Kalimar: Kalimar A

Notes related to specific cameras
bill339
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Location: Southern New Jersey

Kalimar: Kalimar A

Postby bill339 » Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:18 pm

Kalimar was an American distributor that sold rebadged cameras from a variety of foreign manufacturers plus countries, including Russia and Japan. The company operated from 1952 to 1999 until it was acquired by Tiffen. It is a very simple unit with 4 shutter speeds plus B (1/25s-1/200s) and aperture range of 3.5-16. The chrome is nicely finished even though the decorative chrome plate on the front seems a little out of place. The lens is a coated 45mm Terionon with a max aperture of F/3.5 and the focusing is done by rotating its front cell. Two nicely finished milled knobs on top of the camera housing advance and rewind film as needed. It also has a film counter and does have a very useful PC flash sync post on the shutter housing. It also has a hinged back that is released with a small lever on the side. It was manufactured by Taisei Koki who was responsible for mass producing budget rangefinders, folders and TLR cameras in the 50's which were usually re-badged for their importers, and in this case for Kalimar. The Kalimar A looks just like the Taisei Koki Westomat 35 down to the lens back plate.

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