September 22nd 2024

 Perfex Special

(Ektar f/3.5 version)

In the later half of the 1940s an adaptation to the Perfex De Luxe would debut, removing the focal plane shutter entirely. The two resulting cameras made were sold at about half the price, featuring a basic leaf shutter in contrast. The Perfex One-O-One and One-O-Two used a Wollensak Alphax Jr. shutter and Anastigmat lens, at f/4.5 and f/3.5 respectively. These lower cost alternatives garnered some interest, but all Perfex sales were still on the decline.

The Candid Camera Corporation of America was starting to have a reputation for reliability issues, culminating with a ‘Not Acceptable’ to ‘Not Recommended’ rating by consumer reports on their recent ventures. A focal plane shutter proved to be too difficult to fabricate reliably at a lower cost, but they still wanted to produce a higher quality camera. What resulted was a unique line of cameras that existed in a somewhat gray area. Advertised as the One-O-Three, Schneider Perfex, or more commonly the ‘Perfex Special’, four distinct models were initially created using leaf shutters and lenses from cameras produced a decade prior. Featuring Compur-Rapid shutters, the fastest used the high end but more commonplace f/2 Schnieder Xenon lens, with the mid tier models using an f/2.8 Xenon or Xenar. However, the slower alternative and more interesting of the bunch used a Retina lens, and an uncommon one at that. This is the Ektar f/3.5 version of the 1948 Perfex Special.

The Post War Special

Americans were searching for a specific type of camera in the 1940s, and it was getting difficult to find. Another war was breaking out in Europe, and countries were becoming more and more isolated. An interchangeable lens, 35mm rangefinder with a focal plane shutter was in high demand. If Germany could make a high precision camera, why couldn’t an equivalent or better one be made in the States? A few companies tried, but costs on both ends were a large factor when it came to their success. Through the 1940s the Kodak Ektra and Kardon were significantly more expensive than a Leica II or III, with other options like the Detrolla 400 or later Clarus at about half the price. Low quantities, high prices, and build quality issues plagued many of these cameras, and eventually led to their early demise.

The Candid Camera Corporation of America would release the Perfex Speed Candid in 1938, to a warm reception. Based on the ever present style of the Argus A at the time, the Speed Candid had a notably rough start with reliability issues. Things would improve with the 44 model released shortly after, and later 33, 55, and 22. Only ever improving on the design and working out problems with each new model, the company took a notable step back in the late 1940s, as supply chain issues and rising costs led to a redesign of their camera line.

With the introduction of the De Luxe, a handful of significant changes were made. The most striking being the move to a stamped metal upper housing instead of a machined one, much larger wind and rewind knobs, and a removal of the extinction meter. A few upgrades were made as well, with a redesign of the shutter mechanics, an introduction of a faster f/2 lens, and general improvements in the ergonomics and handling. A fair amount of thought went into the redesign of this camera, but its production would only last about two years. After the release of the One-O-One and One-O-Two, the later renamed Camera Corporation of America saw some success but was still financially struggling. Looking to entice the higher end of potential customers, they turned to the knowledge gained from adapting Alphax shutters to their camera bodies. A new camera was in the making, but before that, you will need a bit of context.

The production and supply of Retina Cameras from Kodak AG (or Nagel Werke) in Germany through the 1930s was very consistent, producing cameras in the millions. New models released every year, with a steady supply to stores. However, this started to slow down in 1939 and come to a complete halt in 1941 as the factory was all but forced to contribute its resources to the wartime effort. Retina Cameras are said to have been put back into production right after the war in 1945, but another four years would pass with only a small number of Retina cameras finding their way to the States. Demand was at such an all time high, that Kodak put out a press release in January of 1949 that the Retina I and II cameras were finally back in stock, albeit in low quantities.

Through the late 1940s, Retina cameras were not the easiest to come by. Sifting through the 1945-1950 back catalog of Popular Photography magazines, stores occasionally had old stock or used cameras, but very rarely new Retina cameras. The Camera Corp. of America must have seen a gap in the market for the Retina, and instead of designing a similar folding camera, decided to go another route. A large majority of high end, fixed lens miniature cameras on the market used a Schneider or Zeiss lens. Balda, Agfa, Welta, and Certo all had higher end models, and all seemed to choose one of the two brands. Not only was there a shortage of Retina cameras, but a shortage of high quality German lenses as well.

