Perfex

Company

Perfex was the brand name used by Candid Camera Corporation of Chicago, Illinois, founded by Carl and Joseph Price together with Benjamine Edelman. The company focussed on 35mm rangefinder cameras, but also produced a double 8mm movie camera. Perfex cameras were in production from 1938 through 1950.

Perfex Cameras

Perfex 55

The first Perfex camera was the 1938 Speed Candid. This camera took 135 film, featured a built in extinction light meter, an uncoupled rangefinder,and a cloth focal plane shutter with speeds up to 1/500 of a second. It was available with either a 3.5 or 2.8 50mm Graf Perfex Anastigmat lens.

The Forty-Four quickly superseded the crude Speed Candid in 1939. This model featured a much more cleanly styled body, a couple rangefinder, a hot shoe, and shutter speeds up to 1/1250. This model was replaced by the Fifty-Five in 1940.

The Thirty-Three introduced in 1940 was essentially the same camera as the Forty-Four but with blacked out trim, and minus the slow shutter speeds.

The Fifty-Five was essentially an updated and further refined version of the Forty-Four. This model survived WWII and was discontinued in 1947.

The Deluxe was much the same as the earlier models, but featured a stamped metal body instead of a cast one.

The One-O-One and One-O-Two were introduced in 1948 and featured an f4.5 or f3.5 lens respectively. They departed from the earlier Perfex models by having non-interchangeable lenses, and leaf shutters. They also lacked the extinction meters that were standard on all previous models.

The Cee-Ay 35 was introduced in 1949, but few were made before Perfex sold the design and it became the Graflex Ciro 35.

Links

• Speed Candid Review
• Details of several Perfex models
• Perfex 55 review