Baby Doris

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Template:127 Japan The Baby Doris (ベビードリス) is a Japanese 3×4 folding camera, distributed from 1941 to 1943 by Fukada Shōkai.[1] It is clearly a successor to the original Doris (3×4) camera, itself related to the Prince cameras. However the maker is not clearly known: in the advertisement observed, the Baby Doris is not explicitly attributed to Fujimoto or to Prince Camera Works[2].

The Baby Doris is a vertical 3×4 folder, with a folding optical finder. There is a button on the top plate, falling under the right index finger and looking like a body release, but it seems to be only the bed opening button. The name DORIS is embossed in the front leather. The shutter plate is written DORIS at the bottom, at least in one variant.

The Baby Doris is featured in the new products column of the October 1941 issue of Shashin Bunka. In advertisements published in issues of Shashin Bunka dated October 1942[3] and February 1943[4], the Baby Doris is offered in three variants:

  • Baby Doris I: Doris Anastigmat 50/4.5 lens, T, B, 25, 50, 100 shutter (¥52 — case extra ¥5.51)[5];
  • Baby Doris II: Doris Anastigmat 50/4.5 lens, T, B, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 150 shutter (¥68);
  • Baby Doris IIII: U.L.L. Anastigmat 50/3.5 lens, same shutter[6] (¥80).

There is no record of a Baby Doris III.

Notes

  1. Dates: Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 338.
  2. McKeown, p. 803, attributes this camera to Prince Camera Works and calls it "Baby Doris (vertical)".
  3. Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 60.
  4. Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 80.
  5. This variant is pictured is the book Kamera zukan by Sugiyama and Naoi, according to Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 338.
  6. The shutter speeds of the model IIII are written "T, B, S, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/150" in the advertisement, but the "S" is surely a typo.

Bibliography