) and some models of Olympus OM series, deviated from this layout by placing the shutter speed control as a ring around the lens mount.
Miranda Camera Company
Miranda produced early SLRs in the 1950s which were initially manufactured with external auto-diaphragms, then added a second mount with internal auto-diaphragm. To list some of Miranda's cameras with external diaphragm, there was the Miranda Sensorex line. The internal auto-diaphragm Miranda cameras consisted of the Miranda 'D', the popular Miranda 'F', the 'FV' and the 'G' model, which had a larger than normal reflex mirror thereby eliminating viewfinder image vignetting when the camera was used with long telephoto lenses. Miranda cameras were known in some photographic discussions as 'the poor man's Nikon'.
Periflex
One unique brand of cameras was the Corfield Periflex made by K. G. Corfield Ltd in England. Three models were produced from 1957 all of which used a retractable periscope inserted into the light path for focussing through the single lens. Pressing the shutter release moved the spring-loaded periscope out of the film path before ths focal-plane shutter operated
Minolta
Minolta's first SLR, the SR-2, was introduced to the export market in the same year (in fact, at the same Philadelphia show as the Canon and Nikon products) but had been on sale in Japan since August 1958. Lenses started with the designation 'Rokkor'. With the introduction of the SRT-101, the lenses added the designation of 'MC' for 'meter-coupled', and then later to 'MD' when the Minolta XD-11 was introduced with full-program mode. Became 'Konica-Minolta' in the early 2000s – and dissolved in Sony on January 2006.
Canon
In 1959, photographers saw the introduction of new 35mm SLRs from various manufacturers, notably from Canon and Nikon. The Canonflex SLR, which was introduced in May, one month before Nikon introduced its 'F' model, was a moderate success. The camera featured a quick return mirror, an automatic diaphragm and was introduced with an interchangeable black pentaprism housing. It also featured newly developed 'R' series breech lock mount lenses.[13] This SLR was superseded by the Canonflex RM, a fixed prism SLR which featured a built-in selenium cell meter. Later came the Canonflex R2000, with a top shutter speed of 1/2000 of a second. This model was also superseded by the Canonflex RM.
In 1962, FL series lenses were introduced along with a new camera body, the Canon FX, which had a built-in CdS light meter positioned on the front left side of the camera, a design which appeared much like the Minolta SR-7.
Nikon F
Nikon's 'F' model, introduced in 1959 as the world's first system camera (if the commercially unsuccessful Praktina is not considered), became enormously successful and was the camera design that demonstrated the superiority of the SLR and of the Japanese camera manufacturers. This camera was the first SLR system that was adopted and used seriously by the general population of professional photographers, especially by those photographers covering the Vietnam War, and those news photographers utilizing motor-driven Nikon F's with 250-exposure backs to record the various launches of the space capsules in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs, both in the 1960s. After the introduction of the Nikon F, the more expensive rangefinder cameras (those with focal plane shutters) became less attractive.
It was a combination of design elements that made the Nikon F successful. It featured interchangeable prisms and focusing screens; the camera had a depth-of-field preview button; the mirror had lock-up capability; it featured a large bayonet mount and a large lens release button; a single-stroke ratcheted film advance lever; a titanium-foil focal plane shutter; various types of flash synchronization; a rapid rewind lever; a fully removable back. it was a well-made, extremely durable camera, and adhered closely to the then current, successful design scheme of the Nikon rangefinder cameras.
Instead of the M42 screw mount used by Pentax and other camera manufacturers, Nikon had introduced the three-claw F-mount bayonet lens mount system, which is still current in a more modified form today. The focal plane shutter, unlike other SLRs of the period which used a cloth material for the focal plane shutter design (NOTE: with this design, it was possible to burn a hole into the cloth of the shutter during mirror lock-up in bright sunlight) used titanium foil which was rated for 100,000 cycles of releases of the shutter (according to Nikon). The F was also a modular camera, in which various assemblies such as the pentaprisms, the focusing screens, the special 35mm roll film 250 exposure film back and the Speed Magny film backs (two models: one using the Polaroid 100 (now 600) type pack films; and another Speed Magny was designed for 4×5 film accessories, including Polaroid's own 4×5 instant film back). These could be fitted and removed, allowing the camera to adapt to almost any particular task. It was the first 35 mm camera offered with a successful motor drive system.
Unlike most of the other manufacturers involved in 35mm camera production, the Nikon F was released with a full range of lenses from 21 mm to 1000 mm focal length. Nikon was also among the first to introduce what is commonly known today as 'mirror lenses' – lenses with Catadioptric system designs, which allowed the light path to be folded and thus yielded lens designs that were more compact than the standard telephoto designs. Subsequent top-of-the-line Nikon models carried on the F series, which has as of 2005 reached the F6 (although this camera has a fixed pentaprism). With the introduction and continued improvements being made in digital photography, the Nikon F6 is likely to be the last of the flagship Nikon F-line film SLRs
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