Waltax
The Waltax was a series of 4.5×6 folders, whose body was copied from the Ikonta A. Some of them were made by Okada, and some sources say that other Waltax cameras were made by Daiichi.
The first Waltax models had a folding optical finder.
A wartime ad for the Waltax (visible here) showed a 4.5×6 folder copied on the Ikonta A, with a folding optical finder, offered for ¥185, case in supplement for ¥7.70. The only company names that appear in the ad were Nihon Shōkai and Honjō Shōkai, and Honjō Shōkai is explicitly mentioned as a wholesaler (本庄商会卸部). Maybe the maker of the wartime Waltax was Nihon Shōkai, not Okada who was making the very similar Semi Okako at about the same time.
Another wartime ad, from the 3/3/1943 issue of Asahi Graph (visible here), showed a model with folding optical finder, offered with a Kolex Anastigmat 7cm/3.5 lens, said to be of Tessar type, and a Dabit Super 1-500-B-T shutter with body release. The price was ¥185, and the case cost an additional ¥7.70. The company names were the same as in the previous ad.
The ad's background was a map of Southeast Asia and it was announced that the Waltax was rapidly expanding in the Southern Coprosperity Sphere, a Japanese expression designating the Asian territories that they were occupying (南方共榮圏ニ躍進スルワルタックス).
Here is a list of variants as it appears in McKeown:
- Waltax (I) under Okada
- Waltax I under Daiichi, as all the following models
- Waltax Acme, with a rangefinder
- Waltax Junior, with top housing
- Waltax Senior, with top housing
Links
In French:
In Japanese:
- Waltax at Puppy's Island
- Old Japanese ads, including the Waltax
- Prewar and wartime Japanese ads, including the Waltax
In Chinese:
- Okako Waltax, one big picture