The Robot series was introduced in 1935 by Otto Berning & Co., which was based in Schwelm, former West Germany, not far from Cologne. The Robots were a range of cameras with spring-wound motors so one could take many photos consecutively at high speed with winding the camera only once. It had a rotary shutter, unusual to find in still cameras but common in movie cameras, which usually also featured spring motors. The Robots had interchangeable lenses with a 26mm screw mount, until the introduction of the Robot Royal rangefinder models, which used a bayonet mount. Most Robots used 135 film and had a square 24x24mm format. A variety of cassettes was needed for film supply and uptake, only later models (from the Robot IIa onwards) used standard 135 film cassettes and featured rewind knobs.

Berning Robot Star II Vollautomat 

This new model with quite a mouthful of a name was introduced to replace the earlier Robot Star (shown above). The Vollautmat was mostly a cosmetic upgrade. Gone was the large springwind knob on the top, it was replaced by a plastic wheel on the side of the camera. A new brightline viewfinder with frames for 40 and 75mm lenses was introduced at the expense of the 90 degree angle finder typical of earlier Robots. The flash sync and shutter speed selector knob were kept the same though. Also the inside of the camera looked very much the same to earlier models. Since all the changes appear to be limited to the top part of the camera I gather therefore that the shutter mechanism was essentially the same, but I have opened the camera far enough to confirm this. It does appear that the body was diecast and therefore stronger and more uniform that earlier models. It was still a very heavy camera for its size.

The name 'Vollautomat' is a misnomer, there was nothing automatic about this camera other than of course the film transport and shutter cocking, just like all earlier models. This is actually the second version of this model, the first version still had the springmotor wind knob at the top, and was available in two versions, a 25-shot and a 50-shot version, the latter with double-extended wind knob.


According to the internet this type of lens viewer and lens was used as a endoscope? Storz has made medical lenses. Or is a viewfinder?

In good condition. Very slight!  surface wear in certain places. In original box. (some content missing). Can't check the workings so bought as seen. Please inspect foto's. Some foxing on inside photo?

Late 1960-ties.