Welcome to Steve Worthingtons Robot Camera Collection Pages.
Here you will find Pictures and Information about My Robot Camera Collection
The Robot was the first Motorized Camera it had a clockwork spring mounted on the top of the camera that would give 24 or 48 (double spring or "tall wind") continuous shots from a single wind at a rate of 4 frames per second, at shutter speeds of 1 - 1/500th sec.
Featuring a stainless steel body, black and chrome finish, and interchangeable lenses, along with a rotary focal plane shutter, it was the pinnacle of engineering for its time, first available in 1934, Robot Cameras are still being manufactured today.
Dad Had a Luftwaffen Robot, that I used as a Kid, I took a good many photo's with it in my teens, a number of which were used in the School Magazine. I always had a fascination for this piece of engineering, sometime in the 80's I visited a camera shop in Cambridge (UK) and nearly bought another Robot, but I couldn't afford it, however I decided that one day I would have a collection of these cameras. Now many years later I have amassed quite a collection, I hope to document it in these pages. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), Robots are still affordable. Robots have not really been a good investment, a new Robot II with Zeiss Biotar would have cost you $219 in 1939, You can get one for a lot less now. Certain items are more collectible, but as most items were produced in the thousands, and these are very robust, the investment potential is less than say equivalent Contax or Leica Cameras. They can be regularly found on ebay for reasonable amounts! However they are a lot of fun to collect, and as there are a good many variations, there is always that unusual one to be found!
If you have any questions email me
Click on the Thumbnail for More information and pictures of each model.
Parts of this site are still under construction, please check back for regular updates
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– Robot I the first Robot Produced 1934-1938
– Robot II Produced 1939-1952
– Robot - Luftwaffen Eigentum 1939-42
– Robot Star 25 1969- ...
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© 2003 Steve Worthington. All rights reserved. |
