cjoliprsf
Mu-43 Veteran
There are lots of talks these days about the main camera makers, and the financial problems of some of them. They are quite few really: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Pentax, Olympus and Panasonic, (and Leica which is in a special class) are I guess the only players in the field of digital ILCs (excluding larger format which is more specialized).
How was it in 1973? I recently found in my things a box-full of old issues from the 1970s of the French magazine "PHOTO" - a beautiful magazine by the way. In the #66 of March 1973, there is a review of all the 24x36mm reflex cameras on the market. The number of makers is quite amazing, as is the number of models. The photographer of those days really had a lot more selections available than we now have!
The names we still know or that still hang around the camera business:
Asahi Pentax had 4 models including the Spotmatic
Canon had 5 models
Fujica had 2 models
Konica had 3 models of "Autoreflex" (now living in Sony)
Leicaflex had 2 models
Mamiya had 4 models (they left the field to concentrate on larger format)
Minolta had 4 models including the SRT-101 (now living in Sony)
Nikon had 2 models plus 2 models of Nikkormat
Olympus had the FTL and was introducing the OM 1
Ricoh had 3 models (merged with Pentax)
So this section includes 10 brands that made a total of 33 models of cameras
And then there are the names we might remember and those that are now completely forgotten...
Alpa (Swiss) had 2 models
Bell & Howell (USA) had 1 model
Chinon (Japan) had 1 model
Cosina (Japan) had 2 models
Edixa (West Germany) had 1 model
Exakta (West Germany) had 1 model
Kowa (Japan) had 1 model
Miranda (Japan) had 4 models
Petri (Japan) had 2 models
Praktica (East Germany) had 3 models
Regula (Japan) had 1 model
Rollei (West Germany / Singapour) had 1 model
Seagull (China) had 1 model
Topcon (Japan) had 5 models
Yashica (Japan) had 2 models
Zeiss Ikon (West Germany) had 2 models of Contarex
Zenit (USSR) had 2 models
This makes an additional 17 brands for 32 models.
So, in 1973, one could choose between 27 makers of ILCs for a total of 65 models of 24x36mm reflex cameras!
Now we are down to 8 makers of which a few have serious financial problems and might drop the business.
How was it in 1973? I recently found in my things a box-full of old issues from the 1970s of the French magazine "PHOTO" - a beautiful magazine by the way. In the #66 of March 1973, there is a review of all the 24x36mm reflex cameras on the market. The number of makers is quite amazing, as is the number of models. The photographer of those days really had a lot more selections available than we now have!
The names we still know or that still hang around the camera business:
Asahi Pentax had 4 models including the Spotmatic
Canon had 5 models
Fujica had 2 models
Konica had 3 models of "Autoreflex" (now living in Sony)
Leicaflex had 2 models
Mamiya had 4 models (they left the field to concentrate on larger format)
Minolta had 4 models including the SRT-101 (now living in Sony)
Nikon had 2 models plus 2 models of Nikkormat
Olympus had the FTL and was introducing the OM 1
Ricoh had 3 models (merged with Pentax)
So this section includes 10 brands that made a total of 33 models of cameras
And then there are the names we might remember and those that are now completely forgotten...
Alpa (Swiss) had 2 models
Bell & Howell (USA) had 1 model
Chinon (Japan) had 1 model
Cosina (Japan) had 2 models
Edixa (West Germany) had 1 model
Exakta (West Germany) had 1 model
Kowa (Japan) had 1 model
Miranda (Japan) had 4 models
Petri (Japan) had 2 models
Praktica (East Germany) had 3 models
Regula (Japan) had 1 model
Rollei (West Germany / Singapour) had 1 model
Seagull (China) had 1 model
Topcon (Japan) had 5 models
Yashica (Japan) had 2 models
Zeiss Ikon (West Germany) had 2 models of Contarex
Zenit (USSR) had 2 models
This makes an additional 17 brands for 32 models.
So, in 1973, one could choose between 27 makers of ILCs for a total of 65 models of 24x36mm reflex cameras!
Now we are down to 8 makers of which a few have serious financial problems and might drop the business.