This is where the story gets a bit complicated. War does a strange thing when it comes to historic preservation. Some things are documented meticulously, while others are lost to time. After far too many hours of research, this story happens to be the latter. Not much is documented about these strange cameras, but after digging through contemporary articles, reports, radio transcripts, newspapers, and talking to a few experts, we can make some educated guesses and clear up some misconceptions.

A Perfex camera sold with a Kodak Retina lens? Strangely enough this was a commercially sold product, and advertised quite heavily by stores. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact first retailer to carry it, but one of the earliest examples I could find was from Gairlent Photo Suppliers in late 1948. The first cameras advertised were the f/2 Xenon, f/2.8 Xenon or Xenar, and the f/3.5 Ektar. In the subsequent ads, the stock would reduce to the f/2 Xenon and the f/3.5 Ektar, until disappearing entirely part way through 1952.

Starting out with only one retailer, the ads were initially way in the back of Popular Photography. Larger stores eventually bought stock as well, and the Perfex Special moved up to being advertised on page four in some instances. The caveat here is they were advertised by independent stores, not by the Camera Corp. of America themselves. Through the handful of ads I have been able to find in the 1948-52 issues of Popular Photography, it’s clear no real name was chosen for what the cameras were. However, the most common name I was able to find was ‘Perfex Special’, which I think best describes it as different lenses and bodies were used over time.

Where did these parts come from? There is no clear evidence as to how the Camera Corp. of America came across these parts, but there are a few theories as to how they came about. My initial thought was something to do with the war. All of the Perfex Special cameras I was able to find real world pictures of, happened to use pre-war lenses. My particular example having a lens from a 1939 Retina IIa Type 150. Once camera production picked up again after the war, lens coating technology had progressed so much that the basic coated and uncoated lenses from the late 1930s were very much out of date. The stock could have been sold on in some fashion as war surplus. Many larger format Kodak lenses were being sold through Popular Photography as surplus from 1945 on, but I was not able to find any ads for miniature camera lenses. After many hours of trying to find a lead, I was left empty handed. With more questions than answers, I decided to ask a few experts if they knew anything about these Perfex oddities.

Talking with David Jentz of the Historical Society for Retina Cameras and Chris Sherlock of Retina Rescue, nothing they could find pointed to a direct answer, but a few possibilities were most likely. Retina cameras were never manufactured in the U.S. but Kodak could have had spare parts for repairs. One thought is they could have sold their extra stock, but that seems unlikely. There would not have been a significant quantity of shutters and lenses. The more probable answer is war looting. Post-war Germany was in shambles, and documents of the time tell of the French Military removing stores from the Kodak AG plant in Stuttgart-Wange with no document saying they were returned. These could have been sold on the gray market or possibly returned to Kodak and subsequently sold as parts. Unfortunately, there is not much to go on here besides a few theories. The truth may be even more of a tale than what myself and these two could figure. Thank you again to David and Chris for helping me with this portion of the research.

So who made these cameras? This is one question I believe I know the answer to. For multiple retailers to purchase and advertise these cameras, they would have had to come from an established company. Something like this would be an absolute legal nightmare unless they got the lenses from Kodak in some way, or through war surplus/war reparations sold from another country. It’s a very gray area, and Kodak would have surely sued. The take away from these ads was they never said Retina, but did say Perfex… which was the first clue.

Looking through a few American camera history books, they do not agree on how these cameras came to exist. They either say the Camera Corp. of America made them or the camera bodies were sold on to another company who assembled them. It turns out they are both right. In 1947/48 as work was being done on creating the Cee-Ay, all of the non-assembled Perfex camera bodies were sold or given to another company, a company located at 846 West Adams Street in Chicago. The office next door.

According to the Certified List of Domestic and Foreign Corporations of Illinois in 1949, Carl Price would become the owner and operator of the Camera Corp. of America with his brother Joseph Price stepping down. With all of the experience manufacturing, building, and repairing Perfex cameras, he would create a new company centered around camera repair. International Camera Corporation’s first ads would feature in the very back of popular photography, touting a quick turnaround time and the ability to work on a multitude of cameras.

The answer would come from a March 1950 edition of Popular Photography on page 138. International Camera Corp. would advertise their camera repair services as they had prior, with one addition this time. “We are also specialists in Lens Adaption Work - Focusing Mounts, etc.” It’s not an exact yes or no, but I feel that statement seals the deal for me. Retailers would have been comfortable buying these cameras from either International due to its relation, or were still sold through the Camera Corp. of America. Perfex cameras were still being marketed and sold at the time, so the names being left intact on the camera bodies and retail ads using Perfex name makes a bit more sense. International Camera Corp. would go on to outlast the Perfex camera line, eventually purchasing the name after the Cee-Ay design was sold to Ciro in the 1950s. Joseph Price would continue to run International for decades, becoming one of the most trusted and highly regarded repair centers in America until the mid 1990s.

