OMEGA BRANDESS

The history of OmegaBrandess starts all the way back in 1935 when three brothers, Fred, Rudolph, and Alfred Simmon produced a domestic enlarger for the 35mm camera format. In 1936, they chose the Greek letter 'Omega' as their trademark and registered it with the US Patent Office. Over the years, they adapted to the market and came out with several different enlargers. During World War II, civilian use of enlargers was prohibited. The trio secured contracts with the Army Signal Corps and the US ... Navy, and they were commissioned to make enlargers and film pack cameras to meet the Navy requirements for combat conditions. After the war ended, they resumed their production of consumer enlargers. By the mid-1950s, the brothers had made the decision to become a division of Berkey Photo so that their legacy may live on. With the introduction of color head enlargers that allowed photographers to produce their own enlargements, Omega introduced a number of new models in the 70s and 80s. With the introduction of one hour photo labs, point-and-shoot 35 mm cameras and digital cameras, the darkroom market began to plummet. In the late 1980s, Berkey Photo went bankrupt. The assets of the Omega enlarger division of Berkey were purchased in 1988 by the RT Color Corp., and was renamed Omega International. Not long after, that company also entered bankruptcy. In May of 1990, the assets of the now bankrupt Omega International were purchased by a small group of Baltimore-based investors under the name Omega Acquisition Corporation.