The late 1920s Gewirette camera courtesy of CJ’s Classic Camera Collection
Toronto. A fitting title in this pandemic crisis we face today! The camera you see here is the Wirgin Gewirette v.1 manufactured by the Wirgin company in Wiesbaden, Germany.
This particular camera predates the 35mm minicam revolution. It uses 127 roll film and has a leaf shutter and collapsible lens of which a variety of lenses and shutters made by others were assembled in this model.
You may recall other cameras lines made by Wirgin, like Edinex and Edixa. The cameras showed up at our fairs and meetings, especially last century. The image above, left is courtesy of CJ’s Classic Camera Collection. Cees-Jan de Hoog lives near Edinburgh in Scotland. His site is well worth a look, especially with its beautiful images. These cameras are a testament to the innovative camera designs created by Europeans between world wars.
The title is a popular song by Weird Al Yankovic that is a parody on the 1984 hit song by Madonna called “Like a Virgin“.
