(23.Jul.’26) There are other cameras than Leica’s worth using and playing with, of course (link 1), f.ex. my much belowed compact digital, the 15 years old Canon Ixus 95. Not that it´s expensive or rare or something, but it´s a great performer in an unasuming sort of way, with only basic bells and whistles. Here a troika of examples.

A few days ago I met with a couple of fellow camera buffs i a downtown camera store, for a more or less weekly bout of ‘fachsimpeln’ (the intranslatable german word with no parallel in any language I know of). This gave me a chance to check out the self-timer and everything, and once again the little Ixus aquitted itself with flying colours.

Second up is my Arca Swiss 6×9 cm view camera. This one is in its own way almost as cute as the Ixus, and is probably of late nineteen-forties vintage – information on the web about early Arca cameras is virtually non-existant.

The serial number is very low, whence I tend to assume not many were made in early post-war years. Here pictured with the Ixus this last week in the Copenhagen harbour area.

Finally there’s my Bertram BC-1, another vintage 6×9 cm camera, in this case from about 1955. Manufactured by the german Bertram company and according to the company’s owner at a considerable loss as not many were sold (I believe less than 800?).

I don’t think it can be disputed, that the BC-1 is mechanically the most complex, even sophisticated view- or press-camera of it’s time, whence perhaps the couple of million DM reportedly lost by the maker? The picture likewise taken with the Ixus in the Copenhagen harbour area a couple of weeks ago.

Link 1. https://blocnotesimma.wordpress.com/2026/07/02/the-leica/

(25.July.’26. May be crossposted on blocnotesimma.wordpress.com. Tweets on @gamleboeger)