Kalimar

Kalimar
legal form	Incorporated
founding	1952
Seat	St. Louis , Missouri , USA
Website	www.kalimar.com ( Memento of March 3, 2000 in the Internet Archive ), archived version

Kalimar was an American optical company based in St. Louis , Missouri . Founded in 1952, the company produced and sold photo and film cameras, lenses, electronic flash units and binoculars until it was taken over by the Tiffen company in December 1999 .

Company history

Kalimar was founded in 1952 by Robert J. Lipsitz . In 1954, Kalimar imported and sold the Kalimar Aires 35 camera model , which was the first 35mm camera to cost less than $ 100 and thus became the best-selling camera in its price range in the USA. In the eight years that followed, the company expanded further and established production sites in the USA and the Orient as well as its own sales network. In 1955 Kalimar began a cooperation with the Japanese company UN Photo Products and began selling photo accessories. This was packed in so-called blister packs, making the company the first to deliver its products in this packaging. As early as 1956, Kalimar was present with its products in 64 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. In the following year, Kalimar had already further diversified its range and, in addition to cameras, also sold lenses and binoculars. With the probably of Heinz Kilfitt designed and manufactured in Japan Kalimar reflex , the company offered the world not only effective, but in the US also the first SLR camera in medium format to 6 × 6th In the mid-1960s, Kalimar supplied a camera for the Gemini space program .

In 1991 the name and logo were registered as a trademark in the USA. In 1993, Kalimar received a license from Mattel for the production and sale of Barbie cameras and photo accessories, and in 1997 a license from Warner Brothers to use the Looney Tunes brand . From 1999, the company also offered 3D cameras. On December 13, 1999, the company was sold to competitor Tiffen, and facilities and staff remained active in St. Louis. The top management also remained in the company, the founder Bob Lipsitz as consultant and his successor Larry Lipsitz as senior manager . Tiffen still carried products under the name Kalimar until 2007, after which the brand disappeared from the Tiffen website.