AVIGO 35mm

The AVIGO – looking like a Nikon                            

When I first saw this camera for sale it got my attention because of it’s styling. It looks very like a Nikon S2 even though it comes with a fixed lens, a leaf shutter and without a rangefinder. There isn’t a maker’s name on top, only Avigo and a serial number, and “S.K.K. Made in Japan” is on the baseplate. I looked in my McKeown’s and it was not in the index so, as the name Condor was on the lens, I checked that.

A small Tokyo company, Condor Camera K.K. had manufactured the Condor camera in 1957. It was an obvious S2 copy that also had a coupled rangefinder, but it came with a Rectus-MX leaf shutter and a non-interchangeable Delta 4.5cm f2.8 lens. Naturally Nikon Kōgaku was displeased with its appearance, even though their camera was also a copy in many ways – of the Zeiss Contax. Probably not too many of these Condors were sold, as only a few pictures of them can be found today. So then it was restyled a little with a flatter top-plate and it reappeared as the Condor IIIS with the maker’s name SANYO KōGAKU-KIKAI CO.

My Avigo was received with much dust in the viewfinder and to get at it I removed the front plate. Surprise – the body casting has a rangefinder window, which is covered by the nameplate.

So it seems likely to me that the unsold Condor bodies were probably used for a lower-spec camera that could then be supplied and sold with any seller’s name or brand on it. At least two are known, the AVIGO and the RAFURAY. Both are inscribed S.K.K. on the baseplate and have a Delta 4.5cm f3.5 lens in a Ceres 4-speed shutter. They were sold between 1957 and 1959.

I have seen a picture of an Avigo that has the serial number 19889 with lens number 18036. My camera is numbered 12940 with lens number 18039 and it has a different style of name on the top plate.  You have to wonder how the numbers were allotted !

Text and photographs ©2012 Geoff Harrisson