ILFORD Ilfoflex, 1961


Picture by Kris Lockyear, see his flickr page.


The Ilford Ilfoflex was a low cost plastic twin lens reflex style box camera, made in Hong Kong, by 'The Great Wall of China Manufacturing Company'. Equipped with a fixed focus 'Brytex' f8 lens and a shutter with I(nstantaneous) and B(ulb), the Ilfoflex took 12 pictures, 4cm square, on 127 roll film.

Bill Smith, who was Ilford's Product Manager for cameras and accessory equipment and oversaw the sales of the Sportsman camera range and introduction of the Elmo cameras, recalls that the Ilfoflex was never sold in any quantity except in the promotional market - not via retailers. He remembers leaving an example on a sunny windowsill of his office while away on vacation. On his return it had transformed itself into abstract sculpture due to the heat of the sun coming through the window!
Looking like a toy, good results are claimed with care. The instruction booklet can be downloaded here

This web site shows the same camera, badged as a Bedfordflex (or so the owner believes, but his name plate is missing). The interesting thing is that he shows pictures taken with his camera which are likely the equivalent from an Ilfoflex. They are not too bad, but the camera is suffering from light leakage, partly spoiling the pictures.

This page last updated: 13th November 2010