Auto Keef

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The Auto Keef (オートキーフ) is a Japanese coupled-rangefinder camera taking 4×4cm pictures on 127 film. It was made from late 1940 or early 1941 by Kokusaku Seikō and was advertised until 1945 and again in 1946–7.

See also the Semi Keef.

General description

The Auto Keef has a rigid body and a telescopic tube supporting the lens and shutter assembly. This telescopic tube is mounted on a focusing helical, coupled to the rangefinder by a pinion. The range- and viewfinder is combined in a single eyepiece and is contained under a top housing. The square viewfinder window is in the middle. The camera has auto-stop film advance, a necessary feature because the paper backing of 127 film is not marked for 4×4cm exposures.

First model

The camera was already mentioned in the list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941, under the names "Keef I" (¥77) and "Keef II" (¥125), with no further details.[1]

The first model is only known from an advertisement dated September 1941 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, perhaps depicting a prototype.[2] The advance knob is on the right and the round rangefinder window is on the left (as seen by the photographer holding the camera). It seems that the name KEEF is engraved above the rangefinder. There is no accessory shoe and the position of the exposure counter is unclear. The rangefinder coupling pinion is on the right (same convention) and it is apparent and not hidden under a housing.

The release button is placed atop a large housing protruding on the right (same convention) of the shutter casing. The lens offered in the advertisement is a K.O.L. Keef 60/2.8 and the shutter gives 1–500 pictures. The advertisement wears the name of the maker and the name of the distributor Kazenderu Shōkai.

Second model

Distinguishing features

The second model has a reversed configuration: the advance knob is on the left and the rangefinder window is on the right. There is an accessory shoe on the left of the viewfinder and the exposure counter window is at the right end of the top housing. There is a sliding button behind on the right, probably used to reset the exposure counter, and another button behind the accessory shoe, probably used to unlock film advance. The name Auto KEEF is engraved above the range- and viewfinder. The rangefinder coupling mechanism is protected under a tortuous plate but there are variations in the cover of the coupling pinion (see below).

It seems that the back is removable together with the bottom plate for film loading. It contains a single uncovered red window to set the position for the first exposure. (These features of the back are probably shared by the first model as well.)

The shutter release is mounted on a small casing attached to the shutter assembly. This casing also sports the same KEEF logo. This casing moves together with the shutter when the telescopic tube is extended and this is not a real body release, even if it was advertised as thus.

Wartime advertising

An advertisement dated February 1942[3] perhaps pictures a prototype or an early production example: it seems that the cover of the coupling pinion supports a rotating distance scale, with an index next to it, and the shutter plate is plain silver. No actual example has been observed in that configuration. Two versions were offered: the Auto Keef I with a K.O.L. Keef 60/3.5 lens and 1–200 shutter speeds for ¥222, and the Auto Keef II.

Advertisements dated September 1942, January and March 1943[4] offered the camera in two versions:

  • Auto Keef I, K.O.L. Keef 60/3.5 lens, 1–200 speeds, ¥223;
  • Auto Keef II, K.O.L. Keef 60/2.8 lens, 1–500 speeds, ¥264.

The price was quite hefty, the Auto Keef II costing nearly as much as the Auto Semi Minolta. In the pictures, the coupling pinion cover has the KEEF logo engraved and a PAT. P. marking (for "Patents Pending") under the rangefinder window, a configuration similar to all the examples actually observed. The shutter plate is marked KOKU SAKU at the top and probably KEEF at the bottom, but it is unsure which variant is illustrated. In all these advertisements, the names of two distributors are mentioned: Kazenderu Shōkai and Hattori Tokei-ten.

The Auto Keef was mentioned in the "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943.[5] It was listed as made by Tōa Kokusaku Seikō and distributed by Kazenderu, and the shutter was said to give T, B, 1–300 speeds.

An advertisement by Sanwa Shōkai dated November-December 1944 offered the model I only, priced at ¥307.[6] The camera was advertised at least until February 1945, a very late date. (The maker was probably a state-owned factory and it was maybe not submitted to the same restrictions as other companies.)

Postwar period

The Auto Keef was advertised again in 1946 and 1947, with the K.O.L. Keef 60/3.5 lens and a Kokusaku shutter giving T, B, 1–300 speeds.[7] An advertisement dated February 1946 only shows the company name Sanwa Shōkai.[8] This company was probably selling remaining stocks, and it is very unlikely that the Auto Keef was manufactured at that date.

Actual examples

All the actual examples observed correspond to the late version of the second model. Some examples have the K.O.L. Keef 6cm f/3.5 and a shutter giving 300–1, B, T speeds.[9] This corresponds to the features reported by Kokusan kamera no rekishi for the camera advertised after the war and is probably a late evolution of the Auto Keef I.

Other reported lens and shutter combinations are as follows:

  • reported lens: Toko 50/3.5 by Tōkyō Kōgaku, reported shutter: Keef II, observed speeds: T, B, 1–250[10]
  • reported lens: Toko 50/3.5 by Tōkyō Kōgaku, reported shutter: Keef Koku-Saku[11]

Notes

  1. Template:Kakaku1940 short, type 1, sections 7 and 10.
  2. Advertisement published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 65.
  3. Advertisement published in Asahi Camera, visible in this page of Xylocopal's photolog.
  4. September 1942 and January 1943: advertisements published in Asahi Graph, reproduced in the Gochamaze website. March 1943: advertisement published in Hōdō Shashin, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 65.
  5. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 148.
  6. Advertisement published in Shashin Kagaku, reproduced in Awano, p. 10 of Camera Collectors' News no. 274.
  7. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 350.
  8. Advertisement published in Ars Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 132 and in Awano, p. 4 of Camera Collectors' News no. 275.
  9. An example is pictured both in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 14 and in Lewis, p. 58, and another is pictured in Sugiyama, item 3025. A similar one has also been observed for sale at a Japanese dealer.
  10. Charles Leski Auction no. 191, lot 140. Reported body no. 2961, reported lens no. 52679. The focal length seems dubious.
  11. Charles Leski Auction no. 249, lot 21 and Auction no. 270, lot 9. Reported body no. 2234, reported lens no. 51828.

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 56 and 470. (See also the picture on p. 14.)
  • Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Maikuro kamera (senzenhen)" [マイクロカメラ(戦前編), Mycro cameras (prewar compilation)]. In Camera Collectors' News no. 274 (April 2000). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp. 1–10.
  • Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Maikuro sengohen 1" [マイクロ戦後編1, Mycro postwar compilation, 1]. In Camera Collectors' News no. 275 (May 2000). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp. 1–7.
  • The Japanese Historical Camera. 日本の歴史的カメラ (Nihon no rekishiteki kamera). 2nd ed. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2004. P. 40.
  • "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" (国産写真機ノ現状調査, Inquiry into Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943. Reproduced in Supuringu kamera de ikou: Zen 69 kishu no shōkai to tsukaikata (スプリングカメラでいこう: 全69機種の紹介と使い方, Let's try spring cameras: Presentation and use of 69 machines). Tokyo: Shashinkogyo Syuppan-sha, 2004. ISBN 4-87956-072-3. Pp.180–7. Item 148.
  • Template:Kakaku1940 Type 1, sections 7 and 10.
  • Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard). Pp. 57–8.
  • Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. Item 3025.

Links

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In Japanese: