START I - Means We Are Off! Polish Cameras

Since 16 June 2026 the National Museum of Technology in Warsaw has been showing a new temporary exhibition, “START I - Means We Are Off! Polish Cameras”, devoted to the history of Polish photographic technology and industrial design.

The display presents cameras, lenses, flash units and accessories from the holdings of the National Museum of Technology and from private collections. It traces the development of Polish engineering and design thinking from the nineteenth century to the second half of the twentieth.

Among the objects on show is a rare prototype of the START I camera, which gave the exhibition its name. Visitors also see a collection of Alfa and Alfa 2 cameras made by the Warsaw Photo-Optical Works, whose distinctive coloured bodies and design are still regarded as icons of Polish design of the 1960s. The exhibition also includes KORONA and FILMA cameras from the interwar period, nineteenth-century constructions fitted with lenses by Adam Prazmowski, cameras and lenses of the PHOS Varsovie brand, as well as prototypes and experimental devices. Rarely encountered Fenix microscope photography sets and stereoscopes produced by PZO draw particular attention.

The exhibition tells the story not only of photography, but also of the ambitions of Polish designers, the growth of domestic industry and the changing aesthetics of everyday objects. It is included in the museum admission ticket.