Robot Royal 361955

History

The Robot Royal series launched in 1953 as the successor to the Robot II and IIa, adding a larger and more refined body. The initial Royal models shot 24x24mm square frames; the Royal 36 variant — configured with a wider film gate and matched optics for 24x36mm — followed approximately 1955 as Berning responded to institutional and press demand for a full-frame Robot.

The Royal 36 sat alongside the Royal 24 in the catalogue through the late 1950s and 1960s, with both variants sharing the same body, spring-motor mechanism, and bayonet mount. Berning's institutional customers could specify format by model; scientific and industrial buyers often chose the 24x24mm square, while press and surveillance customers favored the Royal 36's standard rectangular output.

Production of the Royal line continued until approximately 1971, when the combination of motorised SLRs and the Recorder series' dominance in institutional markets made the civilian Royal redundant. The Robot brand persisted in industrial and enforcement photography under later electronic variants.

Why It Matters

The Robot Royal 36 is the full-frame articulation of the Robot spring-motor concept — significant because it places rapid-fire mechanical advance in a camera producing images directly compatible with standard optical printing and press reproduction workflows of the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike the square-format Robots, whose output required orientation decisions in the darkroom, the Royal 36's 24x36mm frames dropped straight into conventional enlargers and contact sheets.

For collectors, the Royal 36 is the rarer sibling of the more common Royal 24. The Schneider 50mm lenses produced for the full-frame gate are distinct from the 38mm lenses of the square-format Robots, giving the Royal 36 its own optical character — sharper coverage at the frame corners where the shorter 38mm lenses would vignette.

Lenses & Accessories

The Robot bayonet mount on Royal 36 bodies accepts lenses computed for the full 24x36mm frame:

• Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 50mm f/2.8 — standard Tessar-type; the primary pairing for the Royal 36
• ~Schneider Xenar 50mm f/1.9 — faster variant for available-light work
• Schneider Tele-Xenar 75mm f/3.8 — short telephoto; covers full frame
• Robot cassette inserts — format-specific inserts controlling the film gate width; confirm a 36-format insert is fitted
• Robot spring-motor wind key — some examples separated from their original keys; verify the wind knob is intact

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Used by West German press photographers during the late 1950s and 1960s for rapid-sequence event and news coverage requiring standard-format output.
• Employed by surveillance and intelligence services where full-frame output was necessary for photographic identification.
• Collected today by Robot specialists as the rarer full-frame counterpart to the more common Royal 24.
• Referenced in German camera literature as the format bridge between Robot's square-format tradition and conventional 35mm photography.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Robot Royal — covers the Royal series including both 24 and 36 format variants