Ferrania Condor I: when Italian camera were pretty good

[Alfredo Doricchi]

Hello fellows,

a couple days ago I received a small, nice, well built film camera, meet the lovely Ferrania Condor I







BRIEF HISTORY

After the WWII, Ferrania was looking to sell cameras, of course besides his famous films (just as Kodak with his Retina cameras, for instance)











In 1948, the Ferrania Condor I was the first answer to this request



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The Ferrania Condor I was made by Officine Galileo, a company placed near Firenze, well known for his precision optical instruments (microscopes, binoculars, ecc.)



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At the time, the Ferrania Condor I was sold for 49.500 italian lire, roughly 900 USD today

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THE CAMERA

My sample belongs to the first version of the Ferrania Condor I, made in 1948. It’s a solid, small camera: all metal, heavy despite his dimension, here below you may see some pics of the camera



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The collapsible lens of the camera was made too by Officine Galileo – Firenze, it’s a 5 cm lens f/3.35 named Eliog, I guess it’s three lens



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HOW IT WORKS

The Ferrania Condor I it’s a simple camera, easy to use. As the screw mount Leicas, you have two viewfinders, one to focus, another one to frame the scene. To advance the film there is a knob, not a lever. Silent, because of the diaphragm shutter. I like this camera above all because it’s really pocketable, has a good collapsible lens, and you may feel it’s well built.

The negatives I had from my first film roll with this camera are well defined, I would say crispy enough, especially in the center of course having shot them at f/3.5 or 4.5



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Here below some pics (film: AgfaPhoto APX 100)



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Unfortunately, the season of the well built Italian cameras – Ferrania Condor I and II, Janua San Giorgio, Gamma, Ducati and some others - was brief, let’ say roughly ten years, since late ‘40s to late ‘50s, anyway always with small numbers. Today, a good full working sample of Ferrania Condor I it costs 150-200 Euros; money well spent, at least in my opinion.

Thanks for reading my brief review,

Alfredo Doricchi

 

[pbromaghin]

Thoughtful, informative and well-done post. Thank you, and I hope you have a lot of fun with this. Please post some of your future results in the galleries!

 

[albireo]

So interesting, thank you for sharing!

 

[bdial]

It is a nice looking little beast. An excellent mix of form and function.
Thank you for the review.

 

[Alfredo Doricchi]

pbromaghin: thank you! I'll post my pics in future, for sure.​

albireo: thanks for your kind words, fellow.​

bdial: I thank you for your comment, mate.​

 

[Cholentpot]

Handsome camera. Italian design no doubt. There's gotta be a major quirk though.

 

[Alfredo Doricchi]

Cholentpot: thank you, fellow.

 

[Cholentpot]

Cholentpot: thank you, fellow.

Prego (I think?)

 

[AgX]

The collapsible lens of the camera was made too by Officine Galileo – Firenze, it’s a 5 cm lens f/3.35 named Eliog, I guess it’s three lens.

It is stated to be a Cooke Triplet. But have seen photos too good for such.

But there seemingly were different versions of Eliog 50mm lenses. You can easily find out their basic design.

 

[gone]

What a cool camera. Italians made/make amazing things. The Ferrari is still the top super car, and the sexiest. I'm Italian, and used to repair Alfa Romeos and Fiats many years ago at their dealerships.

The Alfas were built very nice, not so the Fiats, even though Fiat actually owns Ferrari nowadays. We had to remove the entire body off the car on the Fiat X19s just so we could install air conditioning! It was worth it though, neat little cars.

The Fiat 500 was so tiny you could park it sideways in a driveway. The most fun car I ever owned was a Fiat 124 sports car w/ a convertible top. Dual Weber carbs, double overhead cams, a nice package indeed.

 

[AgX]

The Fiat 500 was so tiny you could park it sideways in a driveway.

Though people who bought this car had no driveways.

 

[MattKing]

Though people who bought this car had no driveways.

Our Fiat 500 looks great in a driveway
Or in parking area:

 

[AgX]

I had it about the original version. It was an entry car. Not a show car as of today. People were happy they could afford such, if at all. It was parked at the curbside or in the dirt.

I often wonder how postwar Europe is seen in America. And this camera was not affordable for most Italians. And this is not only about the price of the camera itself as typically is referred to. But the follow up costs too: 36 exposures to be manually enlarged and printed by a photolab technician. If average people had a camera at all, it was box.

 

[Alfredo Doricchi]

Hello fellows. The Ferrania Condor was made with the aim ti compete with cameras like Leica or Contax, since the high price. Yes is true, most part of italians were not able, at the time, to buy such a pricey camera. Anyway Ferrania made also cheap cameras, i.e Lince or Rondine, for the people.

 

[bdial]

Does the Condor use an interchangeable lens?

 

[AgX]

No, it is fixed.

(But telescopic)

 

[ic-racer]

I loved your post and enjoyed reading about the camera.

 

[Alfredo Doricchi]

Thank you, fellow

 

[AgX]

What did I suggest? I did not write anything contrary to what you said.

I referred to both the Fiat 500 (from 1957) and the Condor (from 1947) which indeed were from economically different situations in Italy, but I referred to the postwar situation in context of the Condor.

Yes, mass automobilisation in Europe started in the 50's. But with emphasis on started. How many families in Italy had a car in 1957? How big share of Fiat 500 owners in 1957 had a private home with a driveway?

Due to the war, and also due to the interwar situation for some countries (e.g. German Reich), the economic development of the majorities of families in even western Europe lagged far behind that of their counterparts in the USA.

In Germany this even turned into the distorted image of the "rich uncle from America"...

 

[AgX]

Still in the 60's in West-Germany there were streets in residential areas with hardly any local car visible. And one may wonder what cameras families there got.

 

[albireo]

Still in the 60's in West-Germany there were streets in residential areas with hardly any local car visible. And one may wonder what cameras families there got.

Agfa Isolettes probably - or some type of folder? Zeiss Ikon perhaps?

 

[AgX]

The highest share amongst models from the 60's I see got Agfa Rapid cameras, from the 50's Agfa Isola cameras.

But of course this has to be seen critical just due to the great number of models on the market back then, but also due to how used cameras got/get back into the market again now.

 

[Alfredo Doricchi]

Hello fellows! Some new pics from my Ferrania Condor I, hope you like it

 

[Cholentpot]

Hello fellows! Some new pics from my Ferrania Condor I, hope you like it

Very nice!

 

[Dirb9]

Thanks for posting! The countryside photos are quite elegant to my eye. I'm interested to see cameras from countries besides the usual German, US, Japan, or USSR: Italian, French and UK-made cameras are a nice change of pace. Those advertisements are a neat find too!