Cherry
The Cherry Hand Camera (チャンピオン手提暗函)[1] is a magazine camera, released by Konishi Honten (predecessor of Konica) in September 1903.[2]
Cherry No.1
The Cherry No.1 takes 12 meishi-size 5.7×8.3cm dry plates, and was made by Konishi Honten's factory Rokuoh-sha in Tokyo from 1903 to 1907 (Eastman House says it was made by Konishi Honten's factory Kubo). It was kept simple so that even children could be taught how to use it. Of course simplicity helped to keep its price as low as 2 Yen. It has its reflecting type viewfinder mounted (or just clipped) on top, a finder of a kind that sometimes was called "Watson finder". Other than popular American box cameras of that time it has its lens in a barrel that's mounted on the front plate. The lens barrel contains the camera's special kind of rotary shutter that needs cocking for instant mode (see well illustrated Japanese link). The shutter is placed in front of the Goerz Choroskop 1:13.5 or a similar lens. With dimensions of only 12.5×12.1×7.2cm it is a quite small magazine camera. Another version looks more like common box cameras, having two inbuilt reflecting type finders and the lens hidden behind a round aperture selector slice (like Conley's Kewpie box cameras). Both types keep its special plate holders in place being hooked on the T-profile where they stand on. The Cherries have a very simple falling plate mechanism to let used plates fall onto a stack.
Two European miniature falling plate magazine cameras of 1900, W. Butcher's Little Nipper and R. Hüttig's Gnom were the model after which the Cherry Portable was created. It was badged with the English name "Cherry" in latin letters. Thus it was perhaps the first industrially manufactured Japanese camera which should be exported to other countries or their colonies.
Cherry No.2
Cherry No.3
Notes
- ↑ The phrase tesage anbako (手提暗函) is rendered as "Hand Camera" in the Konishi catalogue dated December 1911. In modern sources, it is often translated as "Portable Camera" and the camera is sometimes called "Cherry Portable". The Japanese word anbako literally means "dark box"; it was modeled after "camera obscura" and was used for cameras until around the 1910s.
- ↑ Date: Lewis, p.17, Sakai, p.16 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10, chronology from the official company history Shashin to tomo ni hyaku-nen, reproduced in Tanaka, p.94 of the same magazine, and this page of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology.
Bibliography
- Baird, John R. The Japanese Camera. Yakima, WA: Historical Camera Publications, 1990. ISBN 1-879561-02-6. Pp.29 and 31.
- Konishi Honten. Saishin Shashin Kikai Mokuroku (最新写真器械目録, Latest catalogue of photographic apparatus). Published on December 18, 1911. Recent reprint.
- Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard). Pp.17–8.
- Sakai Shūichi (酒井修一). "'Anbako' kara 'ōtofōkasu' he: kamera no hensen to tomo ni ayunda 114-nen" (「暗函」から「オートフォーカス」へ・カメラの変遷と共に歩んだ114年, From 'camera obscura' to 'autofocus': 114 years of camera evolution). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.10, September 1987. No ISBN number. Konishiroku kamera no rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, special issue on Konishiroku). Pp.8–13.
- Sakai Shūichi (酒井修一). "Konica history 2. Meiji 36-nen – 40-nen." (Konica history 2. 明治36年–40年. From Meiji year 36 (1903) to Meiji year 40 (1907).). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.10, September 1987. No ISBN number. Konishiroku kamera no rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, special issue on Konishiroku). Pp.16–23.
- Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. Items 1021–3.
- Tanaka Yoshirō (田中芳郎). "Meiji–Taishō jidai no Konishi Honten no kamera wo shiru tame no hon" (明治・大正時代の小西本店のカメラを知るための本, Books about the Konishi Honten cameras of the Meiji and Taishō eras). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.10, September 1987. No ISBN number. Konishiroku kamera no rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, special issue on Konishiroku). Pp.92–4.
Links
In English:
- Cherry Portable at George Eastman House Technology archive [1]
In Japanese:
- Cherry (meishi replica) and Cherry (tefuda) in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology
- Cherry Portable, well illustrated and compared to the contemporary "Little Nipper" of Star Camera Works, with exciting further links at Japanese website about R. Konishi Rokuoh-Sha [2]
- Cherry replica in the official Konica Minolta camera history site
Konishiroku prewar and wartime cameras ( ) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plate | hand cameras | stereo hand cameras | strut folders | box | telephoto | SLR |
Idea (original) | Idea A | Idea B | Idea Snap | Idea No.1 | Idea (metal) | Lily (original) | Lily (horizontal) | Lily (metal) | Tropical Lily | Noble | Ohca | Sakura Palace | Sakura Pocket Prano | Sakura Prano | Idea Binocular | Sakura Binocular Prano | Minimum Idea | Idea Spring | Korok | Champion | Cherry | Sakura Army | Sakura Honor | Sakura Navy | Idea Telephoto | Idea Reflex (1910 and 1911) | Idea Reflex (1932) | Neat Reflex | Sakura Reflex Prano | |
rollfilm | folders | box or collapsible | TLR | |||
Pearlette | Special Pearlette | B Pearlette | Pearl (for plates and rollfilm) | Pearl No.2 | Pearl (Year 8) | Baby Pearl | Semi Pearl | Sakura Palace | Record | Sakura (box) | Sakura (bakelite) | Sakura-flex |