KW Pilot Reflex – Folding TLR with Schneider Xenar 5 cm f/3.5, Dresden

Rare pre-war folding twin-lens reflex camera by Kamera-Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch, Dresden. 3×4 cm on 127 film, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 5 cm f/3.5 in Compur shutter. With original leather case.

A scarce example of the KW Pilot Reflex, one of the very few folding twin-lens reflex cameras ever produced. Made in Dresden by Kamera-Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch between 1931 and 1937, the Pilot is a technically unusual design – a strut-folding TLR for sixteen 3×4 cm exposures on 127 roll film, marketed under the "System Thorsch" patent of Swiss co-founder Benno Thorsch. After both Jewish founders Paul Guthe and Benno Thorsch were forced out of the company in 1938, production ceased; surviving pre-war Pilot Reflex cameras are accordingly uncommon.
This example carries a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 5 cm f/3.5 (No. 473 674, dating to circa 1934) in a rim-set F. Deckel Compur leaf shutter with speeds T, B, 1 to 1/300 s and apertures f/3.5 – f/16. Top plate engraved "Pilot" in script, with "D.R.P. – System Thorsch" and "Kamera-Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch Dresden" on the bezel. The folding waist-level finder hood bears the embossed KW lozenge logo. Body covered in original brown leatherette; nickel-plated metal trim with rich age patina, some verdigris and brassing consistent with nine decades of use. Coupled focus knob, ruby window film counter, dual-stroke advance.
Supplied complete with the original brown leather everready case and strap (worn, hinge intact, snap closure missing). A characterful working-condition specimen of a milestone Dresden camera design – sold as a collector's item, mechanical functions not warranted.