www.dresdner-kameras.de - rescued and newly available
For over 25 years, the website www.dresdner-kameras.de by Michael Sorms from Dresden was one of the most comprehensive and reliable sources on the history of the Dresden photographic industry on the German-speaking Internet. From the Ihagee and its Exakta cameras to the Praktica series and the Pentacon six, from company histories and innovations to cutaway models and literature references - hardly any other private website has documented Dresden's camera history in such detail, so expertly and with so much dedication.
Michael Sorms no longer actively maintains the website, and the original domain is no longer in his hands. Anyone visiting www.dresdner-kameras.de today will only find a commercial link page instead of well-founded photographic history. The years of work that went into these pages were in danger of being irretrievably lost.
Digital preservation by the Club Daguerre
As part of its digital preservation initiative, Club Daguerre e.V. has backed up the entire web archive with the author's consent and made it accessible again on the club's infrastructure. The site can now be accessed at the following address:
https://club-daguerre.eu/dresdner-kameras/
All content - over 60 HTML pages, more than 2,500 images, company lists, camera descriptions and historical documents - has been faithfully reproduced. Club Daguerre preserves content digitally and technically for the long term, guarantees accessibility and protection against digital decay and does not change or comment on content.
What can readers expect?
The website includes, among other things:
- Company history: numerous craft and large companies in the photographic industry in the Dresden area and their historical processes from 1839 to the present, including armaments production and manufacturer codes during the Second World War
- Innovations: From the first 35mm SLR camera to TTL flash metering
- Camera series: Detailed descriptions of Exakta, Exa, Praktica, Praktina, Pentacon six, Pentacon super, Pentina, Praktiflex, Altix, Contax S and many more
- Lenses, accessories and cinematography: information far beyond pure camera construction
- Cutaway models, stamps, literature and downloads: Unique materials for collectors and researchers
Our thanks to Michael Sorms
With www.dresdner-kameras.de, Michael Sorms has created a work that is unrivalled in its breadth and depth. What began as a private homepage in 2000 has grown over 25 years into an indispensable reference work for collectors, historians and photo enthusiasts worldwide. The website is cited as a reference in specialised literature, on Wikipedia and in international camera encyclopaedias.
We would like to sincerely thank Michael Sorms for his many years of meticulous work and for agreeing to permanently secure this valuable resource as part of our preservation initiative and keep it accessible to the public.
Many thanks also to Kurt Tauber for his suggestion.
The Club Daguerre's Digital Preservation Initiative is dedicated to the long-term preservation of photo-historical web content at risk of digital decay. If you become aware of any endangered photo-historical websites, we would be pleased to hear from you.