Alfax

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The Alfax (アルファックス) is a Japanese camera taking 4×5cm exposures on 127 film.[1] It was advertised in 1942 and it is said that it was made by Kimura Kōgaku.[2]

Description

The Alfax has a die-cast body and a metal telescopic tube supporting the lens and shutter assembly. There is an eye-level finder contained in a chrome finished top housing and a waist-level finder partly contained in the body. The top housing is recessed between the two finders, forming an accessory shoe. The front of the body supports a rectangular metal plate attached by four screws and the waist-level finder window.

There is a big knob on each side of the top housing, meant to look like the advance and rewind knob of 35mm cameras. The right knob is a fake and the actual advance knob is at the left end. It has an arrow engraved on the top to indicate the winding direction and numbers from 1 to 10 engraved on the base to control film advance. This pretends to be an exposure counter but there is no auto-stop feature and the advance is manually controlled: you have to stop turning when the correct number is facing the T-shaped index engraved on the top housing.

The back is hinged to the right and probably contains a single red window to set the first exposure. The front leather is embossed with a diamond-shaped logo marked Alfa. The top housing is engraved ALFAX and the model number, for example MODEL II, above the eye-level finder. The serial number is engraved at the bottom of the metal front plate.

Evolution

An Alfax Model I is mentioned in McKeown but it is perhaps a mistake.[3]

All the examples observed so far are Alfax Model II. They have a front-cell focusing Recta Anastigmat 60mm f/3.5 lens and a New Alfa shutter giving 300–1, B, T speeds. The aperture scale is above the shutter housing and the shutter plate is marked NEW ALFA at the bottom.

The Alfax was offered in an advertisement dated March 1942[4] for ¥128, with the same lens and shutter equipment and no indication of the model number. The advertisement does not mention Kimura but it gives the name of the two distributors Nihon Shōkai and Honjō Shōkai.

Notes

  1. The exposure format is sometimes said to be 4×4.5cm, which probably better corresponds to the actual picture size, but the nominal format given in the advertisements was 4×5cm. Sugiyama, item 3001, and McKeown, p. 465, say 4×6.5cm by mistake.
  2. Dates: Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 334. Attribution to Kimura: Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 334, McKeown, p. 465 and Sugiyama, item 3001.
  3. McKeown, p. 465. The reported characteristics are identical to the example given as a "Model 2" in Sugiyama, including the mistake about 4×6.5cm format.
  4. Advertisement published in Hōdō Shashin, reproduced in the Gochamaze website and in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 58.

Bibliography

Links

In English:

In Japanese: