Wollensak
American audio-visual products manufacturer (1899-1972)
Wollensak Optical was an American manufacturer of audio-visual products located in Rochester, New York. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, many brands of movie cameras came with a Wollensak Velostigmat lens. Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorders were known for their construction, reliability, and value. Wollensak tape recorders were used for amateur home, school, and office recording. They were produced in both stereo and mono designs.
The company was founded in the 1890s by Andrew and John C. Wollensak to produce camera shutters and lenses. At its peak in the 1950s, it employed over 1000 people. The company had several owners, including Revere Camera Company and 3M Company. Wollensak ceased operation in 1972.
01Camera equipment
Wollensak began making camera lenses in 1902. The company also produced camera shutters for large format cameras. They made shutters such as the Betax, Alphax, Optimo and, for the Graflex Corporation, Rapax.
The Betax shutters were patented in 1912 and remain popular for large format photographers. Betax shutters are made in sizes from #0 to the huge size #5. These shutters are very reliable and relatively easy to repair.
Wollensak purchased the Fastax high speed rotating-prism camera developed by Bell Labs from Western Electric, and improved it to a rate of 10,000 frames/second. Fastax cameras were used for recording projectiles and explosions, including nuclear explosions. The cameras, with the rotating prism removed, were used for "streak" and "smear" photography.
Wollensak made only one still camera model, the "Stereo 10" 35 mm 3D camera.
They formed a partnership with the Revere Camera Company that led to their offering some movie cameras (mostly 8 mm) under their name in the 1950s and early 1960s.
02Audio-visual
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Wollensak”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Wollensak portable reel-to-reel tape recorder.jpg by Bubba73 (Jud McCranie), CC BY-SA 4.0
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