French TLRs

Alsaphot Bioflex

A rare and stylish variant on the TLR concept - very French and rather different. This is the Model 1 Type 2. Several advanced capabilities include full automatic shutter cocking; extending crank handle (set in a large styled knob); aperture and speed settings through geared lens surrounds, but focus via Rollei-style side knob, etc. The lenses are giant f2.9 Sagem Jaguars, made by France's pre-eminent optical supplier.

Sales seem to have been the problem, perhaps because all of these special features must have made the Bioflex very pricy!

Taking lens Sagem Jaguar 75mm f2.9
Prontor-SV Shutter 1 to 1/300

Cornu Ontoflex

Unusual 1930s giant TLR taking 6x9 pictures on 120 film. The film back rotates to provide alternative orientations for landscape and portrait. This is a Model A (rollfilm only). The Cornu company, like Franke and Heidecke, went from making stereo cameras to TLRs, but the Ontoflex never sold in any quantity, proving rather an expensive cul-de-sac in camera development, like the German folding TLRs (q.v.).

Cornu made basic 35mm models during the German occupation in WW2, and seems to have abandoned cameras sometime soon after the war ended.

Taking lens Zeiss Tessar 75mm f3.5
Compur Rapid Shutter 1 to 1/400

Mecaoptic Celtaflex Model 2

As early as 1944, when France was still occupied, a chap called M. Bernard, a Paris photographer, founded Photoelec to make cameras, enlargers and other photo gear. The company made a rather basic but neat TLR called the Cameraflex, distributed by the firm of Marcel Halbout from 1947, who subsequently bought the product rights and relaunched the it as the first Celtaflex. Subsequently, manufacture moved to Mecaoptic-Photo, makers of various TLRs and other cameras into the early 'fifties. The one here is a second version dating from some time after the end of 1947.

The film insertion and winding mechanism is primitive, but functional. On the linked page (click the small photo above) can be seen the side view of this. However, the camera is very solid despite its near-diamond-jubilee age, and looks to have years of life left in it. The shutter is a fairly well-specified one from FAP, which is little stiff on slower speeds.

Taking lens Boyr Saphir 1 75mm f4.5
Shutter FAP Rapid-Synchro-OO 1 to 1/500

Atoflex-derived Models

The ATOMS Atoflex of 1948 fathered a large tribe of cameras spanning several companies and around twenty years of development. Most followed in one form or another the geared-lens approach which it began. As yet, I haven't found an original Atoflex, although the leather case for one of my Rex Aiglons - see below - has the name "Rex Atoflex" imprinted on it!

Hervé Pont identifies the "faux reflex" (i.e. fixed focus) Aiglon (Eaglet) twin-lens camera of 1946 as the original foundation of the breed, evolving into the geared-lens Atoflex.

On his excellent website, Sylvain Halgand, with whom I have corresponded and traded in the past, says that ATOMS was formed in Nice in 1946, the name being an abbreviation "Technicians' Association in Optics and Scientific Mechanics". The first product was the fixed focus Aiglon below, with no coupling between the focusing and object lenses. The Atoflex, of around 1948, was a sharply improved version, of true reflex (focusing) format. There were three models of Atoflex, the differences of which lie in the shutter speed range and the objective lens fitted. Shutters made by Atoms were baptized ATOS (versions 1 and 2 are used). In 1950, Atoms decided to manufacture a simplified Atoflex (fewer shutter speeds of closing and no sports sight), reusing the Aiglon name.

ATOMS Aiglon

The fixed-focus precursor to the Atoflex family, owing much of its design to the earlier pre-war Voigtlander Brillant models - one wonders whether ATOS benefited in some way from Voigtlander know-how following the collapse of Germany in 1945 (the Russians certainly did, creating the Komsomolets and Lubitel ranges from the Brillant moulds and technologies). Basic, but functional.
Taking lens P. Angenieux U1 75mm f/4.5
Shutter ATOS-1 1/10 to 1/150

Photorex Rex Reflex Models

Hervé Pont says Photorex had the exclusive distributorship for the Atoflex, and in 1950 transformed it into the Rex Reflex "and developed it into numerous variants". The three Rex cameras I have show that this is probably a very abbreviated story. The earlier two are "Aiglon (English = Eaglet) Reflexes", using the ATOS-1 shutter and appear very similar to the pictures I've seen of the Atoflex, albeit with a Rex escutcheon/lens surround. The third is a Rex Reflex Standard with an ATOS-2 shutter, a better lens and a glass sports finder window in the lid. This was apparently the simplified version of an earlier original Rex Reflex B1 (knob-wind from 1949) and B2 (crank-advance from 1951), which had interchangeable lens panels with 75mm and 150mm geared lens sets. This was pretty advanced when it appeared, preceding the Mamiya C series by several years.

I have obtained a rather poor copy of a 1953 Rex publicity handout, showing theat the Aiglon and Atoflex were marketed simultaneously as late as that year. Click here for details.

