France 1955 – Spy Camera – 16 mm – Infrequent. The Stylophot is a pocketable mini camera which makes 10x10mm images on 16mm film. It was produced in France in 1955 and presented as a “pen” camera, due to its resemblance to a fountain pen with the pen clip attached to the side. “Stylo” being the … Read more93 Secam
Stylophot
Private eye camera
England 1905 – Spy Camera – Custom film – Very Rare. Designed around 1905 by Swedish engineer Magnus Neill, the Ticka Watch Camera is the European counterpart to the American Expo Watch Camera, patented in the United States on September 6, 1904. Falling squarely into the category of early spy cameras, it adopts the deceptive … Read more87 Houghton
Ticka
Japan 1955 – Spy Camera – 8 mm – Rare. Produced around 1955 by Suzuki the Camera Lite is a Spy camera hidden in a zippo-like lighter. It was produced as a simplified version of another Spy Camera, the Echo 8. In 1953 the Echo 8 made an appearance in movie “Roman Holiday.” A reporter, Gregory … Read more86 Suzuki Optical
Camera Lite (model 1)
Japan 1948 – Spy Camera – Custom film – Very rare. The Petal is an incredible device. It was the smallest subminiature camera in the world, produced by Sakura Seiki in Japan in 1948. It has a round (or octagonal) main body the size of a coin and was intended for inconspicuous photography as it … Read more65 Sakura Seiki
Petal
Private eye camera
Germany 1948 – Spy Camera – Custom film – Very Rare. The ABC Wristwatch camera, designed by Austrian Chemist Rudolph Steineck was first introduced in 1948 and was produced for 3 years. This fancy looking wristwatch is in reality a disguised sub-miniature camera allowing to take discreet photographs while pretending to check for the time. … Read more61 Steineck
ABC Wristwatch
Japan 1948 – Lighter – Lighter fluid – Rare. The K.K.W. Camera Lighter is very well known to camera collectors as it is often the first non-camera item to join their collection. The K.K.W. Lighter is a beautiful example of Japanese craftsmanship. It was first manufactured in 1948 in Occupied Japan as a wick lighter … Read moreK.K.W.
Camera Lighter
Switzerland 1957 – Subminiature – 35 mm – Rare. The Tessina, produced in Lugano in 1957, and is probably the smallest half-frame 35mm camera ever built. And possibly the strangest. It is a twin-lens reflex with pop-up viewfinder and a clock-work motor drive designed for waist-level inconspicuous photography. The almost 400 parts used in making … Read more41 Tessina
Automatic
Like a luxury watch
Japan 1949 – Subminiature – 17.5 mm – Rare. Konishiroku stands as one of Japan’s oldest photographic enterprises, with its origins tracing back to 1873 – a history predating even that of Kodak, which officially began in 1881. The company was established by Rokusaburo Sugiura, a pharmacist who embarked on selling photographic merchandise from Tokyo’s … Read more29 Konishiroku
Snappy
Police pocket camera
Germany 1940 – Compact – 35 mm – Very Rare. Introduced in 1938, the Robot II emerged as a slightly larger iteration of its predecessor, the Robot I, boasting several notable enhancements while retaining the core mechanism. A distinct variant was developed exclusively for the German intelligence service and military. Equipped with two perpendicular viewfinders—one … Read more23 Robot
Robot II “Luftwaffe”
WW2 Stuka’s camera
Kiev 1978 – Spy Camera – 16 mm – Infrequent. Starting in 1978, Kiev Arsenal embarked on a unique endeavor by crafting a distinct version of the Kiev 30 subminiature camera, cleverly concealed within a pack of “John Player Special” cigarettes. Market as a KGB spy camera designed for clandestine activities within the United Kingdom, … Read moreKiev Arsenal
Kiev 30 “John player special”
You must be logged in to post a comment.