 The Wrayflex was England’s only serious attempt at making a 35mm single lens reflex. It was manufactured by Wray (Optical Company) Ltd at Bromley in Kent and the first model, now known as the Wrayflex I, was launched at the Festival Exhibition in London in May 1951. It took 44 or 45 pictures on a standard roll of 36-exposure 35mmm film, each frame measuring 24 x 32mm. The camera used a system or mirrors in the viewfinder in place of a pentaprism, which resulted in the image appearing laterally reversed when the camera was held normally, or upside down when the camera was turned vertically. In 1953, a second model (Wrayflex Ia) was introduced with the standard 24x36mm format, but still with the inverted image problem caused by the mirrors. In 1959 the Wrayflex II arrived with a pentaprism to correct that, but it was too late and no more than 350 of this last model were made. The three cameras are seen left to right above.  Here are two rare Wray prototypes. The one on the left was made in 1946 and might have been England’s first 35mm camera. Six prototypes were produced to test the market, but the camera never went into production. So far, four of the six have been found. On the right is a rare Wray prototype that introduced an extra mirror into the viewfinder system to correct the laterally reversed image. It is thought that if this had gone into production it might have been sold as a third variation of the Wrayflex I and so today might have been known as the Wrayflex Ib. It is not known how many of these were built, but so far only this one has come to light.  Wrayflex cameras were often used for scientific and medical photography in places like the Institute of Diseases of the Chest in London. The Wrayflex I, shown above left was used at Washington State University as part of America's space programme to photograph in close-up, the eyes of chimpanzees to learn how human eyes would react to simulated situations in space. For easier use, the film advance key on the base was replaced with an extra-large thumbwheel, protruding front and back of the body, and for presumably similar reasons the rewind key was also replaced with an over-sized version. It is equipped with a special 50mm extension tube and a Wray 90mm Lustrar lens. The camera shown here is one of two known examples of this conversion. The Wrayflex II (above right) was made for use with a microscope, mounted above the instrument once it was correctly focused. Without a need for reflex viewing, the viewfinder has been blocked off and the mirror box removed. The shutter dial has no settings and doesn’t turn, and the shutter speed is fixed in the region of 1/50 second. The special lens, which screws into the standard Wrayflex mount, has a single element at the end of a tapering black tube with no apertures or markings of any sort on it, exposure being controlled purely by the amount of light on the subject. On the base of the camera, the film wind key is replaced by a large knob, and on the back of the camera, a plate is screwed, containing a bolt with a circular nut on it and a guiding pin, for fitting to a copy stand.  Here’s one of the rarer Wray lenses, fitted to a Wrayflex II. The Prismscope, announced by Wray in 1960, was not originally intended to be a camera lens, but designed as a prismatic target spotting telescope for the rifle range. But having built it, the designers tried fitting in to a Wrayflex. Although the maximum aperture was only f/18, the lens gave surprising good results on film, and an adaptor was made to fit it to any of the Wrayflex range of cameras, as well as other SLRs of the time. It was sold into the photographic trade as a super-long telephoto. For information about my book on Wray and the Wrayflex, go to www.wrayflex.co.uk Return to home page |