The Utility Falcon Model F

 

Staying within the realm of unusual cameras, this post will be looking at the Falcon Model F. This is one of the more interesting and, in my opinion, the classiest looking cameras in this online museum.

First, I will go over the company responsible for this eye catching beauty. There isn’t very much on the company, but here is what I could find: Falcon cameras were produced by the Utility MFG co. in New York, it was founded in 1934 (Ozcamera) and was the fourth biggest camera company (Clayman 2020). The company was independent up until 1941 (Journal Editor 2022) when it was bought out by Spartus Corp (Ozcamera). The Founder, according to Ozcamera was Charles Fischberg, who was also “prominent in the Herbert George, Birdseye, and Imperial companies.” 

According to Clayman (2020), the body moulds that Falcon cameras used were created and patented by Jack Galter, although Utility weren’t the only ones using his patents. As Clayman (2020) writes: “There was truly no rhyme or reason as to which mini camera molds (sic) received which branding. Two people could buy the exact same camera type, made in the same Lake Street factory, and one would say it was a ‘Candex’ made by the ‘General Products Co.,’ while another would call itself a 'Remington' made by ‘DeLuxe Products Co.’ For added confusion, at some point near the start of World War II, Galter seemingly absorbed what was then the fourth largest camera manufacturer in the country, New York’s Utility Manufacturing Company. Known for its ‘Falcon’ brand, Utility had been using some of Jack Galter’s rangefinder camera patents from 1938-1940.”

1939 Camera Mould Patent of J. Galter. Image Source: https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/848e7d_dffaab61ea9148feaa7f386a37fee151mv2-768x785.png

Clayman (2021) also wrote that:

“Interestingly, Galter had actually accused Utility MFG of unfair trade practices in 1939, when the New Yorkers tried to sell their version of his identical mini-cams on Illinois turf.”

This lead to Galter acquiring the Utility company and merging it with his Spartus corp., which already had a three brand names they were using to sell cameras. These were Galter, Monarch and Spartus, and now “by the early ’40s, the Utility MFG Co. was just another subsidiary of Galter’s Spartus empire.” (Clayman 2020)

Why so many brand and subsidiaries? Well: “By stockpiling loads of brand names, the goal, perhaps, was to create the illusion of variety in the marketplace. When you’re selling a cheap product, it’s also sometimes wise to give it many names, thus making it harder for a bad reputation to stick.”  (Clayman 2020)

It is unclear if Galter got Utility by winning the law suit or a ruthless buy out (Clayman 2020). Clayman (2021) brings up some interesting questions: “Did he sue them into submission and buy them out, moving their manufacturing to Chicago? Had Utility’s cameras been made in Chicago all along anyway? Had the two companies given up their feud and worked out a mutually beneficial distribution deal? Or did Jack Galter simply start stealing the Falcon and Utility names outright, out of spite?”

Galter took this even one step further, and like the New Taiwan Photographic corp. (see  Sounex YN-9000 Re-usable Camera), started using other brand names without the companies knowledge in an attempt to trick the buyers that they were getting a camera from a well-known brand and some of these brands weren’t even in the camera business! This lead to a lawsuit against Spurtus corp. in 1941. This was done by Elgin, Remington and Underwood, who Pointed out to Galter that: “the principle of ‘trademark dilution,’ the concept that ‘the uniqueness of a trade-mark may be impaired as a result of trademark use by others of the same mark on totally unrelated goods.’” (Clayman 2020)

Galter kept doing this, because he didn’t have that much invested in those cameras to worry if they were shut down. The only thing he did do was try to avoid any brand names that would immediately land him in hot water or he tried to legally trademark items using well-known brands, such as trying to acquire the Kodak name to put on a lighter, which was rejected in 1953 (Clayman 2020).

