The Primo is a view camera 35 mm produced by the Dutch company Nedinsco. It started as a license to build Steiner Steinette. This was an easy accomplishment because Nedinsco had bought the production tools Steiner and also had some tools for Nedinsco Argus, a license Gerlach Ideal Color 35 with many similar components to those of the Steinette, which could be explained by the that the same camera designer, Willy Uhrig, was involved. The first production was in 1958 with a batch of 100 cameras that were exactly like Steiner Steinette. All subsequent chambers (approx. 12 000) have a top cover and redesigned were made between 1958 and 1962. Primo that first production batch April 1958 can be easily identified by the fact that the accessory shoe is on the top and in the center of the chamber, while the later Primo have that shoe more integrated into the upper deck and slightly shifted to the left and back. The Venlo 3 element lens was designed and built by the Nedinsco itself at its factory in Venlo (NL). Nedinsco Optical is a company based in Venlo, Netherlands. It was founded in 1921 by Carl Zeiss. Carl Zeiss, who was forced to cut much of its military production in Germany after the Treaty of Versailles. In 1919 and 1920 they were transported (illegally) thousands of boxes full of equipment and storage for the Netherlands and Sweden. In the Netherlands, this material ended in Venlo, a town close to the German border. And because of the excellent location, Nedinsco factory was also built there. Most of its production to the end of the Second World War (1945) consisted of products for the military and included submarine periscopes, aerial cameras, signal lamps, reflectors, artillery range finder, binoculars, rifle scopes, etc., etc etc. Post-war production still included many military products, but also some for civilian purposes as an optical goniometer and film cameras. Nedinsco still active in the optical world (eg chip production) and military (PLOT-systems and AIM). Nedinsco is a short Nederlandse Instrumenten Compagnie (Dutch Instrument Company).
