5 Vintage Camera Brands Only OG Photographers Will Remember

Canon, Leica, Nikon, Sony. Anyone who’s spent time behind the lens is familiar with the modern juggernauts of photography. But decades ago, in the heyday of film, the field was much different.

Here, we take a trip down memory lane with the brands that haven’t made it to the present day in anything close to their original form, but are still worth remembering (and even buying from) today.

Rollei

Founded in 1920 in Germany, Rollei hit the scene with an unusual first camera, the triple-lensed stereo Hedioscop, in 1921. In 1928, Rollei introduced the very first twin-lens reflex roll-film camera, the Rolleiflex, birthing an entire new species of camera still prized by collectors today for its all-in-one format that makes it a (fairly) affordable entry to the world big, beautiful 6×6 centimeter medium format negatives.

In 1966, Rollei introduced the Rollei 35 which is, to this day, one of the smallest fully-manual 35mm cameras ever made. Despite changing hands several times and moving production from Germany to Singapore, Rollei continued producing film cameras well into the new millennium. In 2014, its then-parent company DHW Fototechnik became insolvent, and sold off the Rollei name.