DUCATI HALF FRAME CAMERAS
Ducati opened an optics department in 1939, and had plans to market the Sogno camera in 1941. But, due to the war and the military need, the official production and delivery to the public of the Sogno started in 1947. It was a top-of-the-line camera, and had a rangefinder instead of just a viewfinder -- and a line of interchangeable lens from 19mm to 120mm. These were 19mm f6.3, 35mm f2.8, 35mm f3.5, 60mm f2.8, and a 120mm f2.8. Shutter speeds to 1/500. Rather impressive at the time, but expensive, of course. It was a manual camera with no meter and used special cassettes. The cassettes were similar to the Tessina cassette in that they used 35mm film in shorter length, but they needed to be loaded by the user -- a special film loader was available. The only film company to offer Ducati cassettes was Ferrania, and only for a short period of time. Ducati made possible around 10,000 Sogno cameras, but sales were lackluster. They tried a simpler model -- the Simplex, starting production in 1950 (below). This was the big brother of the Simplex. Production ended in 1952 after the three Ducati engineer-brothers left the firm, and the company decided to focus on motorcycles.
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