Saturday, December 31, 2022

We used to make things in this country, #346 Marksman camera


 A simple box camera at a local antique store, hmmm, made in Canada, don't recognize that name... but this was a camera produced by the Bernard Marks company Ltd. starting in 1948. From the Vintagecameralab site, it appears to have been a design licensed from the J.E. Mergott company of New Jersey. It also seems, despite the Kodak and Leica manufacturing done in Ontario, to be one of the very few actual Canadian owned companies to manufacture a camera.

 There is little information on what else the company used to make, there is a patent for a propane burner for Bernard Marks Ltd. dated to 1982. Also some house-painting equipment trademarks... Other than that, very little information on the company. The multistory brick factory building at 183 Dovercourt Rd. in downtown Toronto has been converted to condos. (surprise...)



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

620 format film is/was the same as 120 (used in Hasselblads & Rolleiflexes among other cameras), but spooled into a thinner spindle.

Hard to find, 120 can be substituted with a bit of clever. See https://thedarkroom.com/film-formats/620-film

Mister G said...

I saw a kodak ad from way back that insists that 620 is different than 120.