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**Ali Abbass** · 03-10-2023, 12:13 AM

Eighty years of Japanese cameras

In a traveling show that continues until the end of 1985, an exhibition of Japanese cameras is held from its primitive beginnings to the latest innovations and technical developments in the world of photography.

Under the title “The Emergence and Evolution of the Camera,” an exhibition of cameras was held at the International Museum of Photography, Rochester, in the George Eastman House. It included about 400 cameras made in Japan between 1903 and 1983, to show the great variation in models, with a focus on the technical expertise of the camera industry in Japan since the first camera, Cherry. portable. The first camera produced in commercial quantities (a model copied from the water camera)
Down to the subsequent transformations in this large industrial world.

In the first quarter of the current century, the Japanese camera industry was limited to a little innovation, and the tradition of European and American models was prevalent, but during the fifties and with the emergence of the advanced Japanese industry ten years after World War II, elaborate industry became the law adopted in Japan and innovative designs began to appear Increasingly, Japanese optics have evolved to rank first in front of the optics of the whole world, and the Japanese camera industry today occupies, as is known, the forefront as it is one of the brands that is difficult to compete with.

It impresses amateurs and professionals alike.
The aforementioned exhibition was organized in cooperation with the Corporation for Monitoring Cameras and Optical Equipment in Japan, and this corporation recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary and has played a key role in raising the qualitative level of the Japanese camera industry.

After its term ended, the exhibition, George Rochester, moved from Eastman House to the Maryland Academy of Sciences in Baltimore, and will continue there from October 26. October, until January 6, 1985, after that it moves to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, from March 1 to May 31, 1985, and finally to the California Museum of Photography in Riverside from September 1, until December 1, 1985.
We review here some of the models that were presented and will be presented during this photographic event.

Cherry portable - - 1903

This was the first camera to be produced in commercial quantities in Japan, manufactured by Konish Honten, which used 1/4 2 and 1/4 3 plates.
It was stored in a back compartment. And push it forward with a propeller. The plates, after exposure, fall into a reservoir at the bottom of the camera, to be withdrawn into the dark room afterwards.

Sakura Stereo Prano - 1907

It is a stereoscopic three-dimensional vision camera produced by Koish Hontin. As an almost identical copy of the popular stereo-primo camera produced by the «Rochester and Rochester Optical Company of New York». Because the good lenses and shutters were not in production in the early years of the Japanese camera industry, the shutters and lenses for Stereo Prano - 4 x 5 Planato Graves - were imported from America and were similar to those used in stereo primo.

Star Watch Cambra
Stargazing Camera - 1912

Although the popularity of police cameras disguised in various forms had lapsed by the year 1912, the Buddha Camera Store put one model in this field. This small camera was plated with pure silver to look like a pocket watch when closed, and it has a body containing a pendulum, which is several tubes that overlap one with the other, to turn it into something like a telescope when opened. It is a Star Watch camera that produces images with a diameter of three centimeters, and it was made in imitation of the Lancaster Watch camera. , British - in 1886 - and Anthony Hegelin's Watch Camera, American - - 1896

Taogo - 1930

The first camera to use a 3 x 4 cm film that can be exposed in daylight is the Taogo Sedou box camera made by Taogo-do-A-Kanda. As for the film, which is usually short sides of 30 mm film, it came with a black paper holder. It was of the slower orthocro-matic class, which was popular around the year 1930. This camera was intended to introduce children to the world of photography. It is similar to cameras with educational endorsement materials that were sold for 45 cents in America in the late 1930s.

Pearl - Pearl - 1933

In the 1920s and 1930s the focus of what Japanese cameras sought to imitate had shifted to aquacamera productions. The Merle Model 1933, made by Konishiroku Honten, produced images measuring 6 x 9 cm on a 120-inch roll of film.
E, 10 STM Optor I am STEMAT - F 6.3 . Of Japanese manufacture, it was installed in the Abas shutter. It is also of Japanese manufacture, and its use has shown a remarkable improvement in the quality of Japanese optics and mechanics.

Minolta Feast - 1934

By taking out a Minolta Vest camera. To the market, Molina & Co. gave a prime example of the advantages of innovative Japanese design than you find in many Japanese cameras. Although this example was not always successful, the Bakelite-made camera has a telescopic clip interface and utilities, which ensured stability, played a role of weight, and helped counteract the lack of stability. The skin at that time was severe. This camera used Film 127, and it had a Coronar lens and a Mariel shutter, both of which were made in Japan.

Hansa Cannon - 1935

This was the first Japanese 35 mm camera to be manufactured with precision and accuracy, sculpted by Saigi Koako Kinkyushu. Although some Leica enthusiasts say that
This camera is not a Leica copy. . It remains quite so in the eyes of many. It is a field-finding camera with a flat-focal shutter. One of its advantages differs from - Leica. It was a small viewfinder that rose prominently at eye level and mounted on top of the camera. Despite the planning of interchangeable lenses with each other in this camera, this The lenses were never produced.

