National Instruments
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| National-35 image by Somsubhra Chatterjee (Image rights) |
National Instruments Ltd was a camera company in Jadavpur Kolkata, and has been referred to as India's first and only camera factory.[1] Perhaps it is indeed the only factory of mass-produced Indian cameras; Vageeswari large-format cameras were made in a workshop setting, not a factory. Some of Agfa's cheaper cameras were made in India under licence (in at least some cases, such as the Agfa Synchro Box and the Isoly II, this was as well as in Germany).
National Instruments produced only one camera, the National-35, and was working toward production of a second, the National Reflex 2000, when it closed.[1]
In January 2009 the factory, long derelict, was turned over to Jadavpur University.[1]
The National-35 was in fact produced with the tool kits of the German King Regula Sprinty BC. King sold those designs and tool kits to National Instruments Ltd sometime in the late 1970's.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Manas Bhattacharya & Madhuban Mltra: Through a Lens Darkly, details of an exhibition in New Delhi, December 2010 - February 2011, at the defunct Artslant magazine/gallery website; archived at Internet Archive in May 2020.
