Alfa-2 Camera by WZFO — Concert Photos, Historical Images, Travel Photos & Camera Collecting Blog

Here’s an odd and unusual camera that comes out of the rarely talked about camera manufacturing country of Poland. It’s the Alfa and Alfa-2 camera from the company WZFO of Warsaw, Poland. Having the majority of my heritage from Poland and the surrounding area, this should be a fun post.

Let me start with some background on the company that built the Alfa and Alfa-2, Warsaw Photo-Optical Works. In Polish, Warszawskie Zakłady Fotooptyczne or WZFO was an optical and instrument company in Warsaw that started in 1951, mainly in the Cinematography industry. In 1952, the company changed its name to Warsaw Photo-Optical Works and focused on camera and optics for cameras. WZFO was the leading photo manufacturing company in Poland where they started production on the Start camera in 1953-1954.

The camera from my collection I’m focusing on this week is the Alfa 2 camera. The production of this camera started in 1962. It’s an odd, vertical format 35mm camera that comes in many different colors, like red, pink, dark blue, light blue, light green, cream, grey, or brown, each with a striped chrome front panel with the name on the front. The body of the camera is a nice metal and is very sturdy and doesn’t bend or dent easily and measure 5.5” tall x 3.5” wide x 3” deep. The controls, shutter release, focus ring, shutter and aperture rings, and winding knob are all cream-colored, as well as the area around the viewfinder on the front.

The camera’s controls are pretty basic. The camera is equipped with a WZFO Emitar 45mm f4.5 lens. The shutter speeds are 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 & B, and aperture settings go from f4.5 to f16. The zone focus on the lens is from 1 meter to 10 meters, then infinity. It has no coupled focus so it’s all guesswork. The frame counter is manually set. When you load the camera, you’ll need to remember to reset the frame counter. There is a cable release socket just above the shutter release. There is also a PC socket above the lens to attach the PC flash cord. There is an accessory shoe on the side of the camera to put a flash on it. My guess given the manufacture date is it’s made for bulbs and not electronic flash.

I need to start this section by saying that my camera is a non-working model, meaning the shutter isn’t working. The camera came with the film cassette in it so the loading section is my guess, and not based on 100% fact, but my guess. Loading the camera is another interesting part of the camera. on the bottom of the camera is a button. Pressing the button, the front of the camera comes out of the body exposing where the film is loaded. There is NO take-up spool. There is also no rewind button that I can find on the camera. You can only move the film in one direction. My camera came with a cassette in it so my best guess is that you tape the film into the cassette, then use the winding knob in the direction of the arrow, advancing the film. If you turn in the direction of the arrow, you get a clicking/ratcheting sound. If you go backward, the winding knob pulls up and has no pulling function.

The camera has a nice leather case with a strap that allows you to carry the camera horizontally. The reason I’m so attracted to this camera is the colors. When I started collecting cameras and other photo items, I started with the colored Kodak box cameras. I then moved onto their Rainbow folding cameras, then Petites, Beau Brownies, and now any colored camera, from red, blue, green, rose, tan, any color. I’m working on getting the other colors of this camera,m but they are getting pricey and not generally found in the U.S.

If you have questions, or concerns about this camera or any of the others, please feel free to comment or email me. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Camera Collecting Blog

For this camera collecting blog, I want to give you a little background on my interest in anything photographic.

I can still remember when my uncle gave me my first camera. I was nine years old. It was a Univex twin lens camera, and I was mesmerized looking down through the waist level finder. Everything was backward, but my brain quickly figured out left was right, and right was left. I took that camera on vacation to Alaska shooting 620 films and still have the negatives and photos.

Fast forward to when I'm 16. I find myself in the front row at concerts like Traffic, Humble Pie, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and all the classic bands of the '70s. My three friends and I went to see bands at least a couple of times a month. I first was published in Rolling Stone, Musician Magazine, Guitar Player, and other publications. In later years, we published a blog on the shows we saw and also have images on my website. I'm in the process of writing a book on my experiences and pictures from this period.

My passion for all things cameras and photographic started when I turned 18 and started working at the local camera store. I worked there for almost 20 years. I sold all the classic cameras of the 1970s and '80s like Canon AE-1, Nikon F, Minolta SRT, Pentax Spotmatic, Topcon Super D, and many large and medium format cameras. To this day, I can tell these camera cameras even from the outline they have. During this time, I started to collect anything photographic, but the real passion is for cameras and lenses.

I've had a great career in the photo industry, which has lead in many different directions. My different positions were, Professional Photo Lab Manager, PrePress and high-end scanner salesman, Representative for Sinar and Broncolor, Leaf Digital back representative. The most recent job was the Profoto Rep for the US, West Coast, for almost 15 years. During these times, I've had the opportunity to travel. I always found some time to seek out cameras or photo items in the town I've gone to. I've also had the chance to meet and work with some fascinating photographers over my career. Mary Ellen Mark, Jim Marshall, Dan Winters, Annie Leibovitz, and many, many others.

Currently, my camera collection is around 500-600 cameras. It includes many exotic and colorful Kodaks like the full line of the Beau Brownies, the very rare, Super-Six Twenty, the 35mm Ektra model and lenses, and the string set models. I also have 10-12 Leica's from the original A, the hockey stick models, into the M4 black paint, and some of the newer digital. I own from the subcompact models through to many 8x10 cameras with exotic brass lenses.

I've devoured the McKeown's camera guides and own most versions of the camera bible going back to 1984. I own a collection of camera collecting books in the neighborhood of about 100, including camera manufacturing books. I collect cameras, but my photographic collection includes 200 or so panoramic images, several hundred Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, original glass negatives, camera advertising, figurines with camera, and many, many more items. I started the Camera Collecting page on Facebook.

When eBay started back in 1996 or so, I was an early adopter using its platform. In 1997 when I joined them, my seller number was 1034 and currently still sell on eBay under Clix, which is my seller name.

Due to recent tragic events from the Covid-19 lately, my career with Profoto ended, and I'm onto the next chapter. One of the options was to start writing articles on camera collecting, which has always been my passion.