Traduction de Manuel M

Periflex I is a curious camera, digest of new technical solutions.
It is an interchangeable lens camera. Mounting is Leica 39 with screw, but all the lenses cannot be mounted there because of the presence of the periscope (see hereafter).

At the top of the hood is a vertical tube. It is about a viewfinder reflex camera which acts as a periscope (upside down) that it is necessary to descend in the darkroom, behind the lens. As this mode of centring is not more practical, there exists an accessory acting as return to 90° and which thus, allows the centring at eye level. This accessory is here, posed on the button of rewinding. To use it, it should be fixed at the top of the “periscopic” tube of centring. The position of “rest” on the button of rewinding makes it possible to close the eveready-case, which would be impossible if it remained on the viewfinder.

There is also in the accessory shoe a direct viewfinder which makes it possible to compose the image, because it makes it possible to see the entirety of the field of the lens, whereas the periscope shows only one small portion of it.

It should be noted that press-film is out of glass, stuck on a rubber foam and that the camera requires that one advances film and that then only one cocks the roller-blind shutter while acting on the speeds button!
 

Corfield Ltd, a family company of the United Kingdom, located Merridale Street in Wolverhampton, was founded by Kenneth Corfield, in 1947.

Initially specialized in the manufacture of accessories and the distribution of German cameras (Leidox, Minox, Exakta), the brand decided to be launched in the manufacture of a 24x36mm. To have a chance of success this camera was to be efficient, high-performance and modern; but also simplest possible to manufacture. One thus did not do pass beside the focal plane shutter and the interchangeable lenses. Less than 250 parts, including those of standard optics, were carried to the specifications. With this intention, a technology as so astute as unique was introduced. That is a manually retractable mirror, which would allow focusing behind the lens. The descent of this mirror, manual on the first models was made a nickname quickly: The periscope. This mirror allowed a focusing with focal distances going from 28 to 400mm whose centring was ensured by additional reflector view finders. The technology used on these cameras had answered the expectations of its creator: easiness and reliability. The outdatedness of the factory encourages with the delocalization. It will be done on January 30th, 1959. The company moves for Ballymoney in Northern Ireland. But the pressure of the Japanese brands in the United Kingdom becomes very strong and Kenneth Corfield cruelly be lacking of capital to invest in the research… only mainstay of his Company. Guiness, which then seeks to invest in Northern Ireland brings the funds which will have to save the brand… but becomes also majority shareholder with the great despair of Kenneth, who withdraws itself. In 1961, an astonishing diversification is decided with the building of a cheap 6x6: the Corfield 66. The financial situation becomes catastrophic for the production of cameras and Guiness uses the factory to produce various parts, of which car electric elements… The Company will close its doors in July 1971 definitively. Eight principal models in 35mm will be built. They all are regarded as “Leica Copies” in the book written by P-H PONT and J-L PRINCELLE dedicated to this category of cameras.