As an avid photographer and camera collector, I’m well acquainted with the major camera brands and their histories. The United States and Germany produced most of the best cameras of the first half of the 20th Century, with Japan entering the market a bit later and establishing itself as the third member of the “big three” of camera-producing companies. The quality of American cameras and lenses in the World War II era was outstanding; German cameras were (and are) likewise outstanding; and Japanese cameras of the past 30 years are outstanding. They are all equally good, as far as I am concerned. The German-made cameras and lenses command a higher price, but their Japanese counterparts are essentially equal in quality.
There are also a few Russian cameras that have quite the cult following: Kiev probably being the best-known.
So why did the British never really develop a camera industry?
I don’t have a useful answer other than to observe that if the Brits built cameras as well as they built motor cars, they would have set back the art of photography by decades. Apropos of nothing:
General Jack D. Ripper: Were you ever a prisoner of war?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Well… yes I was, matter of fact, Jack. I was.
General Jack D. Ripper: Did they torture you?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, yes they did. I was tortured by the Japanese. Jack, if you must know; not a pretty story.
General Jack D. Ripper: Well, what happened?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Oh, well, I don’t know, Jack, difficult to think of under these conditions; but, well… what happened was they got me on the old Rangoon-Ichinawa railway. I was laying train lines for the bloody Japanese puff-puff’s.
General Jack D. Ripper: No, I mean when they tortured you. Did you talk?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Ah, oh, no… well, I don’t think they wanted me to talk really. I don’t think they wanted me to say anything. It was just their way of having a bit of fun, the swines. Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras[RIGHT]— Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb[/RIGHT]
Any ways, definitely nothing new. My guess is that with pre-existing market dominance of US/Germany and then Japan, it’d be tough to make something competitive. Seems nothing from the 60’s onwards which is about when Japan got serious about cameras and such.
There was no optical glass industry in Britain before 1914; it was all imported from Germany. During the war it was necessary to create one but it wasn’t economic afterwards. Likely we went back to importing cameras again as with dyestuffs; German dyes were better in every way.
Polaroid went bankrupt in 2001, and Kodak in 2012. The brand names are still used by companies that bought rights to them, but I don’t think they exist as American camera companies anymore.
Did any other country in Europe develop an optics & camera industry besides Germany? I know France has some world-leading specialty optics companies, but I can’t name any European consumer optics & imaging companies other than German ones.
ETA: Just yesterday, I saw a guy riding an old Triumph motorcycle. No brake light.
I managed to wave him down at a long stoplight to let him know. It was almost like it was no surprise.
Currently I’d say aircraft wings (Airbus - ex-BAE Systems facility), jet engines (Rolls-Royce), ejector seats (Martin-Baker), very cutting-edge automobile technology (the bulk of the development centres for F1 teams are UK-based).
But the Brits certainly knew how to name cameras: Ilford Advocate, Coronet Viscount, Corfield Periflex. “I say, old boy, the Connolly hide on my Periflex is looking a bit shabby. Do you think your man can rub in a spot of Hide Care?”
