As I've mentioned in some of the other blog posts, I have a real fondness for the odd, unusual, or colored cameras. When I first started collecting, I was fascinated with all the different colors camera manufacturers would make their cameras. Walking through an antique store or flea market, I thought it was boring to see the regular black box or folding camera unless the folding camera had red bellows. Some had exciting faces on them, but the blue, green, brown, tan, burgundy, and rose-colored cameras were the cameras that stood out. Even better if they came with the matching or, at times, contrasting color bellows.
Ferrenia Ronnie with Sport finder open.
This week's post is on one of the cameras in my collection that does come in different colors, blue, green, black, burgundy, and red, the beautifully designed Ferrania Rondine camera. I purchased my first Rondine at least 30 years ago, and while I don't have all the different colors (yet), I'm sure I will shortly.
The Company.
The story of Ferrania, an Italian company, is a fascinating one. Film Ferrania is making film today, but it different from when the original company started in 1882 as SIPE (Società Italiana Prodotti Esplodenti, "Italian Society of Explosive Products," an explosive manufacturer. During WWI, the company grew and built a new facility in Cairo, Montenotte, an area in Farrinia, Italy. At the time, the chemical properties of explosives and film were very similar. And in 1917, SIPE founded a new subsidiary, FILM (Fabbrica Italiana Lamine Milano) in Milano, which was a partnership with Pathe' Brothers of France, which effectively became the film manufacturer Farrania in 1923.
Farina purchased other companies in the 1930s like Cappelli and Tensi, and for a while, they were known as Farrania-Cappelli producing film plates but went back to Farrania in 1938. After WWII brought Farrania to the height of their business, and by 1964, 3M purchased the company. By 2008, Farania ceased to make a color film, and in 2012, they had laid off the majority of their workers. In 2013, FILM Farrinia s.r.l. purchased the manufacturing lines and brought back many of the laid-off workers. Much of the capital to start production came by crowdfunding, kickstart, and in 2017 started to produce black & white film, P30 Alpha. In 2019, the Farrania P30 film began selling into the North American market.
My three Farrinia Ronnie cameras, Green, Blue and Tan
The Camera
The Rondine, which means "Swallow" in Italian, has been soaring in my collection for many years. The Rondine started in 1948, at the height of Farrinia's success. These cameras are very well made box camera that produces 8-1 5/8" x 2 1/2" or 4cm x 6.5cm images onto 127 size film. They are a full metal construction body with some areas showing brushed metal and come with both a waist-level finder and a sports finder built in the camera. There were three different models made, Model A was focus-free, Model B had focus control, and Model BF had focus control and flash sync capability. The camera measures 3.25" tall without the sports finder extended and 4.5" tall with it opened, by 2.75" wide and 3.5" deep. The camera weighs 13.2 oz.
On top of the camera are the waist level finder and the pop-up sports finder. On the front of the camera is the Farrinia Linear 75 meniscus lens, 7.5cm or 75mm f8.8 lens. You can focus from 6' to infinity by rotating the lens to the desired distance noted outside the lens. The Rondine is designed for portrait mode shooting as there is no viewfinder to use in landscape mode. Under the lens is a switch set for "I" or 1/75th second exposure or "P" for a time exposure. Under the switch and the very bottom of the lens is the shutter release, which moves left-right.
The three that I own are all the Model BF with focus and flash capability. The colors I have are blue, green, and tan are all in good condition, with the green camera having a small piece of the leatherette missing under the lens. I see this missing piece on many Rondine cameras. I recently noticed that 127 film is being sold again, and need to run some film through this camera and bring them back to life.
Farrinia Rondine
Conclusion
The Farrania Rondine is a solidly built camera with some sleek Italian design. It seems like it classy camera, especially with all the different colors available. It's somewhat more advanced than the average non-focusing box camera and something you can quickly put in your pocket, although bulky, a nifty handheld camera.
Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to read my camera collecting blog. If you have questions, concerns, or want to leave a comment, please do so. I enjoy hearing from you.
Until next week, please be safe.