Auto Keef
Template:127 Japan The Auto Keef (オートキーフ) was a Japanese coupled rangefinder camera taking 4x4cm pictures on 127 film. It was made around 1941 by Kokusaku. The top housing, marked Auto Keef, covered the combined range and viewfinder, with the square viewfinder window at the center and the second image round window at the right. There was an accessory shoe offset to the left and the small exposure counter window at the extreme right. The rangefinder coupling mechanism was covered by a tortuous plate, with PAT. P. markings and the Keef logo repeated twice. The shutter release was mounted at the bottom right of that plate.
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)
