Cameras made in Canada?

[NWT Ron]

Apart from Kodak and Leica, were there any other Canadian camera makers?

 

[spoolman]

There was a Speed Graphic look a like called the Press King which was made by the B&W Manufacturing Co. here in Toronto between 1948 and 1950. I have one and it works like a charm.

Doug

 

[NWT Ron]

Can they still be found?

 

[Sirius Glass]

I think that Nikons were made in Canada too.

 

[Jeff L]

I have been looking for one too. I first saw a Press King on display at Pearson Airport.
I saw one on kijiji quite a while ago, but it was sold already.
I did see a Spartus TLR. it was plastic looking and said Made in Canada (Montreal I think)
Jeff

 

[spoolman]

They are very hard to find. I found mine cruising Ebay a few years ago and there it was, so I snapped it up. I guess it all depends on timing which is why I routinely go to Ebay a few times a day to see what is up for sale.


Doug

 

[MattKing]

They aren't film based, but there are Canadian manufactured cameras installed on the International Space Station.

 

[NWT Ron]

I just found one on Etsy, but the sellers would not ship to Canada. It looked like an interesting way to get started in 4X5, plus it would be nice to have a working piece of Canadian history. Thanks for the information, I won't be bidding against you on any auction site, I don't have accounts with any of them, for that matter I don't have a PayPal account either. I'm not comfortable having my charge card info on file anywhere, and I prefer to purchase outright rather than online bidding.

 

[NWT Ron]

Now that you mention it Matt, Imax was (is still?) Canadian, but I understand that they've gone digital and out of my reach.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I don't remember if I have their film camera, but I remember their advertisements in ... Moscow's subway.

http://www.rekam.com/company/about/#pagetop
Canadian company Rekam Inc. is one of the world's manufacturers of portable electronics, photo and video equipment.

 

[NWT Ron]

Well that one was news to me! I didn't see any suggested price lists for their products, it may be that they don't sell to the North American market. I think it unlikely that their current digital products are made in Canada, or in North America. Still, its interesting.

 

[AgX]

Bearing a "Rekam Inc. , Canada" sticker does not mean it was manufactured in Canada.

 

[AgX]

This is how Leitz Canada (Elcan) see themselves:

 

[NWT Ron]

True. What I wasn't expecting was the difficulty finding any evidence of early Canadian cameras, late 19th, early 20th century vintage. Were the only, or vast majority, of Canadian made cameras imported designs even from the very early days?

 

[Bipin]

Now that you mention it Matt, Imax was (is still?) Canadian, but I understand that they've gone digital and out of my reach.

While not related to still cameras per say, this reminds me of an interesting story regarding how many lenses used in IMAX (70mm cinematography) were made. Panavision, being the preeminent source of large format cinematography equipment in the early 80's, and wishing to keep it that way for the future, created a "wish list" of lenses they'd like to have as part of their system. Their current optical supplier had thought the tolerances and specifications were too demanding to manufacture, let alone even experiment with preliminary models. They outright refused to get anywhere near Panavision's new lens designs, which isn't too surprising given the task at hand. A lot of time and money is spent in post-production correcting for differences in lens performance between successive shots using different lenses. Panavision wanted their new set of lenses to (across their whole range of focal lengths) exhibit the same aberrations, field illumination, distortion and flare tendencies, all while having greater sharpness and contrast than Panavision's previous catalog of lenses. The only manufacturer who was up to this task was Ernst Leitz Canada (ELCAN), which had a long history of innovative optical designs, as I'm sure many of you know. Walter Mandler, who had pioneered the use of CAD in optical designs at ELCAN, made Panavision's request possible, along with a newly developed glass formula ELCAN was experimenting with. By 1985 or 1986, the Panavision Primo-L family of lenses was released. As I recall, the first film to be shot with them was Spielberg's Empire of The Sun.

There's an article somewhere on the Raytheon/ELCAN website about it. I wish I could still find it, it's a good read! ELCAN has quite the history, supposedly there's even a sort of museum on site at what is now Ratheon, which houses examples of all the products they had made or reserached (thus, some models that never entered production). Unfortunately, it seems now-a-days the most popular product to come out of their facilities is the M145 Machine Gun Optic.

