Four Rare Japanese Folders - SEMI LUCKY, KARORON, TOMIC and VICEROY.

In Japan the “Semi” format is 4.5×6cm – for 16 exposures on 120 rollfilm. Almost all of their Semi cameras were copies of pre-war German folders like the Zeiss Ikonta and Nettar, Balda Baldax and Welta Perle. It must have been a very popular format as there are a vast variety of brands and names, not only for cameras but also for the shutters and lenses. For example there is a list of 135 Japanese pre-war and post-war camera names for the folding semi format, of those 73 have the word “Semi” in their name. Only a few surviving examples of some are known as many were made in very small quantities. After the war many cameras were modernised with features like a rigid optical viewfinder instead of a folding one and a coupled rangefinder. Makers then moved to the 6x6cm format and by about 1960 the Semi format was discontinued.

Here are four interesting examples:

SEMI LUCKY:

This classic example of a pre-war Semi was made by Fujimoto in 1938 and is the third variation with some small body changes from the original 1937 model. Looking much like an Ikonta 520 it has an almost identical style of struts. ‘Semi Lucky’ is embossed on the front and back covering and ‘Lucky’ is engraved on the front’s foot. There is a neat little lever and button on one side that, when pressed, the camera and viewfinder spring open. The shutter is a Neumann & Heilemann ‘Perfekt’ and the f4.5 7.5cm lens is marked ‘Neumann & Heilemann Radionar’. Now how is it that a Japanese camera has German names on it?

Billy Neumann and Willy Heilemann had previously worked for camera makers in Europe and moved to Japan in the early 1930s where they established the Neumann & Heilemann factory at Nishinomiya. They made shutters and assembled lenses using Schneider optical components. In September 1937 their company was dissolved and the assets, trademarks and factory were sold to Fujimoto who continued to use the shutter and lens names. After the war the plant was sold to Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō who later became Minolta.

McKeown [page 572] pictures a Semi Lucky with a Hildar lens in a Presto shutter and has listed the camera as being made by K.S. Fabrik, but that company is Kinshō Kōki Seisakusho, the maker of the shutter. It has been suggested that the lens and shutter on that camera are not original and came from a Semi Rosen, as no other example has been seen.

KARORON:

This 4.5×6cm format camera was made by Kuribayashi from 1949 to 1951. They named the next model the Karoron RF, which was also sold as the Petri RF. Later the company name was changed to Petri. McKeown describes this Karoron as being a “Popular model of the more expensive and feature-laden Petri Semi”. True, it doesn’t have many features, but it does have a body release and a frame counter on the top plate that you can use after winding on to 1 in the back red window. All the Karorons had f3.5 75mm Orikon lenses and are usually found with a Carperu shutter, but this one has a Minarl-S shutter. I have not been able to find any reference at all for this name. There is also a partly obscured logo on the front plate. I removed the lens to see it clearly and it has the initials SSK in an opened shutter graphic. I have been unable to find any reference for this either – has any reader heard of either name?

On the side of the viewfinder is stamped <EP> (for Export Product); it was probably sold through a military Post Exchange, or PX, in post-war Japan.

TOMIC:

Tōkō Shashin K.K. (Toko Photo Co. Ltd.) was a Japanese camera maker in Tokyo from the late 1940s. One of their early cameras was the Mighty - a ‘Hit-type’ subminiature. Another was the Teleca - a combined binocular and 16-mm subminiature camera. They also made the Windsor 35 from 1953 and around 1956 the company name was changed to Windsor Camera Co. The Tomic was announced in the July to October 1952 issues of Japanese magazines, and it was advertised from August 1952 to March 1953.The September 1952 advertisement in Asahi Camera says that the camera is a new model, and does not give a price.A November advertisement in Ars Camera was placed by the distributor Tsukada Shōji and the price given was ¥23,000.*

The styling was obviously based on the Zeiss Super Ikonta B; it is just as big and heavy and has the same style of coupled rangefinder. It is a 6x6cm folder and the two windows on the back (which are green, not the usual red) confirm that it can take both 6×6cm and 4.5×6cm exposures. The top plate has the company logo T.K.C. and two patent numbers. The smaller format is achieved by inserting a snap-in mask at the film plane and then using the top window for frame numbers. It’s a camera that has some peculiar features.

The lens is a Sygmar f3.5 8cm in a synchronised Gyrope shutter. This unique shutter, specifically

designed for the Tomic, has four blades that open from four corners. With simple lens designs there can be a fall-off with leaf shutters that open from the centre and this advertised “revolutionary design” was meant to be the solution.* The shutter has speeds from 1 to 1/400 and B. They are fired from a body release that has a screw collar that can be removed to fit a Leica-type cable release. The diaphragm is set by moving a lever behind the lens/shutter mount which is attached to a rotating disc that has reverse-engraved aperture numbers on it. They are displayed via a prism in a small window. The apertures marked are unusual as they are the old pre-war scale: f3.5, 4.5, 6.3, 9, 12, 18. Although the coupled-rangefinder arrangement looks the same as the Zeiss Ikonta, T.K.C. claimed it operated a little differently. Judging by of the shape of the window I’d say the wedge-shaped prism lens moves horizontally instead of rotating. While the two back windows are marked 4.5x6 and 6x6 the leather case my camera came with is embossed on the rear: Tomic 2¼x2¼ _ 2¼x1¾. This might indicate that some were made for export, probably to the USA. Stamped inside the camera back is the number 52036 so presumably it’s the 36^th made in 1952.

*There are only a few reference sources available on this camera (it is not listed in McKeown) and they are all published in Japanese, so these couple of details have been reprinted from the Tomic page at Camera-wiki.org that also gives several advertised references. They did not have a photograph of the camera and stated:

It is said that the specific shutter and rangefinder were unreliable, and that very few Tomic were made. At least two surviving examples are known.

I have now added photographs to the page and amended the text to read ‘three examples’.

VICEROY:

This dual-format coupled rangefinder camera was made by Aires Camera in 1957-58 and the styling was clearly inspired by the Super Ikonta III. One source says that this model was made for export to India and S-E Asia. I have found that it was advertised in the “Straits Times” by the Singapore agent for Aires on 1^st April 1958.

The solid, well-made body is identical to the main body of the Mine Six IIF and was not made by Aires but by the maker of the Mine Six - Takane. It has an Aires-made 7.5cm Coral f3.5 lens in a Seikosha-MX shutter. The lens and shutter assembly is mounted in a helical so that the entire unit moves when focusing.

The distance has to be set to infinity so the camera can be closed.

The viewfinder has a bright frame line with marks for the 4.5x6cm format. To use this format two narrow flaps are folded into the film gate.

A simple arrangement that means there is no insert to be lost – as many Zeiss ones have been. The back has two red windows marked with each format; the lower one is used for 4.5x6cm frame numbers. The film reminder dial on top has five sections: Empty, H.S.Pan, Pan, Ortho and Color, enough choice for 1957 film availability!

The Aires Camera logo is embossed in the leather on the front door. From recorded lens and body serial numbers it would seem that total production of the Viceroy was between 1000 and 1500 units.