All those 45 Technikas... by C Canon, on Flickr
What make a Linhof camera a Technika… simply it is the presence of a lockable articulating rear standard on a Linhof field camera. This can easily be identified by the presence of 4 lock knobs protruding from the side at the rear.
Note: The Aero Technika 45 and subsequent model Aero Technika 45 EL do not have the “Technika” rear standard but originated from the Technika 5x7 with slipstream housing and kept the Technika label…
Also when I posted an earlier version on the Linhof Fans facebook group Bob reminded me the monorail Kardan 45 and successor Color Kardan were basically Technika's on a stick with the same articulating back as the Technika - but these cameras were never given the Technika name so I did not include them.
Timeline
1934 - Prototype Ur-Technika
The prototype that would become the Linhof Technika. Looking like it was cobbled together from the spare parts bin this camera appears to have both Linhof and Perka camera parts. According to lore Nikolaus Karpf invented this shortly after taking over the company and had a grand vision of a bright future for Linhof with the Technika camera as its centerpiece.
1934 - Modell 34
Surprisingly the first Technika camera was not named a Technika. It was a Linhof Modell 34 with an articulating back.
The Linhof Modell 34 was the top of the line camera made by Linhof Prazisions Kamera Werk in Munich, Germany. Several ads, reviews, press releases, and other marketing material heralded the arrival of the Modell 34, with sales commencing conveniently enough in early 1934.
The first of the model 34 cameras did not have an articulating back. They were similar to the preceding model camera Linhof had called the Prazisionskamera. Near the end of 1934 the articulating back was added to the Modell 34 of 9x12 and larger.
So why not change the name of this camera with the new feature?
Perhaps the advertising budget for the year was already spent? or perhaps the Model 34 was always intended to have the back but it was somehow delayed?
It is very likely nobody alive today knows the answer.
By 1935 Linhof was no longer marketing the camera as the Modell 34, it is clear they were trying to rebrand it. It was marketed as Prazisions Modell Camera and the Spezial Modell Camera.
One ad called it the: Linhof Original Universal-Prazisions-Camera Spezialmodell… in an attempt to cover all the bases at once.
A version still made without the articulating back was named the Standard Modell.
In 1936 the Technika name appeared and has stuck for over 85 years! I did not include the camera in the graphic above as the first Technika badged cameras were identical to the Model 34 of 1934.
1938 - Technika
The Technika saw many incremental design and functional changes from 1936 until 1945. Mostly centered around design changes and improvements to the front standard.
Minor changes were constantly happening and the style shown here- with two front posts but no pull handle- dates to 1938
Lensboard size changes in 1939.
1942 - Wartime Technika
Beginning as early as 1941 and continuing throughout WWII chrome lensboard locking clips are added to the front standard and the sports finder is changed to a wire crosshair type.
1945 - Technika II
This camera style likely first appears at the very end of the war c1945.
Following the end of WWII the current version of the Technika was renamed the Technika II.
The 1945 Technika II label designated postwar made cameras available only in 9x12 or 13x18.
The term Technika II had been mentioned in sales info as far back as 1937 but at the time it only differentiated between models with or without a hinged door on the film back.
The post war Technika II was a continuation of the wartime Technika cameras which could easily be identified by the 2 chrome lensboard clips at the top of the front standard. The post war Technika II cameras and wartime Technika cameras are the same except for one stylistic difference. The edge of the bed and the front edge of the body have a silver accent on the Technika II. It seems likely this style began just prior to the end of the war. Wartime Technika’s had black leather or paint along this edge.
The post war 9x12 Technika II was very short lived, a year or less, and was quickly replaced by the new Technika III 9x12 in 1946. The 13x18 Technika II continued to be made until 1950.
continued...
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