Kalos was a small German camera company that tried its luck in subminiature photography after the War.
(1950) A post-war camera from Germany sporting a fixed-focus, 20mm f4.5 lens with shutter speeds of 1/30, 1/50 & 1/100, plus B. Unlike the post-war Hit cameras from Japan, this camera opted for paper-backed 16mm film and produced thirty 9x12mm images. The f-stop is selected on the top (f4.5 or f6.3) and the shutter speed on the bottom. Today it's rather hard to find -- even in Germany.
(1960) -- This was an updated version of the Kalos with a few improvements in a more stylish body. The camera has apparently been seen with two different lenses -- but they are not interchangeable -- a 28mm or 25mm -- both f2.8. As a result of the faster aperture, the lens is now focusing. This model has more shutter speeds -- from 1 second to 1/125 (or 1/250) -- and f-stops are adjustable from f2.8 - f16. While focusing is by estimation, the viewfinder is parallax corrected (at least on some examples), and a cable release connection was added. The red, film-counter window on the rear is now replaced with a mechanical counter on the top, but paper-backed film was still used -- however the film format was changed to 14x14mm. Some authors list this camera as the best quality 16mm paper-backed-film camera ever made -- but there aren't too many cameras that fall into that category anyway. These are even harder to find that the original model. Very similar to the Kunik Petitux -- and probably related in some manufacturing way.
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