Have a Speed Graphic, leather case with side handle and a Steinheil f135 4.5 lens with serial no. Nr 936424. Can anyone help with dating and info on this camera.
Thanks in advance.

Is the serial number from the lens or the body?

Most of the Steinheils were pre war.

The serial is on the lens can not find one on the body.
Thanks

Okay. Open the body and stare at the lens face to face. Take any finger from your right hand and place it on the sheet metal hook inside the body that holds the bed to the body when it's closed.

Now move that finger to the right about 1"-2".

Your finger will be on the serial number. 6 digits stamped into the wood. Best to turn the camera upside down and shine a flash light on it from the side.

Found it the serial No. is 342045
Thank again

1944. should be all black, no chrome "war time" Anny.

Yes the camera is all black, leather case.

Does the Steinheil give any clue to were the camera may have come from.
Thanks

Quote:

On 2003-05-29 21:24, OZSTEVE wrote: Does the Steinheil give any clue to were the camera may have come from. Thanks

Sorry, no. Graphics were made in Rochester, NY. Lenses put on them were made in many, many places.

Dan's right. But there is a tendancy to link certain lenses with a time frame, or model--

A. If you said the lens was a Kodak Anastigmat, then I would have guessed the camera to be a Pre-Ann, as Anniversaries had the coated version of this lens--The Ektar.

B. Carl Zeiss Tessars show up pre-war and just post war. These were imported from Germany and when the war broke out production was halted. They show up in early post war cameras as old stock. Lore has it that Kodak developed the Supermatic shutter because of the war.

You could order your Speed with just about any lens you wanted, the high end would have been a Goerz Dagor. For speed a Ross Xpress or Taylor Taylor Hobson, Speedic. Dagors were German or American, Ross and TTH was British.

Steinheil was a lesser known German company that I don't think made it out of the war, but I could be wrong.

Quote:

On 2003-05-30 05:14, Les wrote: <snip> Steinheil was a lesser known German company that I don't think made it out of the war, but I could be wrong.

Steinheil was around for quite a while postwar. They made some fine macro lenses, mainly in Exakta mount. I used to shoot a 135/2.8 Makro-Tele-Quinaron on my Nikkormat with adapters. Traded it in when I bought a new 105/4 MicroNikkor.

Cheers,

Dan

I'd forgotten about "miniature cameras" Now that you mention it, I had a 200mm Steinheil telephoto for an Exacta at one time, certainly post war!