Maysobi - 1937

It was produced by Togodo Photo Industries. This innovative camera led to the emergence of a short and distinguished series of cameras. Although it is a dual-lens reflex camera, the viewing and capturing lenses were two compounds side by side, and one of its unusual additional advantages was its use of a film slide, despite the popularity of the film roll at that time, and then its design led to the emergence of this mikai. 1940 that was credited with making 3 x 4 cm exposures the language of 35 mm film: and then to the advent of the Nuica 35 - after the war that camera that used standard 35 mm film.
Note that these two cameras did not achieve remarkable success

Sticky - 1947

While few micro-cameras had been produced prior to World War II, these Japanese micro-cameras began to flourish with the advent of stickie, manufactured by Rikan Optical. This was the first camera to make 14 x 10 mm exposures on 16 mm motion picture film fed into a cabin. As for the standard lens, it was Stekinar » 25 mm f / 305, but this can be replaced by a telephoto lens 40 mm f / 4.5

**Ali Abbass** · 03-10-2023, 12:15 AM

Yalu - 1949

The 35mm twin-lens reflex cameras are relatively uncommon. From here, the Yalo camera, which bears these specifications and was produced by the Yalo Optical Company, is noteworthy. The general system of its body follows the same lines as the Zeiss Icon Konna Flex camera, which appeared before World War II. Like German cameras, the Yalo camera film moved horizontally, but it differed from Conta Flex by using the multi-plate leaf shutter instead of the focal plane shutter. One of its distinguishing features is that this camera did not have protruding parts. Instead of a film roll handle, it had a film advance shutter lever installed at the base of the camera.

Nikon cameras - 1950's

The first camera, Nikon. Model A. Manufactured by Nippon Kogaku - it was similar to Contax and was never available for export because of its 24 x 32 mm film structure. As for the M model of 1949, it changed to a more acceptable 24 x 34 mm structure. In 1950, the Nikon Model (5), which is (M) appeared. Basically by adding a synchronization with flash on this date the Korean War broke out and then discovering the advantages of Nikon. It was used by US Army photographers, who quickly adopted it to cover this war. Despite the popularity of Nikon lenses on Leica cameras, it did not take long for photographers to switch to Nikon cameras, as the company's fame soon spread all over the world.

Eco 8 - 1951

In the motion picture - Roman Vacation which appeared in 1954,

Actor Eddie Albert used a tiny camera hidden in a cigarette lighter to secretly take pictures of actress Audrey
Hepburn. This camera was an Echo 8, which was manufactured by Suzuki Optical. The Echo 8 was made with 16 mm film mounted in a cartridge, cut to 8 mm and cut to be sold with it. This camera was 1951 - 8 mm with its aforementioned film making twenty exposures of 6 x 6.
It should be noted here that Ronson's approved lighter, half of it functioned as a lighter, and the other half contained a camera. In 1955, a simpler and less expensive model for the Eco 8 appeared, the Camera-Lite.

Aza Hefflix 1951

The first Aza Hiflex camera appeared... Model 1
In 1951, it was produced by Azahee Optical, and it was the first Japanese 35 mm single-lens reflex camera. Its design did not include little innovation except for the presence of a viewfinder at eye level above the camera. It was still waiting for the Heflix to be exceptional. This camera was the first SLR camera (11B) sold on a large scale and used an instant return mirror. It was also sold to America under the name "Tower 23". Production was transferred in 1957 to Azhi Pentax, which used a pentagonal prism.

League 2 0 1954 - 16

This camera, manufactured by Dorio Camera Company, is undoubtedly the most confusing of cameras, as the photographer calls his intended subject for this camera the shape of an automatic Browning pistol. A 16 mm camera replaces its barrel to look like a silencer, adding to the illusion that it is a really dangerous weapon. Dorio used a chambered cartridge to produce flash images and the cartridges were said to make a sound like a gunshot.

Isca Felix - 1954

The ISCA Opticals ISCA was the first 21x21 inter-lens flexo reflex camera that used a multi-plate shutter instead of a flat-focal or mirrored shutter, and one might wonder if the camera body was an imitation of the German camera - the Corel Reflex. Which appeared before World War II or an improved version of the Japanese camera Baby Super Flex » - which used Film 127 and was itself a copy of the German camera - 1938 Karma Flex. This camera used the 120 film language, and it had a shutter speed (NKS) with a speed of 1 to 1/200 of a second that works with a Tri-Lozar 0 800 mm f/3.5 lens.

Stereo Rocka - 1955

With the advent of the year 1955. The fad of the 35mm stereo was at its height, as all but two of the 19 stereo cameras listed in the 1955 Photographic Directory were on 35mm film. Thus the Roca Stereo, made by the Roqua Corporation, was one of two exceptional cameras that did not Working with this prevailing film standard, I used the language of Film 120.
But it is very strange that it produced 24 sets of stereo pairs in the language of the standard 120. The size of these reached 23 x 24 mm, which is a size that appeals to 35 mm stereo viewers.
The body of this camera was made of molded Bakelite and was one of the few stereo cameras produced in Japan.

January 1978- A.1

This Canon (1-A) camera, manufactured by Canon and considered by many to be the first SLR camera with multiple working modes these days, is the camera that brought programmed automation back into existence as one of its different exposure modes, and in words published in Ubular Photography for the year 1981 under the title Reports
Choose the SLR. It was reported to be one of the best cameras in the field of mechanical accuracy, characterized by electronically automating the exposure, and no major producer of SLR cameras today does not set up and introduce at least one model that has similar capabilities in general, energies that have a far-reaching impact on serious photography.

Olympus XA - 1979

Despite the prior appearance of some compact, full-frame 35-flag cameras, the Olympus (XA) - which I made, Optical Olympus - was the first Japanese-made compact 35mm camera to feature a col-pled rangefinder and it wasn't until long ago. She was a competing activist with the Minox 35, which preceded her to catapult fame.

This, and it was from the sliding doors of the clamshell in this camera that it provided adequate protection for the lens and the viewfinder as it was from (Clamshell), its easy-to-grip scale and its light attachment on the finger - and the range of shutter speeds and the best aperture library in it, if all of them quickly made this camera very popular -

عالم التصوير .. ثمانون سنة من الكاميرات اليابانية ،مجلة فن التصوير اللبنانية _ع٢١