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The Sears Tower

Sears rebadged a lot of goods over the years, including cameras. The Tower brand came from a mix of manufacturers, including respected ones like Olympus. They also rebadged some average cameras. This Sears Tower No.1 camera is one of those. I don't know who made it in 1955, but I suspect it's Chinese or Japanese in origin. It's classic bakelite with a plastic lens and hard-to-see viewfinder more common in pre-war cameras like the Kodak Brownie. It takes 120 medium format film, still available today. It does have some unusual features, however. The best, outside of its great styling, is the film advance knob. As you rotate it, it cocks the shutter and then stops precisely on the next frame. No need to look in the tiny red hole trying to see the frame number on the backing paper. And look at those lines. Just like cars from the 50's there's a lot of wasted space on corners, curves and bulk. I bet if it came out in '57, it would have had two big fins. Mine has a fully intact rubber strap. Some of the bakelite was cracked, so I taped it up just in case. It has a regular one-speed shutter, as well as a setting for "Bulb" mode. It also has a fixed aperture. It's basically a box camera with style.

And I have to admit, the pictures aren't bad. It has that dreamy blurred vignetting and lack of great detail that plastic lenses give you. But the surprise to me was the contrast. I shot with a roll of Ilford FP4 (ISO 125), a fine grained film. I also developed in Ilford Perceptol (their version of Microdol-X). That may have played a little role in the contrast, but not much. Overall, a pretty nice little casual camera for the casual shooter in 1955, especially if you want to look good carrying it.