Mansfield: Skylark

Notes related to specific cameras
bill339
Posts: 656
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 8:18 pm
Location: Southern New Jersey

Mansfield: Skylark

Postby bill339 » Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:38 pm

Skylark was the name for no less than four rebadged cameras distributed by Mansfield Industries of Chicago, Illinois. The 1957 Skylark was rebadged from the Argon rangefinder camera which was the export version of the Windsor 35 by Toko Photographic Works. This rangefinder camera featured a 45mm / f1.9 lens, shutter speeds B, 1s to 1/500s. The Mansfield Skylark E, released in 1957 was a Royal 35M by Royal Camera Company, rebadged for Mansfield. Like the 35M, this rangefinder camera had a Tominar 45mm / f1.9-f16 lens, shutter speeds B, 1s to 1/500s with an uncoupled selenium meter. The 1957 Skylark V from the Royal 35P, was a meter less rangefinder camera with a Cimenar 45mm / f1.9-f16 lens, shutter speeds B, 1s to 1/300s. The 1962 Mansfield Skylark was a slightly modified Palmat Automatic by Yamato Optical Company. This last Skylark was a fixed-focus automatic-exposure viewfinder camera with coupled selenium meter, Mantar or Luminor 40mm / f4 lens with shutter speeds B, 1/10 of a second to 1/200 of a second. It does not take a battery, its selenium meter was driven by light alone. Exposure compensation was set by a lever on the numbered scale on the lens, based on an ASA/DIN film guide inset on the camera’s lift-off back. This was the only Skylark that was actually engraved with “Mansfield” as well as the “MI” crest logo seen on the earlier versions.

Return to “Camera comments”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 72 guests