{"id":32886,"date":"2025-12-03T01:03:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T05:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=32886"},"modified":"2025-11-29T01:25:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:25:52","slug":"strange-bedfellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/strange-bedfellows\/","title":{"rendered":"strange bedfellows …"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

a Kreka prototype with its body cover removed to change films<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. We collectors of photography – images, hardware, ephemera, etc. Or fans of photographic history, seldom consider other non-photographic collectibles. At least three German camera makers; Leitz and Zeiss, who established themselves decades earlier as makers of quality microscopes, binoculars, etc., and ‘Christian Kremp Optical and Mechanical’ began as optical\/mechanical \u00a0houses long before the invention of photography.<\/p>\n

For our 25th anniversary, journal editor Bob Lansdale featured some memorable articles from both our members and other collectibles societies. In issue 25-5 he included an article by Fritz Shulze. Fritz was a manager at Zeiss here in Toronto, and editor of the HMSC Bulletin. Some members of the PHSC were also members of the microscopical society formed by Fritz.<\/p>\n

His article, titled, “Christian Kremp – \u00a0Founder of Ch. Kremp Optik und Mechanik, Wetzlar, Germany” is the story of the firm and its founding people. The firm, like some other ‘optical houses’ made cameras.<\/p>\n

Mr Shulze begins his article, “Our life is often guided by\u00a0strange coincidences; shortly\u00a0after the HMSC established\u00a0its web-page I received an\u00a0e-mail from a fellow who\u00a0wanted to know more about\u00a0a \u201cKremp-Wetzlar\u201d microscope.<\/p>\n

“Even though I\u00a0had dealt with microscopes since the early\u00a050\u2019s I could not recall\u00a0such a manufacturer. I\u00a0therefore appealed for\u00a0help to Bob Carter of the\u00a0PHSC who had a\u00a0Lorentzen diskette of\u00a0Microscope Manufacturers\u00a0<\/i>and Dealers<\/i>.<\/p>\n

“Indeed, there\u00a0was a Kremp <\/i>listed; the\u00a0company still exists [year 2000]. Bob\u00a0provided the company\u2019s\u00a0web-page,\u00a0<\/span>so I enquired\u00a0directly about their microscopes and found the present owner (a great-grandson of the founder)\u00a0most receptive and helpful \u2013 a gentleman of the\u00a0old school, rarely found nowadays amongst the lean and mean,\u00a0restructured, and downsized corporations.<\/p>\n

“Mr. Christian Kremp mailed me his Family and Company\u00a0<\/i>History <\/i>which he had compiled, together with copies of catalogues, price lists and advertisements of their historical products.<\/p>\n

“Their present scope of production encompasses a variety of precision gears and drives.\u00a0Although Kremp <\/i>does not have the reputation of Ernst Leitz\u00a0<\/i>or Carl Zeiss<\/i>, or John Bausch<\/i>, R&J Beck<\/i>, W. Watson <\/i>or other\u00a0famous microscope makers, the company\u2019s history is nevertheless an interesting example of how a gifted man finds his career\u00a0then achieves success and fortune.” [the extremely rare Kreka camera is listed in McKeown’s] …<\/p>\n

Members read all of this fine illustrated article in the issue 25-5 pdf file on the free members-only DVD\/thumb drive. See above or at right to renew or join. Address any membership questions to member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. We collectors of photography – images, hardware, ephemera, etc. Or fans of photographic history, seldom consider other non-photographic collectibles. At least three German camera makers; Leitz and Zeiss, who established themselves decades earlier as makers of quality microscopes, binoculars, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[2017,398,512],"class_list":["post-32886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-article","tag-camera","tag-microscope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32886"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32892,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32886\/revisions\/32892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}