Later Galter left the camera business and went into real estate and sold Spartus corp., (Wikipedia) which was bought by Harold Rubin “a former sales manager for Spartus Camera who purchased that company in 1956. Herold Products was in a death struggle with Eastman Kodak, who completely dominated the consumer photography market. They employed several interesting marketing techniques to try to steal market share from Kodak: 1) they sold a complete outfit – Kodak often sold camera, film, flash attachment, bulbs, etc., as separate items; 2) they very effectively imitated Kodak’s packaging – as you can see from the yellow, black and red colours and even similar fonts to those used by their competitors; 3) they offered free film for one year after purchase, provided the owner used their development service, at a cost of $1.00 for ‘jumbo sized prints.’ I find the history of this competition fascinating, particularly in the days before the entry of Japanese and German makers into the fray. There were many other small companies in the camera business from around 1915 through the 1960’s. After that, even Kodak ceased to be a force among serious photographers, except in the photo paper and film business, which they dominated until the bitter end.” (Kennedy 2009)

Rubin changed the Spartus corp company name to Harold Products co. (Clayman 2020) and then by the 1960s to Harold MFG co. and then back to Spartus Corporation (Historic Camera 2022) because he saw the “greater marketing power of the Spartus brand name…” and later “Spartus apparently acquired the Falcon Camera line at some point. Early Falcons are marked ‘Utility Mfg, New York’, whereas later ones display the name ‘Falcon Camera Company, Chicago, Ill’…” (Kennedy 2009).

Then by the 1970s Spartus bought Kidde and Co., which was then bought by the U.S. army taking Spartus and Utility with it and by 1993 moved to China, but eventually went back home to Florida in 2001, when the state acquired the Spartus trademark (Wikipedia).

Now for a quick look at the history of the Falcon camera range. It appears that the Utility company’s first camera (according to CollectiBlend 2024) the earliest cameras released were in 1933 is the Utility MFG Falcon Midget 16. It also appears that most if not all of Falcon cameras used 127 film, thus classifying them as “mini-cams” (Kennedy 2009).

Falcon made many different types of mini-cams, from the box cameras like the one above or even the Utility MFG: Falcon Junior 16, 1934 (CollectiBlend 2024), to folding cameras like the Utility MFG Falcon Model V16, 1935, (CollectiBlend 2024), but it seems that the most popular is the Falcon cameras are the ones that used the Bakelite body, such as the Falcon Minette 1935, the Falcon Miniature 1938 and of course the Falcon Model F (Collectiblend 2024).

Falcon Junior 16. Image Source: https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/Utility-MFG-Falcon-Midget-16.jpg

Falcon Model V16. Image Source: https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/Utility-MFG-Falcon-Model-V16.jpg

Falcon Minette. Image Source: https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/Utility-MFG-Falcon-Minette.jpg

Falcon Miniature. Image Source: https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/Utility-MFG-Falcon-Miniature.jpg

According to Clayman (2021), Utility and Spartus seemed to have worked together on the Bakelite cameras, as it was a cheap and easy mould, that Galter was familiar with and possibly Patented under his name, but it was when Utility tried to sell similar cameras without Spartus’ permission.

This lead to as Kennedy (2009) writes: “virtually identical Spartus and Falcon branded cameras were marketed to the same demographic. To make things more complicated, there were several other companies in Chicago and New York, who produced a number of surprisingly similar cameras under various labels…” and that “’minicams’ were nearly identical in design, and several differ only in the name on the metal faceplate, yet they are labelled as having been manufactured by different companies. What they all have in common is a black or brown body made of cast plastic, usually Bakelite or a similar material.”

Kennedy (2009) also goes on to explain the mini-cams popularity:

“…they were small and pocketable, easy to operate, and they created either 12 or 16 exposures on a roll of #127 film.  They were even more popular when 127 slide film came around, allowing them to produce “superslides” as large as 1-5/8″ x 2-1/2″.   They have become a popular collectible because of the plethora of models available, and peripherally because most of them are made of Bakelite.”

What is Bakelite? Well it was invented in 1907 by Leo Hendrick Baekeland (Art Deco Cameras 2020) and is a synthetic plastic that has the “common feature with all these materials is that they are formed by a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde resulting in a thermosetting resin which is then mixed with a variety of filler materials and cured. Due to the range of fillers available, there are several varieties of Bakelite’s on the market each with their own unique properties. Generally though, all types and styles have good mechanical strength are resistant to elevated temperatures and provide good insulation against electrical current…” (Associated Gaskets 2022).

Now for the object of this post, the Falcon Model F or Falcon Super-Action Candid, model GE, simple shutter version (Wikipedia). This camera was manufactured in 1938 (Journal Editor 2022).

 

What is interesting is that it appears that this camera came in three variations: the Falcon Super-Action Candid, model GE, simple shutter version (this camera), the Falcon Super-Action Candid, model F, fast shutter version and the Falcon Special FE model (Wikipedia).

