The Periflex camera - history

Periflex 35mm film cameras and lenses made a unique contribution to British photographic manufacturing history. They were invented, designed and built by Kenneth (later, Sir.) Corfield, who established K.G.Corfield Ltd in the late 1940s to produce his darkroom enlarging exposure meter, the Corfield Lumimeter.

Corfield launched the first Periflex I camera in 1953. It was fitted with an interchangeable 50mm f/3.5 Lumar lens using the L39 Leica screw mount, so could also mount Leitz Leica lenses of the era. Unusually, the Periflex was fitted with a miniature periscope which, when pushed down, enabled the user to focus on a segment of the motif image. A spring mechanism allowed the periscope to be easily retracted from the light path prior to a photograph being taken.

The first Periflex was finished in black enamel but a silver chrome version followed. The camera appealed to a wide variety of photography enthusiasts in the U.K. and the Commonwealth because it could mount Leica lenses and was less expensive than the German Leica camera. Apart from early versions of the Lumar lens, Corfield produced a wide focal length range of Lumax lenses from 28mm to 400mm using glass elements supplied by the well known Enna Werk GmbH of Munich.

In due course, the Periflex 2 model appeared with a slightly taller body and more refined design. Other companies such as Ross and Dallmeyer also produced compatible lenses, increasing the appeal of the Corfield Periflex camera. The Periflex 3 appeared in 1957 and was followed, after the company had moved from Wolverhampton to Northern Ireland, by the newly designed 3a and 3b models. By 1960, Corfield's best selling camera was its Periflex Gold Star fitted with a 50mm f/1.9 Lumax lens. Other models include the Interplan - A, B and C which could mount Exakta and Asahi Pentax Takumar lenses.

Japanese camera imports forced Corfield to cease Periflex manufacture by the early 1960s. Only a few of medium format Corfield 66 were ever made and by the early 1970s, the K.G.Corfield Ltd factory was closed. Sir Kenneth Corfield continued to design new cameras however, and in the 1980s and 1990s manufactured the specialist Corfield WA camera using a modified Mamiya film back and fitted with a Super-Angulon lens. Large format modular cameras were also produced from a precision workshop facility based in the South of England.