Robot Ii Camera Serial Numbers

Has no serial number.Just a blank where my IS-1 has its number. I use this camera often.Apart from its weight, it is a great camera to use. Olympus: Olympus iS-1000 (iS-1 / L-1000).

Micklem.com- photo- robot Heinz Kilfitt, designer of the first zoom lens, sold his plans for an automatic film advance camera to Hans Berning. These plans for a camera that took 24x24mm photos on 35mm movie film had already been rejected by Agfa and Kodak.

Hans founded a company called Otto Berning and Co., and patented Kilfitt's design in 1934, and released the camera, the Robot I, the same year (Source: ). During the Second World War, all the output of Otto Berning and Co. (roughly 20,000 Robot II's) went to the German armed services. I think the only other camera manufacturer to supply the German military in the war years was Leitz. Korn family values tour 1998. War-time Leicas are extremely valuable, while the far more interesting Robots are quite affordable. The camera featured on this page has an 'F' serial number, indicating it was made in the Second World War for the German military. The most common 'F' serial number camera variants are the classic black painted double-height spring models with black aluminium Tele-Zenars, made for the Luftwaffe.

As you can see, mine has the standard silver-coloured top and bottom plates, and short wind knob, which adds to its rarity. The lens is an uncoated four element f/3.5 3.75cm Tessar from Carl Zeiss.

In 1943 the Berning and Co. Factory was moved from to to avoid allied bombing, and workers included Dutch and Russian prisoners of war (Source: ). My lens dates from 1942 (according to the Zeiss serial number), so the camera could have been made by prisoners of war in 1943, which would fit with the simplified design- my camera has no right-angle viewfinder, no thread in the shutter release, and no flash synchronisation. Other differences from civilian Robot II's are the black manual wind-on knob, an acessory shoe that I've never seen on any other camera (that I think may have been for a special action finder), an ever-ready case which has no robot branding on it (also made out of paler coloured leather), the main wind knob has no arrow engraving to indicate the direction to wind, the top plate has no engravings at all, there is no safety lock for the shutter release, the rear door has no Robot branding, and the film gate is made of bakelite instead of zinc. The camera also came with a bakelite Robot lens cap, that I have never seen elsewhere- usually they are metal. This camera was brought to the USA by an United States Air Force Lieutenant after the war.

His name and address are written in the case, but aren't clear enough to read- I learnt from the seller that the Leutenant's name was Milton M. The seller, whose parents had been close friends with Milton, thought he could have been stationed in Germany either during the war, or immediately after it. From my research I have discovered that the owner of this camera was a navigator in a crew of a B-24H 'carpetbagger' (Source: ). A B-24H takes off from RAF Harrington. These aicraft flew special missions to supply resistance fighters with supplies, and to drop off teams of intelligence agents into Nazi occupied countries in Europe during the last year of the war. On the night of the 8th/9th August 1944 Lt. Silverstein was one of the crew of B24H 42-51201 O 'Loretta Ann II' when it was attacked by a JU-88 night fighter and also hit by flak over the dropping zone in Beligium.