Baby Chrome

The Baby Chrome (ベビー・クローム) is a Japanese 3×4 camera sold from 1936 by Optochrom..

Description

Baby Chrome, f/6.3 lens. The small embedded pictures show a Mentor Dreivier for comparison purposes. Pictures courtesy of eBayer foldinette. (Image rights)

The Baby Chrome has a black bakelite body, written BABY-CHROME on the front. The camera's body shape and general aspect is inspired by the Mentor Dreivier. The latter has unit-focusing driven by a large helical at the base of the lens tube. This is imitated in the Baby Chrome: the lens and shutter assembly is surrounded by a heavy metal ring, with Baby-Chrome engraved at the top and the serial number at the bottom. This fake focusing ring does not rotate and the whole assembly is mounted on a telescopic tube, which must be pulled forward before taking pictures.

Left: detachable back and top plate.
Right: finder and accessory post.
Pictures courtesy of eBayer foldinette. (Image rights)

There is a tubular optical finder in the middle of the top plate and a cylindrical post on the right of the finder, vaguely looking like a shutter release, but actually used to attach an external rangefinder. The advance knob is at the left end of the top plate. The whole top plate comes off together with the back to load the film.

The shutter is everset and tripped by a release lever directly mounted on the shutter housing. The aperture is set at the bottom of the shutter plate.

Evolution

Early model

The early model of the Baby Chrome has two red windows in the back, both uncovered. The advance knob is cylindrical, has three knurled rows on the rim and is attached by a flush screw.

Baby Chrome leaflet. Click on the image for a translation. (Image rights)

An undated leaflet, pictured in this page, shows what is probably the original version. The variants offered were the following:

• New Gold f/6.3 fixed-focus lens, B, 25, 50, 100 speeds (¥18);
• New Gold f/4.5 focusing lens, T, B, 25, 50, 100 speeds, (¥33).

Only the f/6.3 is illustrated. The lens rim is black and is engraved Baby-Chrome 1:6,3 F=50mm in white. The shutter plate is marked Optochrom at the top and something beginning in DUPL at the bottom (probably "DUPLEX"). There is a logo in a circle on the right, apprarently different from the NE logo of the later versions. This original version has not yet been observed, and it was perhaps never sold.

The production version has a different shutter plate, marked OPTOCHROM SHUTTER at the top, with a NE logo between both words, and NEW GOLD at the bottom. It has only been observed with the f/6.3 lens so far. The f/6.3 lens bezel is chrome, written NEW-GOLD 1:6.3 F=50mm in black.

This version was pictured in an advertisement dated February 1937, listing the same two variants as before:

• Optochrom shutter (B, 25, 50, 100), New Gold f/6.3 lens (¥15 — case ¥3.50 extra);
• Optochrom shutter (T, B, 25, 50, 100), New Gold f/4.5 lens (¥28).

An advertisement by the distributor Matsuzaki Shashinki-ten dated May 1937 only listed the f/6.3 variant.

Late model

The late model has a more rounded advance knob, having a single row of knurls and a concave top with a protruding axle. The shutter plate is marked TSUBASA at the top and NEW GOLD at the bottom, with the NE logo on the right.

This version appeared in advertisements dated September 1938, February and April 1939. Two variants were listed:

• Tsubasa shutter (B, 25, 50, 100), New Gold f/6.3 lens (¥18 — case ¥4.50 extra);
• Tsubasa shutter (B, 25, 50, 100), New Gold f/4.5 lens (¥33.50).

The camera was listed in the list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941, under the names "Baby Chrome I" (¥19) and "Baby Chrome II" (¥32) with no further detail. The Baby Chrome I probably corresponds to the f/6.3 version and the Baby Chrome II to the f/4.5 version. The last advertisement reported for the Baby Chrome is dated September 1941. Optochrom released the Tsubasa Arawashi 3×4 camera in 1939 but it seems that the two cameras were sold side by side.

All the examples of the late models observed so far have the f/6.3 lens. One example has been observed with a single uncovered red window, placed at the bottom right of the back. It seems that the 127 film sold in Japan received a series of numbers for 3×4cm exposures at the beginning of the 1940s.

Bibliography

Original documents

• Anonymous company. Leaflet for the Victory, Semi Dymos, Reex, Baby Ref, Union Ref and Baby Chrome. Date not indicated. Document reproduced in this Flickr album by Rebollo_fr.
• "Kokusan shashinki no kōtei kakaku" (国産写真機の公定価格, Set prices of the Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of October 25, 1940 and setting the retail prices from December 10, 1940. Published in Asahi Camera January 1941 and reproduced in 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. Pp.108—9. Type 1, sections 1 and 2.

Recent sources

• 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. Item 91. (See also the advertisements for items 144 and 147.)
• McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). P.464.
• 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. Items 4023–4 and 4100.

Links

In Japanese:

• A-Z 127 film cameras at Asacame, with the Baby Chrome on this page, mistakenly presented as an Olympic. The 1/150 top shutter speed is very likely a mistake too.
• Advertisements reproduced in the Japanese camera page, the small format camera page and the camera company page of the Gochamaze website:
  • Advertisement for the Baby Chrome, published in the 2 May 1937 issue of Sunday Mainichi
  • Advertisement for the Baby Chrome and Tsubasa range, published in the September 1938 issue of Asahi Camera

Timeline

Kigawa timeline ()

Type

1930s

1940s

1950s

6

7

8

9

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

0

1

2

3

3×4

rigid

Baby Chrome

Baby Oso

Tsubasa Oso

Tsubasa Arawashi

...

4×6.5

telescopic

Tsubasa Chrome

...

folding

Tsubasa Spring

...

4.5×6

strut folding

Semi Chrome B

horizontal folding

Tsubasa Super Semi

...

_

Tsubasa II Super Semi

Tsubasa Nettar

Tsubasa Kiko Three

vertical folding

Semi Chrome A

Semi Sixteenth (dates unclear)

Semi Kulax

Kiko Semi

...

_

Tsubasa Semi

6×6

horizontal folding

Gotex

...

...

Poppy Six (dates unknown)

...

Carl Six

TLR

Kiko Flex

Tsubasaflex

Graceflex

16mm

subminiature

...

Poppy (dates unknown)

...

Manufacturer:

...

Kigawa Seimitsu

...

Kigawa Kōgaku

Carl Kōgaku

Shin Nippon

Distributor:

Optochrom-sha

...

Nichiei Shōkai

Kikō Shōji

...

Cameras whose actual existence is dubious are in a lighter shade.

Cameras in yellow are variants sold and maybe assembled by other companies.