But why would someone buy this camera? This was something that was not immediately obvious, but after looking at the late 1940s camera market, things start to make a lot more sense. As I mentioned before, new cameras with German lenses found themselves almost entirely removed from the market during the war. What made these cameras competitive was not only having the well known ‘brand’ of Perfex and high end lenses, but the cost. Marked at about half the price of the Retina counterparts, this was the cheapest way to get a very capable rangefinder with an excellent lens.

I would like to end this section with a few additional interesting things I found. Early on the Perfex Special cameras were advertised with the option of adding a PC sync and remote trigger release, suggesting it may have been made to order and drop shipped in some capacity to start. In searching for real life examples of these cameras, I found a retina lens used on an Agfa Karat shutter. Only one, but it may point to the possibility of the shutters and lenses being sourced separately. Lastly, I want to recommend the books I read, if you are interested in the innovative chaos that was the American Camera market. Glass, Brass, and Chrome by Karlton C. Lahue and Joseph A. Bailey, and Collecting Vintage Cameras Volume 1: The American 35mm by Joseph A. Lahue, Kalton C. & Bailey. Both were excellent reads and invaluable resources in researching this topic. This was a challenging bit of history to uncover, but I hope I was able to shed some light on how these unique Perfex Special cameras came to be.

The Ektar Perfex

Comparing this version of the Perfex Special to the One-O-One and One-O-Two, they are essentially the same minus the shutter. My particular example used a modified Perfex De Luxe body, but it would have had the same functionality as the One or Two versions regardless. Conversely to the Perfex cameras before it, this camera body is slightly taller and somehow a lot heavier. The finish of the metal is a smooth matte texture, with parts machined and stamped precisely. The leatherette is of a much lower quality as well, having a spring to it due to the thick paper backing used underneath. It is fine in practice and has held up, but is noticeable after using the cameras made before it. With the adaption of the Retina lens and shutter, nothing really stands out as ‘pieced together’. It still looks the part on the camera, leading to a great and unique looking piece of history.

Starting with the body, to load the camera you will need to remove the back entirely. Looking at the bottom, the red indicator on the dial located in the center will need to be rotated to the open position. The bottom and back of the camera will now slide down and off. Be careful removing the back, as the takeup spool is removable and not secured with the back removed. All Perfex cameras after the Speed Candid had removable spools, with the intention of cassette to cassette shooting if desired. Load a roll of film in the typical fashion, and close/lock the back. This can be a bit tricky having the removable spool line up correctly, so some shifting the door back and forth may be needed.

To advance the film, you will need to wind the advance knob clockwise, pressing the film release button next to it once it stops. This button releases the lock so you can wind on to the next frame. Once two frames are wound on, you will need to reset the counter by hand. On the winding knob, close to the camera’s body, you can see the frame counter and indexing line. Lift and rotate the knob until you reach ‘0’ and let it down. Once advancing and shooting, the counter will count up. Rewinding the film is similar to other Perfex cameras as you will need to press and hold the release button on the front left hand side of the camera. Hold this button while winding the rewind knob clockwise until you feel a change in tension, and the film should be successfully rewound.

Focusing and composing an image is done with the ring underneath the shutter, closest to the body, using the two windows on the back of the camera. The leftmost window is a rangefinder, using an uncontemporary design for focusing. What you will see is a larger green rectangular window, intended to improve contrast, with a smaller clear square below that. You will need to adjust your eye until the two parts intersect half way through each other, and focus the camera until the images inside line up. The window to the right of that is a completely clear framing window, without anything else present inside.

Looking closer at the shutter, the focusing range is from infinity and 50 feet (~15.25m) down to three feet (0.91m), using a white dot underneath the ring as the marker. Moving toward the lens, the next control you will see is the shutter release, triggered by your right hand when holding the camera. A Compur-Rapid shutter was used on all of the Perfex Special cameras, with shutter speeds ranging from bulb and one second up to 1/500th of a second. Before firing, you will need to charge the shutter with a leaver located behind the shutter speed scale. The aperture scale on the Ektar version goes from f/3.5 to f/16, without any click stops, movable by your left hand when holding the camera. My particular example does not have a PC sync or remote shutter release, but early on the camera had the option to be purchased with or without them installed.

