The Intrepriderea Optica Romana S.A. or I.O.R. was founded in 1936 in Romania's capital city Bucharest as a state owned factory. The factory designed and manufactured opto-mechanical apparatus. They imported optical glass from Jenaer Glass of Jena, Germany and produced many optical products including military optics like its Valdada rifle scopes. Initially the company mainly produced products for the army (binoculars, telescopes, telemeters, etc.). Then After 1949, the factory made eyeglasses lenses, then a few years later microscopes.

In the 1950's there existed a growing movement to become free of Russian influence. The Romanian government policy formed to encourage products to be made inside the national industry with the goal that nothing was supposed to be imported. This included the import of Russian cameras. In 1954 the first camera was produced in the I.O.R. factory. It was a roll film camera called the Optior. In 1960, the countries first 35mm camera was produced, called the Orizont. It was a point and shoot camera. This camera later evolved into the Orizont Amator in the 70s which was a design made under license of German manufacturer Regula-Werk King KG for the Regula Pica model, after the Regula company lost a big lawsuit to Leitz and was struggling to pay its infringement debt. In 1967 the I.O.R. factory began to produce photo lenses for Pentacon.

The company still exists today to produce opto-electronics, lasers, military equipment, medical apparatus and lenses for eyeglasses.


CLICK HERE for an icon listing of I.O.R. Camera's



Optior

Orizont

Orizont (version 3)

Orizont Amator

Orizont Amator-d

Orizont Expo

Orizont Optim A

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2017-08-29 16:43:46