The American TLR

Kodak Reflex II; first TLR with Fresnel bright-screen viewfinder, 1948



The Best and the rest

R. Oleson

(Note: This article is a ‘retype’ of one originally written and published in
Photognomia, the newsletter of the Photographic Collectors of Houston, in the
early 1980s. A few typographic and minor editorial corrections have been made in the
retype.)

Much has been written about the rise and fall of the "serious amateur"
photographic industry in the United States; its 35mm efforts have been particularly
well documented, from the design of the world’s first 35mm still camera in 1912 to
the demise of the last American made 35mm Kodaks in 1969.

Equally significant in its day but less thoroughly documented, the 2 ¼ square twin
lens reflex had much in common with its 35mm counterparts. Like them, it was first
successfully marketed by Argus in the late pre-WWII years as a very inexpensive
imitation of a very expensive German camera, and reached its pinnacle of development
in the late 1940s in an attempt to surpass the quality of the German predecessor from
which it had evolved; only, failing in the attempt, to be swept into oblivion, unable
to compete with a flood of feature-laden, high-quality, low priced imports from both
Germany and Japan in the 1950s.

Argus Argoflex E; first American TLR, 1940-1948

The American TLR, like its 35mm siblings, filled a need in the late prewar and
early postwar years for an affordable piece of equipment capable of producing results
adequate for the serious photographer. The Ciro-Flex C, for instance, sold for
$88.50 in 1948 when an equivalent Rolleicord, if it could be found, cost $157. Both
had 3-element lenses, but the Ciro’s was coated, and its longer focal length meant
that the lens had a narrower field to cover and thus provided superior edge-to-edge
performance at low cost. For these reasons, cameras like the Ciro-Flex were quite
popular among the cost-conscious young professional photographers of the day.

Rare prewar Ciro-Flex A, 1940 (photo courtesy of Todd Goodheart)

The device of increasing focal length, rather than add a fourth lens element, to
improve edge sharpness was a common expedient in American TLR design, even in the
most deluxe models. Indeed, the only American TLR to feature a Tessar-type 4-element lens, to my
knowledge, was the Ciro-Flex F (later renamed Graflex 22/400-F), with its
f/3.2 Wollensak Raptar. (The Kodak Reflexes used a 4-element lens of a different design,

with 3 air-spaced elements in front of the diaphragm and only one behind)

Postwar Ciro-Flex D, c. 1948

Although most American TLRs were relatively simple designs, they were not without
their innovative features. The Fresnel field lens, now standard on all reflex
cameras, was introduced with the Kodak Reflex II in 1948; and by 1950, as the first
Germans began to catch on, it was pretty standard stuff in the US industry.
Fresnel lenses were even sold as aftermarket items to Rollei users to bring their
cameras "up to date". Built-in flash synchronization, always popular in
the US, had been available since 1946 in the Kodak Reflex and was universal in the US
industry by the time the Germans began to catch up in 1950. And the Ansco Automatic
Reflex’s intentional double-exposure mechanism, introduced in 1947, was finally
offered by Rolleiflex in 1954.

Argus Argoflex EF; last Argoflex model, 1948

Only one American TLR really made a serious attempt to outdo the Germans at their
own game. The Ansco Automatic Reflex, built in Bingamton, NY from 1947 until 1952,
was the only American camera of its type to feature such luxuries as double exposure
prevention, automatic film stop, crank advance and truly precision construction. It
was developed in anticipation of a Rollei-free postwar marketplace, but was
introduced just in time to meet the first postwar shipments of Rollei Automats head
on. Although the Ansco’s three element coated 85mm lens stood up quite well against
the Rollei’s 75mm Tessar, the camera did lack auto parallax correction, auto shutter
cocking and Rollei’s unique auto-start film counter system; and its less-than-1%
price advantage simply wasn’t enough to bring in the buyers. Photographers were
further discouraged, despite the camera’s obvious quality and gorgeous appearance, by
its tendency to rack itself back to infinity as soon as the focusing knob was let go,
and its even more annoying tendency to jam up solid for no reason (even when brand
new), requiring the user to waste a frame of film in order to clear the mechanism.

Hollywood Reflex, 1948

For the collector, American TLRs benefit (and for the user, they suffer) from
another idiosyncrasy: there was a sense of uncertainty on the part of manufacturers
as to which type of 2 ¼ film their cameras ought to use. Kodak, repeating their
previous "Bantam" misjudgment on a (physically) larger scale, overestimated
their ability to impose their will upon the marketplace, decided that their
unique ‘620’ film size was the wave of the future, and designed all of their 2 ¼
format cameras accordingly. A few others followed suit, producing cameras that are
virtually worthless today due to the unavailability of 620 film; but the majority
took the more traditional 120 route. Not wanting to be caught on the wrong side of
the fence, Argus and Universal designed their cameras to accept both types. As easy
as this was to do, it’s amazing that everybody didn’t do it (Universal seems a
particularly unlikely leader in this respect, as all of their prewar cameras had been
intentionally made incompatible with all existing film types in order to create a
captive film market).

