Recently I obtained a camera from a mail order dealer that was described as a "Century 35". I was expecting the simplified camera illuistrated in the Graflex manual, that bore some relationship to the well-known Graflex 35. What showed up was a Kowa made camera marked "Century 35 NE", which I have not seen listed anywhere before. It is a rather nice camera, with conventional focusing instead of the push-button focusing found on the Graflex 35. It has a coupled selenium meter, and the weird internal rewind claw like a Jet; the rewind crank is on the bottom. Overall it looks like a native Kowa product that was rebadged for Graflex, rather than a Graflex influenced design like the Jet. I suspect that it dates from the early '60s.

Has anyone heard of this camera before, and are there any other lesser known Graflex 35s beside this one?

Hi, I have the model without the light meter, the Century 35N, which was produced in the same year (1960). It's the only Graflex camera I have owned, though I have quite a few other amateur-grade Japanese cameras from the late 1950s and early 1960s. The 35N seems to be quite well-made, and seems be at least as well-made as the popular rangefinders made by Yashica, Mamiya and Minolta in that same vintage.

Mine has aperture blades which are either broken or have come loose, so I can't test it until I spend a few hours repairing it.

Mine has top-mounted advance lever, bottom-mounted folding rewind crank, rangefinder, unit focus, and the same type of aperture-shutter-speed coupling system as on my Yashica Minister and Mamiya 18B (by which a raised, knurled ring (between the aperture and speed rings) turns both aperture and speed rings together in LV combinations.

Mine also has a bad (loose) diaphragm blade. Someday I'll get around to dealing with it, but I hate working on this kind of lens/shutter.

Since the original post, I've found that there are a number of 35mm cameras that Graflex marketed, most of them made by Kowa. They are listed in Mckeown's guide to collectable cameras.

I also have the Century 35 N. Found it at an antique store for $10. Just ran a roll of film through it so we'll see how accurate the focusing and shutter speeds are. It really seems like a great little camera.
I posted a query about it on rangefinderforum.com but haven't heard anything back. There are some pics of the camera on my post.
http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73223
I like it so much that I doubled my investment and bought a shoulder strap for it.[/img]

disemfjg wrote:

Mine also has a bad (loose) diaphragm blade. Someday I'll get around to taking D-Bal with it, but I hate working on this kind of lens/shutter. Since the original post, I've found that there are a number of 35mm cameras that Graflex marketed, most of them made by Kowa. They are listed in Mckeown's guide to collectable cameras.

Hey shady I've also got the century 35n. I got it on ebay for $40 though. Looks like you got a real bargain at 10 bucks. I agree it's a great little camera and I'm happy with it.

Hey Phillip, even at $40 I think its a great bargain. Mine seems to work flawlessly and I think the lens is very good. I'm really enjoying it and I'm surprised that this little gem isn't better known. Maybe there just aren't that many of them around.

shadyapex wrote:

There are some pics of the camera on my post. http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73223 [/img]

Can't view pix unless registered to site. Would like to see camera, though. Alternative(s)?

Sorry they're so small.
http://stevenbaldwin.zenfolio.com/p1041015419

Thanks! Looks not unlike a Minolta Hi-Matic. Hope you get many years of good service out of it. For $10 you can't go wrong!

Quote:

Hey shady I've also got the century 35n. I got it on ebay for $40 though. Looks like you got a real bargain at 10 bucks. I agree it's a great little camera and I'm happy with it. I lost some using plexus slim and its nonchalant.

Philip; the mid 1950's model was the Graphic 35; with the push button focusing. There were at least 4 variants; the color wheel has changes; the lens is either a 3.5 or 2.8 Some of the F3.5 models say the lens is by Rodenstock; mine is a 3 element triplet

Hope this helps you, cheers!

shadyapex wrote:

I also have the Century 35 N. Found it at an antique store for $10. Just ran a roll of film through it so we'll see how accurate the focusing and shutter speeds are. It really seems like a great little camera. I posted a query about it on rangefinderforum.com but haven't heard anything back. There are some pics of the camera on my post. http://phenq-results.com before and after results of using phenq I like it so much that I doubled my investment and bought a shoulder strap for it.[/img]

I had one of those, my brother broke it but i have still got that strap though one of my fav memories were captured by this.

shadyapex wrote:

Hey Phillip, even at $40 I think its a great bargain. Mine seems to work flawlessly and I think the lens is very good. I'm really enjoying it and I'm surprised that this little gem isn't better known. Maybe there just aren't that many of them around.

my brother broke it but i have still got that strap though one of my fav memories were captured by this.