Rectaflex

Rectaflex was the world's first series produced Pentaprism single lens reflex camera.

[3] The first prototype of the Rectaflex, presented at the Milano Fiera in April 1947, was a wooden mock-up, with a mirror eye-level finder, giving a left to right inverted image.

This was corrected with a roof prism before the 1948 Milano show, and the preseries model was called Rectaflex Standard 947, and had a fully working pentaprism as well as a focal plane shutter from 1s to 1/1000, synchronised at 1/25.

The Rectaflex series B 2000 (s/n some 2150 to 2999) added a split image device in the focusing screen and had no film cutter.

The Rectaflex series B 16000 (s/n 16001 to 16870) had a triple sync plug and a film reminder under the rewind knob.

The Rectaflex series 25000 (s/n 25000 to 29500) was produced from December 1952 and had a modified shutter to 1/1300, and two sync plugs only.

All were given as presents to VIPs, among which the Pope Pius XII, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill.

A special version of the Rectaflex series 25000 existed with 24x32 format and a microscope adapter, for scientific use.

The Rectamatic was the project of an advanced 35 mm SLR camera, designed by Telemaco Corsi at the beginning of the 1960s, as a successor of the Rectaflex.