Ansco Automatic Reflex, first model, 1947

Rare photo of a pre-production Ansco Reflex prototype!(Thanks Leonard!)

As in the case of 35mm cameras, the quality of design and construction of American
TLRs ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. While Ansco was pretty much alone at
the "sublime" end of the scale, the "ridiculous" end was rather
well populated. In a tie for Dead Last, the Hollywood Reflex Model E and the Spartus
Spartaflex both came equipped with f/7.7 doublet lenses and box-camera shutters, and
sold for under $30. But they did have matched, coupled focusing and taking lenses
and so qualified as "real" TLRs, and for the money one probably couldn’t
have expected much more. Somewhat more useful but more shameful was Universal’s
Uniflex, even the deluxe model of which was less than a match for a contemporary
Argoflex. I suspect that few were deceived by the "Imitation Precision"
styling of its massive cast aluminum body, and its price – it sold for $75 when a
distinctly superior Ciro-Flex could be had for $69 – was atrocious.

 This Royce Reflex is part of an amazing collection of TLRs owned by Barry Toogood.
Clicking on the photo will take you to his American TLRs,
but he has many other nationalities as well.
(I believe this camera was made in 1946 in California. When I have
better information on it, I'll add it.)

The heyday of the American TLR was brief. Only two models had existed before
1946, and by 1953 only one remained. It was the Ciro-Flex, by now flying the Graflex
banner, that had withstood the challenge of both American and European competition to
become, by far, the longest-lived of the American TLR cameras. It had held on where
all others had failed by sticking to basics: it combined high quality, up-to-date
optics and shutters in the simplest, cheapest package possible, permitting beginning
pros and serious amateurs to sacrifice convenience, rather than quality, in order to
balance the budget (It is worth noting that this same purpose was served decades
later by the last Japanese TLRs, the Yashica-Mat and the Mamiya C series).

But even that couldn’t last. In 1953 and 1954 the flood of Japanese TLRs began.
These matched the Graflex/Ciro’s quality and price, and far outmatched it in
convenience features and appearance. When users could get something "just like
a Rollei" for the price of a Ciro-Flex, the handwriting appeared not only on the
wall but on the bottom line as well. In 1957, Graflex finally gave up the battle and
officially discontinued the last of the Ciro-Flex-based TLRs – the Graflex 22/200,
ironically the model most closely resembling the original Ciro-Flex A of 1940.
Graflex closed down the Ciro operation entirely, discontinuing the Ciro 35-based
Graphic 35 as well as the TLR, and turned to Kowa in Japan to fill the 35mm gap as
they abandoned the TLR completely.

Graflex 22-400 (Rebadged Ciro-Flex E), c.1953

Specifications: American Twin Lens Reflex Cameras (2 ¼ x 2 ¼ Format)

* Ciro-Flex A/B/D series also includes Graflex 22/200.

Ciro-Flex C/E series also includes Graflex 22/400.

Ciro-Flex F also includes Graflex 22/400-F.



** Indicates camera with self-cocking shutter.




*** The focusing screen in the 1947 Ansco Automatic Reflex is unique and difficult to categorize.

It is a single plate of plastic, inscribed on the bottom surface with concentric grooves at a spacing of only .002",

much finer than the Fresnel plates that were not introduced until the next year. Unlike the later Ektalite and

other Fresnel field lenses, in the Ansco the grooves are so fine that they are actually used as the focusing surface.

The screen is bright to the edges, similar to a Fresnel screen. The grooved surface, however, is not ideal for critical focusing.

It may be that the screen in my example was not original, or that the camera may have been built after the introduction of Fresnel field lenses in 1948.




**** The Kodak Anastar lens was an unusual design with one element behind the diaphragm

and three in front, all air-spaced, with front-element focusing.


Learn More about the Kodak Reflex and its Unique Lens




Please Also Note:


- The Marvel-Flex was a derivative of the Ciro-Flex A, made for Sears Roebuck just before WWII.


- The Wardflex was a derivative of the Argoflex E, made for Montgomery Ward just after WWII.


- The DeJur Reflex was a private label Ciro-Flex variant, similar to the Graflex 22, made in the early 1950s.