Baby Minolta
Template:127 Japan The Baby Minolta was a 4x6.5 camera, made by Molta (later Minolta) around 1935. It was a simpler camera than the Minolta Vest released one year earlier. It had a bakelite body and a folding frame finder delimitating both the 4x6.5 and 3x4 formats.
The lens was a fixfocus Coronar Anastigmat 80/8. There was no aperture setting. The shutter was of the everset type, with 25-50-100-B speeds set on a dial. The shutter plate was marked BABY MINOLTA at the bottom and PATENTS PENDING at the top.
There were at least two minor variants. One model, seen at various places and pictured for example in McKeown, has a big black advance knob and shutter plate with a simple design and no logo. The 3x4 format is delimited by two bars in the finder frame. On the other model, only known by a picture in the book by Francesch, the shutter plate has decorative patterns and a logo on the right (three letters M T S in a circle). There is a comparatively smaller chrome advance knob, and the 3x4 format is only delimited by small indexes in the finder frame.
Bibliography
- Histoire de l'appareil photographique Minolta de 1929 à 1985, D. & J.P. Francesch, ed. Dessain et Tolra