The camera has an off center tripod socket on the bottom, and raised metal pads intended to hold the camera steady on a flat surface. With the change to a heavier lens and shutter, the camera falls forward regardless. The camera body features a cold or hot shoe as well depending on the body used. Unfortunately, the hot shoe has nothing to connect to, so it only acts as an accessory shoe.

THE SPECS AND FEATURES [Ektar f/3.5 Version]

Shutter Speeds - bulb, 1 second to 1/500th

Aperture - f/3.5 to f/16

Meter Type - n/a

Focus - unit focusing, rangefinder, infinity and 50ft (~15.25m) to 3ft (0.91m) marked

Shutter - Compur-Rapid

ASA - n/a

Lens - Kodak Ektar (Rebranded Schneider Xenar) 5cm f/3.5

Flash Option - none on this example, but offered with PC port

Batteries - n/a

Film Type - 35mm

Other Features - removable back, removable takeup spool, cold shoe

The Experience

American made cameras were uniquely ‘American’, but that’s what makes them eye catching. A very large portion of camera manufacturers in the 30s to 50s were either making an Argus A or Leica copy. It took companies like Clarus, Bolsey, Universal, and Perfex to take a risk and make something different and interesting. After working on and with a fair amount of film cameras, I’ve come to really adore a unique design; not only visually but in a camera’s mechanics. American cameras deliver that in spades.

I purchased a Perfex 55 a handful of years ago, but was not able to use it due to the shutter curtains deteriorating. It still worked mechanically and I really ended up liking the design and feel of the camera. Last year while researching and compiling information for the Acro Model R article, I kept running across Perfex ads and my interest only grew. Not only with Perfex but with other American made cameras. After finding an early Clarus online, the same seller had a strange looking Perfex for sale that I couldn’t pass up. I was used to seeing the One-O-One/Two cameras with the self charging Wollensak shutters, but this one had an Ektar on a proper Compur-Rapid shutter. Knowing nothing about this camera I took a chance. When this oddity arrived I took it out right away, shot two pictures, and pulled the film out to use in another camera. It wasn’t the cameras fault, more the chaos of the holiday season. Regardless it was relegated to a shelf and then box soon after.

Moving a few things around and cataloging a part of the collection a few months ago, I came across the camera again. Looking it over, I remembered that I never really got a clear answer as to what this camera really was, or if it was thrown together randomly by some repair technician. I started to do some more digging, started a draft of this article, and decided to clean up and work on the camera.

The last test I did was a bit inconclusive on whether the camera was working, more specifically hitting focus, so I went out again this time with a test roll of the fine grain Kodak 5302. The camera seemed to be back focusing quite badly, only barely making it to the subject when the lens was stopped down to f/8 or f/11 shown here. Everything seemed to be working, but one thing I noticed was the lens had some bad haze that caused a significant glow in a lot of the brightly lit pictures.

Taking the Perfex back to my repair bench, I cleaned as much of the haze off as I could. There was still some on the elements, but not enough to be detrimental. Back together I checked if the rangefinder was calibrated, and it was a bit off, but not enough to cause the problem I was seeing. It must be down to the collimation of the lens. While I don’t think these cameras were thrown together, this particular one came to me with the lens falling off. Someone bypassed the infinity stop and spun the lens and shutter almost completely off of the camera’s body. I initially spun it back on, but the threading must have been off, causing the focus to be slightly off from the film plane. It shouldn’t be that much of a problem as I’ve done plenty of these repairs before, or so I thought.

The only explanation I can see that would cause this is a missing shim. Either that or there was no way in hell this camera ever hit focus correctly. I spent way too much time trying every thread on the helicoid and rangefinder adjustment to get this camera in sync, and it just was not possible. Either the focus was off or the rangefinder would reach the end of its focusing range. I opted to make my own shim, needing something close to a millimeter to close the gap I was seeing. A 3d print was out of the question, as it would bother me for an eternity if it wasn’t period correct, and scoured my parts bins for a similar size of the shims that were already present. I was surprised to find just the right thing, installing it and having a sigh of relief as calibration went much smoother this time. I cleaned all the windows and mirrors, and moved on to the next step, the shutter.

