L.F. Deardorff & Sons, Inc.
Established 1916Founded in 1916 by Laben Fisher Deardorff, Deardorff manufactures view cameras that have produced the image standard by which all other cameras are judged. By the time the first Deardorff cameras were produced in 1923, Laben’s sons also joined the company. ‘L.F. Deardorff & Sons, Inc.’ made ten cameras during their first production year.
Deardorff manufactured many one-of-a-kind items through the decades. When they needed a uniquely designed bench grinder for polishing their parts, they designed, patented and built their own, which they sold under the DASCO (Deardorff & Sons, Company) label. The Museum of Modern Art and NASA each have used Deardorff cameras for archiving their images. Also, Deardorff built camera’s used for mug shots for several decades. The hand craftsmanship, the attention to detail, the fact that all cameras are still assembled by hand, one at a time, speaks to the unique place Deardorff cameras hold in the world of photography.
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