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The Chicago Camera Co., 56 Fifth Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, introduced its compact special budget magazine camera PHOTAKE in 1896. The company held a patent on this ingenious camera construction. It was a metal camera, mainly consisting of two cans, the one rotatable inside the other. Five 2×2" film plates could be placed along the vessel wall of the inner can. The outer can could be turned upon the inner can to five marked positions where the lens barrel stood exactly over one of the five light openings of the inner can. These holes were exactly opposite to one film plate.

The lever below the lens barrel was the shutter release.

The Photake had a modern design, coloured brown with wildly placed copper-color stripes. The camera was sold in a wooden box together with six dry plates, chemicals for developing and fixing, 12 sheets blueprint paper for making contact prints, one sheet of ruby paper to tinker a darkroom lamp, an instruction booklet and the attachable reflecting type viewfinder, all together for just 2.50 US-Dollars.


Companies of Chicago (Illinois)
Adams & Westlake | American Advertising and Research Co. | Bernard | Burke & James | Busch | Calumet | Candid | Chicago Camera Co. | Chicago Ferrotype Co. | Deardorff | De Vry | Geiss | Herold | Imperial | Kemper | Metropolitan Industries | Montgomery Ward | Pho-Tak | Rolls | Sans & Streiffe | Sears | Seymour | Spartus | The Camera Man | United States Camera Co. | Western Camera Manufacturing Co. | Yale | Zar | Zenith
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