JEM FLASH – J.E. Mergott Co. (JEM Camera Company) – Newark New Jersey
c1940’s – The JEM Flash, with its cool lightning bolt lettering is not listed in McKeown’s. I guess that makes it very rare and
valuable. JEM apparently made only one box but put different faces on it.
Here’s the JEM Flash showing its folding viewfinder. I found out that you look through the
small rectangle when taking a picture. If you’re interested in a closeup of my chin, let me know.
The JEM Flash and its counterpart make 6×9 images.
JEM JR.. I don’t know what’s junior about it. It’s the same size as the JEM Flash. You could say it’s a “junior” because
it has no flash contacts. But you’d be wrong because some JEM JR’s do have flash contacts. Those models have lightning bolts
under the taking lens. So this is a non-synched, boltless JEM JR.. Can you image that there are people that collect
Leicas and pass these rarities by ?
There are two “Girl Scout” models of the JR.. One is synched and has the mechanical viewfinder shown on the JEM Flash. The other doesn’t. Isn’t this stuff fascinating ?
I grabbed my Jems off the shelf the other day because they were easy to reach and headed out to shoot some film. I’ll bet that I was the only person in the whole damn world (other than my wife) shooting a JEM JR. and a JEM Flash on November 14, 2008.
The first four shots were done with the Jem Flash. The others with the JEM JR, I think. But I really don’t know. I apologize.
APX 400 in HC110