Falcon Super-Action Candid, model F, Fast Shutter Version. Image Source: https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1403/912231516_812e7f17ab.jpg

Falcon Special FE model. Image Source: https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5211/5456617707_3ec625c024.jpg

They are all the same with the only differences being that the fast shutter version came with an extra 1/200 shutter speed and the special came with this as well as a extinction meter.

But, none the less this Model F (the GE variant) is still amazing looking and will get the job done. First we will be looking at is the Lens.

It is a Wollensak Velostigmat 2-inch f/4.5, helical metal cast mount lens. Let’s break it down: Wollensak refers to the company in Rochester U.S.A. and they have quite a history which you can learn about here:

https://alphaxbetax.com/wollensak-timeline/

Velostigmat is the type of lens used and is in simple terms a:

“Tessar formula lens introduced about 1909 and were manufactured until just after WWII. There are three lens elements of which one consists of two glasses glued together according to the Tessar patent. It is sharp and seems has a diffusion attachment for soft focus which is used especially in portrait photography. The optics are for 5 x 7 and 5 x 8 negative plates. The lens is fast and modern. Today’s lenses are no faster.” (Child 2019)

For a deeper understanding on this, check out Sawyer’s article:

https://www.wphsociety.org/post/the-wollensak-velostigmat-series-ii 

The Helical Mount refers to the fact that this lens uses tubes that extents the lens and transforms it into a macro lens. This extension is located between the camera body and the lens, acting as a spacer and allows the user to change the minimum focus distance or MFD (Cushing 2024), this mechanism is found in most manually focus adjustable cameras, like the Minolta 110 Zoom SLR film camera and the Olympus OM30 Film Camera .

This helical mount is found on the outer ring of the lens and has a focusing distance of 4-25 feet plus infinity and “the focus locks at every distance mark on the focusing ring. To change the distance, it was necessary to hold down the chrome button on the side of the lens mount…” (Journal Editor 2022). 

This lens, although cool looking with a deco/steampunk aesthetic, does have the drawback of being very front heavy and thus cannot stand on its own. But luckily it has a retractable foot (Journal Editor 2022) or as I call it a kick stand on the bottom of the lens, but unfortunately this kick stand only holds the camera up when the helical lens is fully retracted and stops working as intended when the lens is extended, which in that case the user should use the tripod mount under the camera.

Back to the lens. At the top of the lens is the shutter speed settings.

This camera has a Deltax shutter, which is a self-cocking shutter that was eventually replaced by the Ultro shutter (Alpha Betax 2024). It is similar to the Gammax and Betax shutters in that they are “automatic in operation and can be released either with the wire release, or bulb and hose” and use shutter blades and leaves. They are also “gearless, pumpless retarding mechanism which is simple in construction and positive in action assuring accurate and unvarying speeds…” (Wollensak Optical Co.).

The shutter speed can be switched between 1/25, 50 and 100 second. The other two settings B and T is used for longer exposures. B stands for bulb and is used with a flash and keeps the shutter open for as long as the user is pressing down on the shutter release and T is time. It can also be used with a flash and does the same as B, except the user doesn’t have to hold the shutter release down, instead the user can press the release once and the shutter will remain close until the shutter release is pressed again to close it.

The Shutter release can be found on the side of the lens.

 Under the release is the release cord socket.

Then there is the F/stop setting, found on the bottom of the lens. The camera can be switched between the settings of 4.5, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22 and like the Agfa Billy Record 7.7 Pocket Camera, the aperture petals are behind the shutter.

On the top of the camera…

Is a knob that is the film advance knob, which means that this camera transports film from right to left.

Next to that is the “eye level optical viewfinder” (Journal Editor 2022), which is small, but it is at least close enough to the lens to get as close to the lens’ P.O.V. as possible.

Next to that is the cold shoe plate, meaning that the flash or any other attachment will need a separate power source because there is no electrical contact.

Next to that is a “hook” that holds the spool in place when the film is rolled onto it. This “hook” can be lifted up to release the spool or film.

Underneath the camera…

Is the tripod mount and another “hook” that works for the one on the top, but is used for the film or spool.

Then on the back of the camera…

Is the film compartment. The compartment is covered by a plate, that is opened with a latch on the right side, which is pushed in the direction of the arrow.

