13 and 12 researched events on one shared scale. Plaubel 1902–present, Wollensak 1899–present.
The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.
Stephan Rauber and brothers Andrew and John Wollensak organized Rauber & Wollensak Optical Company in Rochester on July 1, 1899. Working first in a 250-square-foot rented barn, they made photographic shutters. The firm incorporated in 1900, moved to larger quarters, and adopted the Wollensak Optical Company name in 1902.
Hugo Schrader founded Plaubel & Co. in Frankfurt after training at Voigtlander and working for Dr. R. Krugener. The business began as a dealer-maker of cameras, lenses, and accessories, taking the more memorable Plaubel surname from Schrader’s brother-in-law.
Plaubel GmbH 1902 · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
John Wollensak established an optical department in 1902 with three grinding and polishing spindles and one assistant; its first lens followed that September. Catalogs soon paired lenses with shutters. By 1914, after several moves and rapid hiring, a dedicated 40,000-square-foot Clinton Avenue factory housed a workforce of roughly 300.
Wollensak Lenses and Shutters Catalog 1903 · Wollensak 1899-1972 · Wollensak Timeline
The purchase of Rochester Lens Company in 1906 brought the Royal Anastigmat and Royal Portrait designs, renamed Velostigmat and Vitax. Andrew Wollensak's complex shutter work received a 1910 patent, while the 1911 collaboration with H. Oliver Bodine turned his Pictorial Lens into the Verito, a durable name in soft-focus portraiture.
Wollensak Lenses and Shutters Catalog 1903 · US961192A - Photographic Shutter · Wollensak Timeline
After several years of lens activity, Plaubel introduced the Precision Peco, the first camera identified in the researched chronology. The Peco name later became the durable center of the company’s professional view-camera business, although the 1909 machine was not the postwar monorail system.
Plaubel & Company Camera Listing · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert)
Plaubel showed its new Makina in 1911 and introduced it commercially in 1912. Crossed scissor struts let a compact plate camera extend into a rigid working position. Conventional and stereo forms appeared, beginning the product name most closely associated with Plaubel.
Plaubel GmbH 1902 · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
During the First World War, about ninety percent of Wollensak production served military needs, including trench periscopes, battery-command telescopes, aerial cameras, and related optics. A three-story addition doubled Clinton Avenue floor space in 1918; employment rose from about 500 that year to more than 600 in 1920.
Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
After Kodak stopped buying the Optimo shutter in 1920, Wollensak broadened its output to telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, movie equipment, and other instruments. It moved lensmaking to the spacious 872 Hudson Avenue building in 1925, expanded its catalog, and partnered with Howard D. Beach on a multi-focal portrait lens in 1929.
Photographic Lenses and Shutters, 1926-1927 · Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
Goetz Schrader joined the firm in the mid-1920s and soon directed camera development. The Makina I and II matured into 6.5x9cm press cameras with rangefinding and interchangeable lenses, while Makinette and Roll-Op models extended Plaubel into smaller plate and roll-film formats.
Plaubel Makina I (6,5 x 9 cm) · Plaubel Makina II · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel Makina II by Jo Lommen
Goetz Schrader assumed leadership after Hugo Schrader died in 1940. Wartime production shifted toward precision military equipment, and bombing seriously damaged the Frankfurt works in 1944. The rebuilt postwar company resumed camera making while redirecting much of its energy toward technical view cameras.
Wollensak devoted its Second World War output to military equipment, from aerial-camera shutters and binoculars to optical components for the Norden bombsight. The rapid Rapax shutter emerged from wartime needs. Afterward, a public naming contest supplied the Raptar name, and coated Raptar lenses replaced the Velostigmat line in 1947.
Wollensak supplied Graflex with Optar-branded lenses beginning in 1942 while selling related designs under its own Velostigmat and later Raptar names. Wocote hard anti-reflection coating distinguished the postwar line. The shared optical ancestry makes brand engraving important: an Optar is a Graflex product identity, not a separate Wollensak system.
