Kalimar? what is it? Anyone have any ideas.? Came across this item. It appears to be some sort of timer, but what device does it attach to? Really not looking to utilize, but...

corpsol Loc: Cape Cod

Anyone have any ideas.?
Came across this item. It appears to be some sort of timer, but what device does it attach to?

Really not looking to utilize, but interested in its functionality.

Thanks in advance.

turp77 Loc: Connecticut, Plainfield

corpsol wrote:

Anyone have any ideas.?
Came across this item. It appears to be some sort of timer, but what device does it attach to?

Really not looking to utilize, but interested in its functionality.

Thanks in advance.

It is a manual shutter timer for the old film days. They are spring wound and normally screws into your shutter button where a remote shutter release screws into. Most are 15 seconds but you can do a partial wind for a shorter delay

vanbr

pretty sure it's a self-timer shutter release...of a certain age.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

It indeed is a self timer for film cameras that did not have that function. The barrel piece in front is removable and was coveted for pre M series Leica Camera users. It has an adjustment to control the length of the plunger so this could be used on view camera lenses. The tip of the attaching nipple is tapered so can't be used on old non-tapered tipped shutter release screw points.

The name Kalimar is for a company that made all manner of less expensive camera accessories. Their 2X Tell extender was not optically grand, but the variation for Hasselblad was great for T* 80mm Planars. This converted the 80 to a 160mm lens and degraded the T* quality perfectly for less sharp images when doing portraiture. (Note the debacle when t* Zeiss optics were used on the reintroduced 120 Kodachrome with high end fashion models, the images were so crisp and sharp that one could see every part of their make up and still see what the MUA missed!).

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

Something from an Indiana Jones movie (Temple of Doom). HEEE HAAW!

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

corpsol wrote:

Anyone have any ideas.?
Came across this item. It appears to be some sort of timer, but what device does it attach to?

Really not looking to utilize, but interested in its functionality.

Thanks in advance.

I'm not seeing a photo but I remember the Kalimar name, seems to me they sold a lot of photo gadgets back in the 60's and 70's, Bob.

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

Yes, Bob you are right, they did. They were well advertised by "PORTER Camera", now defunct. I miss Porter, they had some very useful gadgets.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

DAN Phillips wrote:

Yes, Bob you are right, they did. They were well advertised by "PORTER Camera", now defunct. I miss Porter, they had some very useful gadgets.

I remember Porter, remember Gadget Infinity?

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Kalimar

corpsol wrote:

Anyone have any ideas.?
Came across this item. It appears to be some sort of timer, but what device does it attach to?

Really not looking to utilize, but interested in its functionality.

Thanks in advance.

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

As already stated Kalimar was a company back in the 80's that sold many different camera and darkroom gadgets. Many were very good and inexpensive but some were junk. I am sure what you have in their automatic shutter.

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

No Bob, i don't remember Gadget Infinity. porter had so much of the useful but non-ordinary items. I bought all of my darkroom supplies from them, they were good.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

I'm not seeing an image either ??????????????????

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Didn't just about everybody who was shooting back in the 60's and 70's have something from Kalimar? I think they even marketed some cheap and not very good lenses, also. Names that have faded away over time, Kalimar, Soligar, Vivitar (although you still see some from Vivitar, now) to name a few. That stuff was inexpensive and while not top grade stuff, especially the lenses, they weren't all that bad, either. I had a Vivitar 300mm lens for my Pentax Spotmatic that seemed ok. That was back in the late '60's when the up and coming brand offering high quality off brand lenses was Tamron. Back then you picked the lens you wanted and then picked the lens adapter for your particular camera, as Tamron lenses came with a "universal lens mount," meaning they only made one lens and you had to get the adapter to fit it to your camera. It was all very high tech back then.

Kuzano

bobmcculloch wrote:

I'm not seeing a photo but I remember the Kalimar name, seems to me they sold a lot of photo gadgets back in the 60's and 70's, Bob.

That is correct. A marketing company, which sold all kinds of camera accessories branded with their name. Much like Calumet, Vivitar (primarily lenses but never made by Vivitar) and many other such camera equipment sellers selling things photographic, but branded with their names. Tons of these marketing companies over the years.

Kuzano

Vivitar used a dozen lens companies for their lenses. Many think the Vivitar Series One lenses were top line. Not so....many were real "pieces of Shit lenses". They did also use some very good mfrs. Everything they did by Kiron, and a few more were excellent. There is a table of mfrs for Vivitar. First two numbers of SN denote Mfr. All those starting with 22, 28 and 37 were generally good. The rest were mixed.... OK to POS lenses, including a lot of the Series One.

The only assurance you got on Series One vivitar was they were all more expensive, and some of those excelled.

Across the board, Vivitar lens were a mixed bag of quality.

Their primes for SLR's that were made by KIRON, SN 22, and fast aperture are all great mirrorless adapted manual focus lenses.