While the shutter was working well at all speeds, I did a quick clean of the blades and aperture for good measure. One thing that was still not working very well was the shutter’s trigger. It would occasionally jam in one direction, and you had to force it back up to reset it. This ended up being a problem of a very small bend in the trigger, causing it to move over a mechanical stop in the shutter. An easy enough fix, but now it was time for the first real film test.

I decided a mixture of indoor and outdoor shots would be a good test for this lens, shooting inside my home and outside in a park on an overcast but bright day. The results ended up baffling me. Some shots, one after another in the same light, would be sharp and clear, then glowing. Outside was much of the same. Some pictures turned out fine but others had a strange and grainy look to them, and others with an intense glow. I tried multiple rolls over the course of the next month, in case it was a fluke or something I did, and I was left with very similar images. Some images really ended up benefiting from this lens’s glow though, I especially like the picture I took of some white flowers. It adds to the look perfectly, but it still was a problem for most of the other pictures. Once again I took the camera to the bench and looked a bit closer at the lens.

The rear element was perfect, however, the lens assembly in front of the shutter was hazy again. At this point, I decided to do a bit of research on the lens and found a few interesting things out. This was not a Kodak made lens at all, it was a rebranded Schneider Xenar. The serial number confirms this as it does not follow the conventional Kodak numbering system. The serial number indicates it was made by Schnider in 1939, probably right before the war. What this also means is that it was an uncoated lens, with the infamous haze that comes with them. I gently cleaned the lens again, and it was better, but the haze was still being difficult. The other thing I noticed was the film plane was falling out of alignment in some of the shots, causing one side of the image to blur. I knew exactly what it was, and unfortunately, it was something I could not fix. The threading on the helicoid was too coarse or worn out on one of the sides. Depending on how you held the camera, the lens would slightly tilt to one side. If you were shooting wide open it would show, but stopped down it was fine. It was only around infinity that this caused a problem, so I just needed to double check that it was not shifted. A bit tedious, but excusable for a 75+ year old camera. You can see an example of this with the picture of the park bench.

I decided to take the camera and some Fomapan 400 with me to my parents house on a weekend my sister, brother in law, and their baby came to visit. Making sure to avoid bright direct or side light for the haze, the slight shifting of the lens at infinity, and my unpredictable quick footed niece, I had quite the test ahead of me! To my surprise, some of these shots came out very nice. I even leaned into the glow at times. Only now was I finally learning how to shoot with an uncoated lens. If you have haze, the glow can throw off shots at unpredictable times if you're not paying attention to where the light is coming from.

For the next test, I decided to do something drastic. I would not recommend this as it can permanently damage your lens, coatings, or shutter mechanisms if done improperly. The haze kept coming back so I tried many different chemicals, heating it up in an oven, boiling the lens, all the usual tricks, but nothing worked. So I decided to very lightly polish the lens with the haze on it. This should always be the last resort, as it can do more damage than good. After a few bits of back and forth polishing, checking with a loop, and cleaning the lens, most of the haze was gone. There was still a small bit of haze between the elements in the cemented doublet, but you could only see that with the brightest light I had. Only now did I notice the immense amount of wear and cleaning marks on the front element’s surface from years of use and knocking around. I lightly polished that as well, and the lens was looking much clearer than before.

I took the last two rolls, Fuji 200 and Shanghai GP3 100, with me to different parks that I knew had varying lighting conditions. For the last tests, I used a handheld light meter, metering and averaging the light in the scenes and double checking my settings. The six pictures vary from into the sun, to indoors in mixed lighting, and brightly lit side lighting. I’m honestly stunned at how much of a difference polishing the lens made. After finishing the ninth roll of film, only now am I starting to know how to use this camera to its potential.

The cleaning and polishing of the lens really changed my opinion about this camera, from an interesting oddity, to a camera I will look forward to shooting again. Through the countless film cameras I’ve shot, American cameras have a very distinct feel to them. Built but not perfected, unconventional but not compromising, and a section of the industry making notes about the competition, willing to take risks on design. That’s what makes them exciting to me. From discovering Perfex cameras, to months of research, and a struggle shooting with a difficult lens, I find myself at the end of this journey even more excited to explore more of the odd cameras that came out of America.

I’m not sure most people would be actively searching for a camera like this, but I will say it was not the easiest to use until I fell into its rhythm. With the added ability of a Compur-Rapid shutter and Schneider lens, it is much more capable than the other leaf shutter Perfex cameras. If you want something unique with an interesting story behind it, I’d say search one out. There is more to look into for the history of these strange cameras and even more American cameras to explore, but in the meantime, I think I’ll keep mine.