Periflex
I enjoyed your article on the quirky Periflex series of cameras (AP 17 November), as I owned a brand new model 2 at the age of 16. While you mentioned its unusual features – its focusing mechanism and glass pressure plate, for example – I was surprised that you didn’t describe its unusual film transport arrangements. There were no sprockets, and the film was simply ‘dragged’ through the camera by the take-up spool. Consequently, the take-up spool increased in diameter with each layer of film, and the space between frames increased towards the end of the film, making film storage rather tricky. While it was strange to have a black glass pressure plate, it was even more novel that it was not mounted on springs, but simply stuck on to a piece of black foam rubber! It was an intriguing product, and got a lot of attention when I started my three-year course at Birmingham School of Photography. John Harvey