ATOMS Atoflex

The original of the whole extended Atoflex family, basic in general design, but rather less so than the immediate later derivatives. The geared lens surrounds add a sense of weight which the mechanics perhaps don't really justify.
Taking lens P. Angenieux U1 75mm f/4.5
Shutter unnamed (ATOS?) 1/10 to 1/150

ATOMS Aiglon Reflex (Black)

A slight step down from the Atoflex, the Aiglon Reflexes are essentially the same camera, with a lesser shutter and no sports viewfinder in the lid. Otherwise they are really identical, apart from the rather less weighty lens surrounds.
Taking lens Roussel Trylor 75mm f/4.5
Shutter ATOS-1 1/25 to 1/150

ATOMS Aiglon Reflex (Blue)

This is the same model as the previous one, but is an early example of the French trying to inject some Gallic flair (at low cost here by using colour only).

Taking lens Roussel Trylor 75mm f/4.5
Shutter ATOS-1 1/25 to 1/150

Rex Reflex Standard

As noted above, this is the down-specced version of the original B-series Rex models. The lens panel is fixed with return to geared-lens design, and various lens/shutter combinations were used.
Lens SOM Berthiot Flor 75mm f3.5
Shutter ATOS-2 1 to 1/300

Royer Royflex Models

In 1952, Photorex went bankrupt and the rights to the Atoflex/Aiglon family were bought by SITO/Royer. The correct name of the manufacturer is SITO (Industrial Company of Optical Technique), but the name "Royer" is commonly used, being that of its founder in 1947, René Royer (who ended his career working for Yashica in the 1960s). The Royflex range was launched following significant redevelopments in 1954, and continues directly from the Rex models, continuing to evolve until production ceased in 1958.

Royer Royflex I

The first Royflex model (this one is an early one with serial 2798) uses much of the design of the late Rex Reflex, with the same body moulding and sportsfinder lid. However, the frontal design has changed significantly, with the gearing between the lenses now concealed in the font panel and focusing by a round push-knob attached to the lower lens. It's a neat design, showing some quality improvements in the detailing and definite signs of a serious attempt at competing with the Rollei models. The model was followed by the evolving Royflex II and III series.

Lens SOM Berthiot Anastigmat 75mm f4.5
Shutter apparently Royer 1/10 to 1/350.

Royer Royflex III

When Royer launched the "new" Royflexes in 1954, the model III was the most radical (and much the most expensive), becoming the flagship of the range. It (like Alsaphot's Bioflex) attempted to carry battle direct to Rolleiflex, with crank winding and automatic arming of the shutter. It is a sophisticated design, seemingly solid, although it certainly never acquired the engineering cachet of the Rolleis. One would suspect that a hard-working professional would not find this early model attractive by comparison; the winding mechanism is stiff and feels less than totally developed. In 1956, the range was redeveloped somewhat with a new "Telelight" hood - see my notes below on the Royflex 20.
Lens SOM Berthiot Flor 75mm f3.5
Shutter apparently Royer 1 to 1/350

Royer Royflex 20

The late Royflex III (which is very rare - I don't have one, but there's a copy of the one in Sylvain Halgand's collection on the Royflex 20 page) introduced a Fresnel focusing screen of "Telelight" type with central prisms, along with crank film advance and auto-shutter cocking (as for Rolleiflexes). The aim was to make it more acceptable to buyers as German suppliers recovered, but this increased significantly the price of the device and Royer brought out the Royer 20 keeping the Telelight, but not the crank, which was replaced by a simple knob wind. A switch on the side indicates the facility to use either 120 or 35mm (which must have needed some further inserts).
Lens SOM Berthiot Flor 75mm f3.5
Shutter apparently Royer 1 to 1/350

Further Atoflex-derived Models

The precise origins of the derivatives below is a little obscure. Amaryllis Wurth's website has a tantalising little historical note that the Kinaflex was made at Royer's second factory in Savoie (Savoy), opened at some time in the early 'fifties. If so, Royer was presumably maintaining a moderately updated version of the original Rex model as a cheaper camera to sell via distributors wanting their own name on it. The Kinaflex and Luxoflex are mildly tweaked Atoflex/Rex variants. The former even has an ATOS-2 shutter. My French correspondent (and expert on French postwar cameras), Sylvain Halgand, advises that Kinax stopped production completely around 1958.

Kinax Kinaflex

A basic but functional camera. Kinax presumably bought it from Royer to distribute as their own model.
Taking lens Berthiot Flor 75mm f/3.5
Shutter ATOS-2 1 to 1/300

Photo Plait Luxoflex

As for the Kinaflex, this is derived from the Atoflex, and probably made by Royer or Rex for distribution by Photo Plait.
Taking lens Som Berthiot 75mm f4.5
Shutter unnamed 1 to 1/300

Fotor Reflex

This may be the rarest Atoflex derivative - it isn't even mentioned in the French reference works, let alone McKeown. There is just one WWW reference on the French "Photoptic" website, which says it was made by ATOMS in 1952 for another distributor. This date must be suspect - see my notes on the history of ATOMS and Rex above.
Taking lens Som Berthiot 75mm f4.5
Shutter unnamed 1 to 1/300