EXTREMELY Rare Kardon 35mm

WWII Army Signal Corps Camera

WWII vintage Kardon Army Signal Corps camera
(aka, the famous "American Leica")

Description

(revised)

From the 1940s and the momentous days of World War II, here is an extremely rare 35mm. Kardon U.S. Army Signal Corps camera with the original Kardon “Eveready” leather case, both in excellent condition.

Made by the Premier Instrument Corporation under the direction of its Russian-immigrant president, Peter Kardon, this brilliantly-designed camera (Army designation PH-629/UF) was intended to fulfill the Army’s need for an American version of the German-made Leica 111a, which had become unavailable due to the fact that the U.S. was at war with Germany.

In 1941, the U.S. government seized control of the New York branch of the German E. Leitz company, but by 1943 they had found that the Leitz equipment at that facility was in such poor condition that it was unusable and unrepairable, and also that the Leica 111a did not lend itself to mass production.

In a patriotic and self-sacrificing effort to help with America’s war effort, the Kardon family embarked on a major redesign of the Leica 111a, and the Kardon Signal Corps camera was the result. For the lens they chose the proven and reliable Kodak 47mm f/2 Ektar, and they delivered the first production samples in 1945. But when, shortly thereafter, WWII ended, the government cancelled its contract for this wonderful and improved “American Leica”. And as a result, the Kardon Signal Corps camera met the same unfortunate fate as the gigantic Hughes Aircraft wooden troop transport plane, the famous “Spruce Goose”. There were only a few thousand of these cameras made. There are few in existence today, and this one is serial #1487.

There’s an excellent and compelling article on the Kardon camera and the sacrifices made by the Kardon family in an online version of “The Shutterbug”, and you can find it by copying and pasting the following link into your web browser’s location window.

http://www.shutterbug.net/equipmentreviews/classic_historical/0106classic/

The article is written by the noted collectors, Dean and Sandy Ritz, and there’s an example of the same Kardon camera in their collector’s catalogue at ritzcam.com. To find this camera, click on their online catalogue link, and do a search on the word, “Kardon”. Important note. The camera in the Ritz catalogue is missing the U.S. Army lettering on the i.d. plate. It looks like it’s been sanded it off. As the photos below clearly show, the i.d. plate on this camera is complete, what is indeed a rare found characteristic seen in those cameras.

This item is an important piece of WWII American history.

 Of particular note is the beautiful condition of the lens, and the perfect condition of the original case’s stitching.