Need ID on Tower Camera

Here's the picture which I fumbled attaching before:

That is a good one. I poked around and couldn't find it online either. Are you sure there's nothing mentioned in the manual? Perhaps an exhaustive search starting with this list of Tower cameras will turn up something: http://www.craigcamera.com/tower.htm

BTW, Tower was just a store brand for Sears.

I think it's an Iloca, some variant of the Rapid A. But I have yet to find an exact illustration of this one.

I haven't been able to find this camera in any of my Sears Camera catalogs going from 1952-1961.

This camera is an exact match to the Wittnauer Scout. This Scout was built by Braun. I believe it is the (1958) or second version of the Braun Gloriette.

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Gloriette#Gloriette_B_.281955.29

Interesting, this range of Braun-produced cameras; they seem to crop up all over the place under a variety of names. I've just picked up a Braun Super Colorette Ib, which evolved into the Wittnauer Captain. Most of the US Wittnauer range of cameras appear to have been manufactured by Braun.

It does look like the Wittnauer Scout body but shutter/lens combo are off. I went through the craigcamera list and nada. Glad I'm not the only puzzled one. There is no ID info in the manual at all. Just Tower. Nothing on the box either. I will take another look just to be sure I didn't miss anything. Will also see what I can find on Braun-produced Towers. Thanks for the information you all did provide. Will let you know if I solve this.

Rebecca,

Good catch on the shutter speeds. I missed that last night when I was looking for information.

This is an intriguing camera. Most simple viewfinder cameras, non RF, had simpler shutters, slower lenses, and didn't have rapid winders. I wonder if this drove the price point too close to the RF models? I assume the actual manufacture allowed retailers to chose different options to meet their requirements.

Could you take a picture of the manual and the original box? I would love to see what they looked like. Also could you check to see if there are any dates in the manual? Thanks.

Many german cameras of the 50s were available with different shutter/lens combos, so it is not astonishing that a camera based on the same body was sold with different shutters/lenses by several trading companies. A good example is the german-based Foto-Porst - most of their cameras were re-branded cameras from well-known manufacturers but had different (and mostly cheaper) shutters and lenses.

Here's a shot showing the box and manual. I'll check for dates as well.