Auto Keef

Template:127 Japan The Auto Keef was a Japanese coupled rangefinder camera taking 4x4cm pictures on 127 film. It was made around 1941 by Kokusaku. The range and viewfinder were combined in the top plate, with a square window at the center and a small round window at the right. The top plate was marked Auto Keef. There was an accessory shoe, offset to the left. The rangefinder coupling mechanism was hidden by a cover with a tortuous shape, with a Keef logo on two places. The cover was also marked PAT. P. The shutter release was mounted on that cover, at the bottom right.

A 1942 ad (shown here, from Asahi Graph, 23/9/1942 issue) listed two models:

• Auto Keef I, K.O.L. Keef 60/3.5 lens, 1-200 shutter (223 yen)
• Auto Keef II, K.O.L. Keef 60/2.8 lens, 1-500 shutter (264 yen)

On the ad's picture, the shutter plate is marked KOKU SAKU on top and KEEF at the bottom.

Observed lens/shutter combinations:

• K.O.L. Keef 6cm f/3.5 lens (same handwritten style K.O.L. marking as a lens observed on a Semi Gaica) & T-B-1-300 shutter (300 at left) marked Kokusaku (for sale at a Japanese dealer)
• body s/n 2961, lens reported as a Tokyo Kogaku Toko 50/3.5 s/n 52679 (focal length seems dubious) & T-B-1-250 shutter (250 at right) reported as a Keef II (Leski auction #191)
• body s/n 2234, lens reported as Tokyo Kogaku Toko 60/3.5 s/n 51828 & shutter reported as Keef Koku-Saku (Leski auction #223, #249 & #270)

Links

• The Auto Keef in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology
• Leski auction catalogue #191
• Japanese prewar 127 cameras at Nekosan's site
• Old Japanese ads, including the Auto Keef