ad for accessory viewfinder to make your screw mount Leica with a collapsible 5cm lens into a TLR camera
Toronto. On page 9 in the April 1946 issue of Popular Photography, a company called De Mornay-Budd based in NYC, took out a large advertisement for an unusual Leica/Contax series of viewfinders. The viewfinder mounted on the camera’s accessory shoe and was linked to any collapsible 5cm lens focussing setting. The viewfinder was made for a specific camera/lens combination.
The gadget converted the camera and its 5cm lens to a TLR. Both before and after this ad, things happened: Shortly afterwards, the company changed its name to Demornay Bernardi after moving to the west coast of the States; Post WW2, Zeiss Jena and Contax became part of East Germany and the Soviet Union; Leitz discontinued the screw mount line of Leicas for the widely popular M series beginning in 1954 – the M series was based on pre-WW2 experiments; the Leica Rangefinder system was an alternative to TLR cameras like the Rollei; and minicam interchangeable lenses had grown in popularity since the early 1930s.
The result was rather slow sales of this accessory viewfinder. Now, in this century, any such viewfinder found in decent shape commands a few hundred dollars from serious collectors.
My thanks to good friend and fellow photography enthusiast, George Dunbar, who discovered this odd accessory advertised in Popular Photography.
