Give Us The Name of An Old Out Of Business Photography Company

[G Dogg]

Dejur Enlargers

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

DHW Fototechnik are actually still hanging on, barely, and I understand are trickling out a few SLRs, but no more TLRs I believe.
Cheers
Brett

 

[alan davus]

A Yashica TL Electro was my first camera.

 

[ckuwajima]

Kern
Pignons, the manufacturers of the original Alpa cameras

 

[CameraQuest]

Miranda Camera Company, although it seems a company called Dixon keeps the right to the name, its been a long time since the company went out of business.

And yes, really love the Miranda cameras. Sweet mechanical goodness. Sensomat was one of my early cameras.

The Miranda camera company went out of business about 1975 in a labor dispute. Up against union demands the owners that could not be met,
the two owners (in Los Angeles) gave the Japanese labor unions the one finger salute and closed the doors.

Stephen

 

[hap]

Richard philips.......

 

[charjohncarter]

Balda, First Six Camera, Petri (been taken already), Hollywood Reflex, Topcon (Bessler), Konica (C35), Mamiya Super 23, 3M film (slides): I own them all.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The Miranda camera company went out of business about 1975 in a labor dispute. Up against union demands the owners that could not be met,
the two owners (in Los Angeles) gave the Japanese labor unions the one finger salute and closed the doors.

Stephen

How did a Japanese camera company come to be owned by Americans? Anyway, closing down completely to spite your workers is dumb. If you give in to their demands, you will make less money; if you close down you will NEVER make any more money.

 

[Taipei-metro]

no Topcon now

my Unirex
by
t a i p e i metro
nikon dslr, nikon 18-55

 

[p.giannakis]

I learned the photography basics with Praktica cameras.....

 

[Bill Clark]

All the camera stores, gone!

Why, even Target used to carry darkroom stuff!

Brown Photo is gone from here.

Interesting article on the changing retail landscape:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_retailers_of_the_United_States

Pako is gone. They invented the Pakon slide mount.

http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/01155.xml

Did you shop here:

http://photosecrets.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-ritz-camera

 

[sepiareverb]

And Zone VI, I still use their washers every time I print, and have a hacked 810 Zone VI enlarger.

Wisner, lovely cameras.

Is Omega no more?

 

[x-ray]

Petri, Spiratone , Camera Barn in NYC, Porters Camera Store,Chinon

Add Altman Camera in Chicago to the list. I think at the time it was te worlds largest camera store. As I recall it closed because of an attempt to bring the union in.

 

[underlord]

Does this count? 'Early Photoshop'

Early Photo Shop by Philip McAllister, on Flickr

 

[nikonhswebmaster]

How did a Japanese camera company come to be owned by Americans? Anyway, closing down completely to spite your workers is dumb. If you give in to their demands, you will make less money; if you close down you will NEVER make any more money.

Well the story is actually a bit more complicated. The US importer Allied Impex owned the brand names, and just finally quit manufacturing, really because they were not competitive with later cameras like the Sensorex. The last Miranda, the DX-3 was a financial disaster for the company.

American companies controlling brands during the '60s and on was not unusual, SuperScope held the SONY trademark, EPOI, Nikon for instance.

The Miranda labor disputes were just the one of the final blows. Ralph Lowenstein has been credited with the demise of the company, during the time he was in Japan, but accurate info is not easy to find.

I used own a fleet of Miranda T SLRs -- they were beautiful cameras. My first "pro" camera was a Miranda.

 

[Mjd-djm]

Don't forget Contax. Such a shame.

 

[Dogman]

Ponder and Best. Importer of Vivitar, among others.

 

[ForestCap]

⚛ Yashica

My first RF camera is a Yashica MG-1.

 

[x-ray]

Petre cameras.

 

[dmr]

The one that comes to my mind immediately is the dealer Spiratone, mentioned here many times over the years.