This plate also has a film red window system, the A and B slide and works by loading the film “into the camera, the slide-on back is lowered and secured and the windows 'A' & 'B' appear. Turn the film wind knob until the No.1 appears behind window 'A'. After a photo is taken, wind the film until the No. 1 appears behind window 'B'. After another photo is taken, wind the film until the No.2 appears behind window 'A'. Continue shooting and winding until the No.8 appears behind window 'B', indicating 16 exposures have been taken…” (Journal Editor 2022).

When this plate is removed, the film compartment is exposed (no way!). 

This camera uses 127 film and is “46 mm wide, placing it between 35 mm and medium format films in size. It was created by Kodak for their Vest Pocket camera (a folding camera that would fit comfortably in the vest pocket of the user) and as such was often referred to as Vest Pocket film…” (Lomography 2024).

Vintage Kodak 127 film. Image Source: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/CC47P1/a-vintage-roll-of-eastman-kodak-127-film-new-in-package-expired-1971-CC47P1.jpg

It is a “paperback film and the cameras that used it produced negatives that were 4x4cm, giving 12 images on a roll, 4x6cm (8 images), or 4x3cm (16 images) …” and was invented in 1912, but although popular, the smaller 35mm film, introduced in 1930s, took over, killing the 127 film. It did make a revival from time to time, but was eventually discontinued in 1995 by Kodak (Lomography 2024). 

Film size comparison of 127 Film (middle) against a 35mm Film (left) and 120 Film (right). Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Film_127_135_120_IMGP1797_WP_%28crop%29.jpg/330px-Film_127_135_120_IMGP1797_WP_%28crop%29.jpg 

To learn how film works, please see my Kodak 200 Color Plus Film post.

What a messy and complicated story for one camera. As I said this is the more interesting camera on this online museum. At first glance this camera seems complicated, but is very user friendly and looks awesome, with its steampunk/art deco look, that will fit perfectly in any vintage/camera collector’s home.

Thank you for making it to the end and as always I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did researching it.

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List of sources

Alphax Betax. 2024. Wollensak Lens and Shutter Compendium. https://alphaxbetax.com/Wollensak%20Lens%20and%20Shutter%20Compendium/#Deltax

Art Deco Cameras. 2020. Bakelite and its use in Cameras. http://www.artdecocameras.com/resources/bakelite/

Associated Gaskets. 2022. Everything you need to know about Bakelite. https://agaus.com.au/everything-you-need-to-know-about-bakelite/

Child, M’s cousin. 2019. Velostigmat Series II F:4.5 Lens. https://portwingmuseum.org/velostigmat-series-ii-f4-5-lens/

Clayman, A. 2020. Spartus Camera Corp. / Galter MFG Co., est. 1934. https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/spartus/

Clayman, A. 2021. Falcon Minette Bakelite Camera by Utility MFG Co., c. 1940. https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/2016-1-25-falcon-minette-50mm-bakelite-camera-by-utility-mfg-co-c-1946/

CollectiBlend. 2024. Utility Manufacturing Co. Incorporated. https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Utility-MFG/

CollectiBlend. 2024. Spartus. https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/spartus/

CollectiBlend. 2024. Utility MFG: Falcon Model V16. https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Utility-MFG/Falcon-Model-V16.html

Cushing, S. 2024. Helicoids. https://u42.co/Tech-Blog/Helicoids/Helicoids.html

Historic Camera. 2022. Herold Manufacturing Company - Camera Listing. https://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=3760

Journal Editor. 2022. The Utility Falcon Model F. https://phsne.org/the-utility-falcon-model-f/

Kennedy, D. 2009. Art Deco Wars: Spartus, Falcon, and Kodak. https://oldcameras.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/art-deco-wars-spartus-falcon-and-kodak/

Kennedy, D. 2009. My Camera Collection. https://oldcameras.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/my-camera-collection/

Lomography. 2024. The Life and Death of 127 Film. https://www.lomography.com/magazine/349528-the-life-and-death-of-127-film

Lomography. 2024. What is 127 film? https://www.lomography.com/school/what-is-127-film-fa-nrlm1nlm

Ozcamera. “Falcon Cameras.” https://www.ozcamera.com/falcon.html

Wollensak Optical Co.. Photographic Lenses and Shutters. https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/rl/00317/00317.pdf

Wikipedia. Falcon Super-Action Candid. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Falcon_Super-Action_Candid

Wikipedia. Jack Galter. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Jack_Galter

Wikipedia. Spartus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartus