In 1902 Plaubel & Company was founded in Frankfurt, Germany by Hugo Schrade, as a lens manufacturer and distributor. Hugo Schrader was a son-in-law of the famous Dr. Kruegener and worked in Kruegener's lens factory in Frankfurt-Bockenheim. He also received training at the famous Voigtlander factory in Braunschweig.

In 1910 Plaubel & Co began manufacturing and distributing cameras. Their first entry was with the "Prazisions-Peco", a 9x12cm/10x15cm folding bed field camera.

In 1912 the firm began manufacturing the popular Makina camera. A high-quality press-type camera with leaf shutter, interchangeable lens, and coupled-rangefinder for mainly 6x9cm format.. Production lasted up to approximately 1960, which saw the product line evolve for makina models 1, 2, 2s, 3, and 3R.

Around 1940 Hugo Schrader died and his son Goetz Schrader took over the management of the company.
In 1945 after the War the Plaubel company specialized in monorail view cameras.

In 1950 Plaubel introduced the Makiflex to compete with the Hasselblad camera. The introduction was met with limited success.

In 1952 the company introduced the Peco monorail camera for professionals and semi-professionals. "The name Peco is believed to stand for Plaubel Equipment Company. The camera proved to be a success and this line of cameras for many years to follow.

In 1961 Plaubel collaborated with Brooks of New York, and introduced the Veriwide 100 camera. It featured a fixed Schneider-Kreuznachultra wide angle lens and a 6x10cm view finder.

In 1975 the Plaubel company was purchased by Mr. Kimio Doi or the the Japanese company the Doi Group,

in 1979 the company introduced the Plaubel Makina 67 camera. The unique high quality camera body was designed by Konishiroku, now called Konica, and the 80mm F2.8 lens was by Nikon. in 1981 the manufacturer was changed to Mamiya due to a relationship Mr. Kimio had with the company.

In 1986 Plauble Makina 67 Production ceased in 1986 due to Mamiya's bankruptcy in 1984 and continued financial problems.

The company continued to manufacture the Peco and Profia large format monorail cameras.


Reference:

2006-2013 Plaubel by J. Noir ( http://www.jnoir.eu/en/cameras/plaubel/ )


CLICK HERE for a list and information on Plaubel cameras.

# 2537
2019-01-23 18:33:48