Hmm let me rephrase.. There were many capable engineers, but maybe there was a vacuum where the good optical engineers were pulled into other industries. Fairchild, Bell-Howell labs, Northrop Grumman, etc.
And to build a good camera, you would need a whole group of people and the tooling would not be cheap either. Getting any camera into production would need a whole industry behind it.
It is notable that Kodak bought a German company to make its retinas rather than start from the ground up in the US.
But on the other hand, The US did have quite a good industry behind many photography related items.
Wollensak USA made excellent lenses and shutters. Also Ilex.
Then there was CP Goerz American Optical Company.
Werent there quite a few movie camera manufacturers in the US for instance revere?
Speaking of revere, they made 35mm stereo cameras. Did they make the realist?
Ok now on to add some 35mm cameras. How about the Clarus 35mm rangefinder. Also there was a Perfex. And the Univex Mercury
Wow im on a roll now.. Bosley?
Also, where were the Kodak 35 (not retina) models made? Or the Pony 35mm cameras.
i dont think I entirely beleive that labor costs were the only thing keeping the US from manufaturing cameras. Certainly there was a market for expensive cameras as there are quite a few Leicas, Rolleis and 'blads around. And if you look at the japanese cameras, these were not instant successful companies. Their first cameras were either copies of leicas or simple cameras. But they stuck with it obviously and seemed to leapfrog the europeans. Perhaps camera companies need time to mature and the Japanese, German, and swiss culture stuck with it and kept improving their products. While the US was more interested in profit from plastic cameras like the instamatic and such, or rebadging other manufacturers cameras instead of investing in their own.