
a Leitz mirror box Visoflex I (PLOOT) c1956 a few years before the thinner Visoflex II and III were released.
Toronto. When the minicams arrived in the late 1920s, the fancier ones used a rangefinder for sharp focus of the chosen subject. A few years later, high end minicams like the Leitz Leica, Zeiss Contax, etc. accepted interchangeable lenses.
It soon became evident that a rangefinder worked great for wide angle to medium telephoto lenses – say up to 135mm. Beyond that (or for close-ups), a single lens reflex (SLR) worked better. The only one around in the 1930s was the famous Exakta (Exacta outside North America). There were other issues with the Exakta – below a normal to medium wide focal length, complex lens designs were needed to clear the built-in mirror. Initially wide angle lenses were uncommon. Angenieux solved this problem with retro-focus designs and massive degrees of geometric distortion, very evident when the frame contains straight lines, the camera is tilted, etc.
To make rangefinder cameras into SLRs some companies built both focussing aids into their cameras (eg the Alpa). In other cases, a mirror mechanism was built into an extension tube sitting between the camera body and a bellows (for close-up with lens heads, or normal photos for lenses with a focal length longer than a medium telephoto.
Of course mirror boxes, interchangeable lenses, bellows, etc all became obsolete with zoom lenses and the digital era – especially smartphones. Visit our 2025 events to add these rare and wonderful accessories from the film era to your collection! See the right hand sidebar for scheduled events. A post will be pinned to the front page of this site as we get closer to each event.