ALBINAR cameras, who makes them?

[Ric Trexell]

An Albinar camera came up for sale on Craigslist and I emailed the seller and told him that I had never heard of this animal. Not bad considering I have been involved with cameras for 40 years. Who makes these? I think they look a little like the Vivitars. There was one or two for sale on ebay and a lot of their lenses. They seem to have mounts available in Pentax, Nikon, Minolta and Canon. The items were sold and I wasn't interested in purchasing them anyway, but just wondered what they are. Thanks. Ric.

 

[John Koehrer]

Albinar is/was another of the off-brand lines you see cropping up now & again. Just a cheapy.

 

[Francis in VT]

Google Albinar.

The first of many results...........

Albinar was a one-man marketing/importer in New Jersey. When the owner died in the early 1990's, the company closed down.

 

[Chaplain Jeff]

Hello,

Seems like Albinar was the house brand (or at least the non-major brand) used by BEST PRODUCTS (not Best Buy) in the 70's / 80's. I had an Albinar 135mm when I was a kid - came with a bag and cleaning kit for $199. Can't say that I used it much, so I couldn't say accurately about quality. It didn't have the feel of my Rokkor lenses and once I bought a 70-210 zoom it never left the bag.

That said, I didn't even know they made cameras.

 

[Ric Trexell]

Thanks for your help.

Just a short thank you to all that replied. I did do a Google search and didn't find much listed in the links, just links to people that had one to sell. I still think they look like the Vivitars, but I'm not exactly sure on that. Oh well, you learn something every day as they say. Ric.

 

[dynachrome]

In the 1970s I worked for the Camera Barn chain in NY during my summers. My recollection was that Albinar lenses and Alfon flash units were named for Fred Albu, who owned the Camera Barn chain. The same people owned what was then called Uniphot-Levitt, a company which sold accessories and imported Hoya filters. Star D was another house brand and was used for tripods which were made at the same NJ factory that turned out the Leitz Tiltall tripods. Some of the Albinar and Star D lenses looked like the Hoya lenses. The Hoya lenses were made by Tokina and that's why some of them looked like Vivitars. I don't have any Albinar or Star D lenses but I do have a very nice looking 135/2.8 Hoya lens in Minolta mount and it is a good performer. At one time I had a 25-42mm Hoya zoom in Konica mount and it was pretty good too.

 

[AgX]

Albinar branded lenses and tubes show up here regularly.
The brand name was registered both in the USA and West-Germany in the early to mid 70s by two different importers.
But much earlier in Germany. Though the similarity of Albinar and Albu might not be a coincidence.