James's Light Meter Collection: DeJur Amsco Model 40 Critic
DeJur Amsco Model 40 Critic exposure meter USA
Maker: DeJur Amsco
Model: Model 40 Critic
Circa: 1940
Designer:Fritz Loewenberg
US Patent #:2,190,159
Price (new): $18
Cell type: Selenium
Measure type: reflecting/averaging

click for larger adTo the best of my knowledge, DeJur didn't actually make anything, they were an importer / distributor of items branded under their own name. They were most well known in the 40s and 50s for amateur movie equipment, but they dabbled in other things like enlargers, meters, and the occasional still camera. In the 60s the company went into office photocopiers, and sold out in 1974 when the owners, Harry and Ralph DeJur, retired.

This appears to be a domestically made Hickok. It's very close to my Photrix SS and to a lesser extent my Duplex. They're about the same size and weight. The meter is inside the dial, and on both this and the Photrix, you have to turn the glass itself so that the pointer lines up with the exposure index, and then turn the dial ring so that the pointer lines up with the hash mark that the meter needle is pointing to.

This is the Model 40 "Critic," which was re-worked slightly after the war as the Model 50 "Autocritic." The main difference appears to be cosmetics (this is white-on-black for the meter scale, the Autocritic is reversed) and the exposure index—this model uses Weston numbers, the Autocritic uses ASA.

This meter was kindly donated to me by Bill McGinnis. Thank you!

©opyright by James Ollinger. All Rights Reserved.

Company names and models are registered trademarks of their respective owners
and are not affiliated with this website in any way.