Wollensak Serial Numbers · Raptar Enlarging Lenses · Wollensak Timeline
Wollensak acquired rights to Western Electric's Fastax high-speed camera in 1950, strengthening a scientific and industrial line able to record extremely rapid events. The concentric-mirror Mirrotel and Fototel followed in 1952. Revere-era catalogs then joined these specialist products with stereo, 8 mm, and 16 mm cameras carrying Wollensak lenses.
Wollensak Timeline · Trade Catalogs from Revere Camera Co. · Wollensak 16 Magazine Model 91
Postwar Peco cameras moved Plaubel toward modular studio and technical work. Supra, Junior, and Universal bodies offered monorail focusing, movements, revolving backs, interchangeable bellows, and multiple formats. The German Makina continued through the IIIR before ending around 1960.
100mm lens for a Plaubel Makina IIIR camera · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
Revere Camera Company bought roughly seventy percent of Wollensak stock in May 1953 and later acquired the balance. Wollensak initially remained a separate entity and reached about 1,200 workers that year. Revere-backed still, stereo, and movie cameras used the Wollensak name, often as premium versions of established Revere designs.
The Brooks-Plaubel Veriwide 100 combined an American wide-angle concept with manufacture by Plaubel in Germany. Its fixed Schneider Super-Angulon 47mm f/8 covered seven 6x10cm frames on 120 film, creating a specialized panoramic camera rather than a new interchangeable system.
3M acquired Revere in 1960 and placed Wollensak within its photographic and optical businesses. Rochester lenses served demanding work, including a specially made 25 mm Raptar used during Alan Shepard's 1961 flight. Yet employment declined, lens sales contracted, operating losses mounted, and 3M sold Fastax to Redlake in 1968.
Wollensak 1899-1972 · Wollensak Timeline · Trade Catalogs from Revere Camera Co.
Plaubel introduced the Makiflex and Pecoflex large-format reflex cameras in the early 1960s, then launched eight Peco Profia format/model combinations across 1967 and 1968. The Profia platform’s movements, posts, rails, bellows, boards, and backs defined the company’s mature professional system.
3M sold the division in 1969 to interests that formed Wollensak, Inc. The new company acquired Polan Industries but struggled with losses, debt, and delivery delays. A federal investigation rejected its claim that increased imports were the major cause of serious injury. Directors voted for bankruptcy in October 1972, closing all facilities.
Wollensak 1899-1972 · Wollensak Timeline · Optical Elements: Wollensak, Inc., Rochester, N.Y.
After liquidation, Rudolph Novak bought the old 872 Hudson lens plant and in 1975 acquired the Wollensak name, drawings, and technical information, later making a poorly documented range as Wollensak Optical, Inc. Virginville Lens Company bought the building and contents in 2003 and later registered the trademark; the factory became housing in 2020.
Wollensak Timeline · 172nd New York State Board for Historic Preservation Meeting Notes
Current registry-derived data lists Plaubel GmbH in Frankfurt as active under HRB 15086. That status shows legal continuity but does not demonstrate present camera manufacture after the 2017 end of documented sales and repair. Any publication update should recheck the official register.
Plaubel GmbH (GmbH) - Frankfurt am Main · Plaubel ist Geschichte
Goetz Schrader sold Plaubel to Kimio Doi’s Japanese group in 1975 and remained involved in management. The Frankfurt professional-camera business continued, while the new ownership also prepared a Japanese revival of the Makina name rather than simply restarting the old German press-camera line.
A Goetz Schrader scissor-linkage patent was filed in 1977, and the Japanese-designed Makina 67 reached the market soon afterward with a fixed 80mm Nikkor. W67, 670, and 69W Proshift variants followed. Japanese contract production ended in 1986 amid disruption at Mamiya.
Plaubel Makina 67 Instruction Booklet · Plaubel Makina 670 Instruction Booklet · Patents Assigned to Plaubel Feinmechanik und Optik Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
Parts production for German professional cameras was reportedly transferred to Wilhelm Gutmann in 1979, while Plaubel continued assembly, distribution, and service. Late Profia PL1, PL69D, NT, and ZT models kept the view-camera system available into the 2010s.
A contemporary report stated that Plaubel ended sales and repairs for Plaubel, Toyo, and Horseman products on May 31, 2017. This is the best-supported endpoint for the operating photographic business, not proof that the registered legal entity dissolved on the same date.
