Condor folders
Work in progress The Condor is a series of 4.5×6 and 6×6 folders made by a Japanese company called sometimes Nissan Kōgaku Kōgyō-sha (日産光學工業社) and sometimes just Condor Camera Works in Roman writing.
The Semi Condor and Condor Six appeared together in 1939[1]. The Semi is the 4.5×6 version and the Six is the 6×6. These two models are advertised in 1939[2] as made by Nissan Kōgaku Kōgyō-sha[3]. It seems that both share the same body, copied on the bigger model of the Baldax, that also exists in both 4.5×6 and 6×6 versions. They have a folding optical finder and a body release. The Condor Six added an automatic film advance with an exposure counter, externally similar to the device mounted on the Plaubel rollfilm backs and on the Roll-Op II camera. One such camera is pictured with Condor-Six embossed in the front leather[4]. A variant of the Condor Six without the exposure counter and with film advance by red window is offered as the Condor Six ordinary model[5].
In the advertisements, the lens name is uncertain[6] and the shutter is a Rulex made by Neumann & Heilemann, available in A and B variants with speeds not precised. Each of the three models is offered with a Rulex A and either an f:3.5 or an f:4.5 lens. The Rulex B is only offered with the f:4.5 lens on the Semi Condor and the Condor Six ordinary model. The price of all these variants is comprised between ¥70 and ¥98.
The advertisement dated Sep 1939 tells that the Semi Condor can in fact take 17 exposures on each film roll and the Condor Six 13 exposures.
At a Yahoo Japan auction, a 4.5×6 folder with the name Condor embossed in the leather has been observed with a Koho 1–200, B, T shutter, a Delter (or Deller or Deltar?) Anastigmat 7.5cm f/3.5 lens and a case marked Semi Condor. It was obviously a copy of the Baldax. It had what looks like a complicated linkage to a body release.
Notes
- ↑ They are both featured in the new product column of the May 1939 issue of Asahi Camera according to Kokusan kamera no rekishi.
- ↑ Advertisement for the Semi Condor and Condor Six, published in the Aug 1939 and Sep 1939 issue of Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, item 115–6.
- ↑ The three authorized dealers cited were Sanwa Shōkai (三和商会), Mizuno Shashinki-ten (水野寫眞機店) and Yamamoto Shashinki-ten (山本寫眞機店).
- ↑ Picture of the Aug 1939 advertisement mentioned above.
- ↑ A translation of 普及型.
- ↑ It is written デルター・アナスチグマット, most probably Deltar Anastigmat.
Printed bibliography
- Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10–40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7. Items 112–6.