 

[shoot6x7]

The Raytheon/Elcan site looks very secure. We were in Midland a few weeks ago to photograph a wedding so I got the wife to take a pic of me standing next to the street sign "Leitz Rd". We were there at 5 o'clock so even if I had known about the museum I doubt that I could have got into the museum without an appointment. Next time we are there we'll definitely try and see the museum.

 

[Bipin]

The Raytheon/Elcan site looks very secure. We were in Midland a few weeks ago to photograph a wedding so I got the wife to take a pic of me standing next to the street sign "Leitz Rd". We were there at 5 o'clock so even if I had known about the museum I doubt that I could have got into the museum without an appointment. Next time we are there we'll definitely try and see the museum.

This might interest you:

http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00NZm0

I wonder if the information is still relevant. I live three hours away from the Midland plant; it'd be a thrill to see what's in there.

 

[gordrob]

In the 1950s there was a company in Hamilton Ontario that produced press cameras - the Hacon 2x3 and 4x5. Had a Kalart rangefinder, triple extension bellows and revolving back. I don't believe there were a lot manufactured but there are still some out there.

 

[NWT Ron]

I'm flying out in the early hours of the morning and may be unable to check the list for a bit, but what are the chances of finding a working or restorable (at reasonable cost) larger format (ideally 4X5) Canadian made Press King or Hacon? Where might I look for one? I'm not in a hurry.

Thanks for the help everyone, at the least I've found that there were Canadian made cameras, it just seemed strange to me that this information wasn't easily found on the internet.

On another note, I remember in my childhood when Midland had a colour TV factory, don't remember the brand.

 

[Bipin]

If you are familiar with the Photographica fair in Toronto, there were at least two Press King 4x5 cameras cameras there. I attended towards the end of the event, so I saw it close. By the time it was over, there was at least one Press King that had gone unsold. There's a good chance it may be at this year's event, which is on October 18th I believe; phsc.ca has more information.

 

[Jeff L]

This is a really interesting thread for me. Thanks to Ron for starting it, and all those that replied. Jeff

 

[NWT Ron]

I'm enjoying it, totally. Waiting for the next flight in Calgary for another hour, only 12 1/2 hours to go before our final stop.

A problem I will have is arranging to buy something that shows up at a fair. If the price seems reasonable I don't mind taking a chance with the vendor, but if they wanted to sell it cash and carry on the spot and are not interested in shipping to me then I'm out of luck. Buying out of the US, many vendors state that they will not ship to Canada.

Next stop, for a couple of hours, Toronto.

 

[gordrob]

Odds of finding a 4x5 Hacon are slim, very slim. Not a lot of them made even though they were advertised in Modern Photo and the like magazines.

Gord

 

[NWT Ron]

Now that we're back in central Newfoundland, we lived and worked in Gander for a few years, I might keep my eyes open for old cameras, in shops, or museums, looking for unfamiliar historic models. While here I drove by Charlie Falk's store, it looks like it hasn't changed since we left here in 2003, same signs in the window, might be the same window display photos as they're looking faded. For anyone not familiar with Charlie Falk he is most likely the best known photographer perhaps in the entire Canadian Atlantic coast. As he has always been an analog photographer and isn't active on the internet I wouldn't expect to find much of his work on the internet. If I get an opportunity I'd like to drop by the store when its open.

 

[Mike Hiscock]

Now that we're back in central Newfoundland, we lived and worked in Gander for a few years, I might keep my eyes open for old cameras, in shops, or museums, looking for unfamiliar historic models. While here I drove by Charlie Falk's store, it looks like it hasn't changed since we left here in 2003, same signs in the window, might be the same window display photos as they're looking faded. For anyone not familiar with Charlie Falk he is most likely the best known photographer perhaps in the entire Canadian Atlantic coast. As he has always been an analog photographer and isn't active on the internet I wouldn't expect to find much of his work on the internet. If I get an opportunity I'd like to drop by the store when its open.

What part of central are you from?