Baby Pearl
The Baby Pearl is a Japanese 3×4 folding camera, made from 1934 to 1950 by Rokuoh-sha, later Konishiroku (the predecessor of Konica).[1] See also Pearl (4.5×6) and Pearl (6×9 and larger).
Body
The Baby Pearl is a vertical folding camera, with curved struts and a folding optical finder. It is inspired by the Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta, but it is not a dead copy. The back is hinged to the left, and there is an advance knob under the body. The bed opening button is close to the advance knob on most examples except the last ones with body release. Film advance is controlled via two red windows in the back. There is a metal part between the two red windows that could be a sliding cover or some element of the pressure plate. It is said that the camera was revised in 1935, but the nature of the modifications is unknown.[2] The above description applies to post-1935 cameras.
The camera is embossed BABY PEARL in the leather covering, and it has been observed with black or metal trimming. It is said that the chrome trim was available from 1938.[3] The outer part of the viewfinder is usually chrome, even in examples with a black body. However some early examples have been observed with a completely black finder.[4]
Baby Pearl, Optor f/4.5 lens, Rokuoh-sha markings.
Pictures courtesy of Jay Tepper. (Image rights)
Shutter
The shutter is a Rox, made by Rokuoh-sha, later Konishiroku, and giving B, 25, 50, 100 speeds. The speed is selected by a small lever on top of the shutter housing. The Rox shutter is usually everset, but the last postwar examples have a cocking shutter and a body release and bed opening button symmetrically placed around the viewfinder.[5]
The shutter plate is marked ROX at the top and Rokuoh-sha or Konishiroku at the bottom. The company changed its name in 1943, and it is said that all the postwar examples are marked Konishiroku while all the prewar ones are marked Rokuoh-sha.[6] The lens and shutter markings usually match, but at least one example has been observed[7] with a Konishiroku lens and a Rokuoh-sha shutter, maybe not original.
Most shutter plates have two decorative lines, one on each side. However examples have been observed with a plain black shutter plate, only marked ROX and Rokuoh-sha, one with an Optor f:6.3 lens and aperture scale on a chrome rim[8], another with an Optor f:4.5 lens and aperture scale directly engraved at the bottom of the shutter plate.
Lens
It seems that the camera was originally introduced with f/6.3 and f/4.5 lens options, and that an f/3.8 option was introduced in 1937.[9] An advertisement dated January 1939[10] lists the following lenses:
Advertisements dated May and September 1939[12] only list the Optor lenses.
It is said that the Optor is a triplet and was made by Asahi Kōgaku while the Hexar is a four element Tessar-type lens.[13] The lens bezels are chrome or black and it seems that the black ones are only found on prewar examples.
The most common aperture is f/4.5. Here are the lens markings observed so far:
- Rokuoh-sha N°XXXXX Optor 1:6.3 f=50mm;
- Rokuoh-sha N°XXXXX Optor 1:4.5 f=50mm;
- Rokuoh-sha N°XXXXX Hexar Ser.1 1:4.5 f=50mm;
- Konishiroku N°XXXXX Hexar 1:4.5 f=50mm.
Notes
- ↑ Dates: Miyazaki, pp. 10–3. The Baby Pearl has the odd distinction of being the only camera to be named in John W. Dower's Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (New York: Norton, 1999). Dower suggests that it was a postwar innovation and says that it was aimed at GI buyers. Most postwar examples would indeed have gone to GIs (as was true for most models of camera in the late forties, when most of the Japanese population was desperately poor); however, the design was prewar and the "Pearl" name goes all the way back to 1909.
- ↑ Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 338.
- ↑ Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 338.
- ↑ See the example pictured in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 10.
- ↑ Miyazaki, p. 12–3, pictures an example of the Baby Pearl equipped with a body release. Another example has been observed in an online auction.
- ↑ Miyazaki, p. 12–3.
- ↑ In an online auction.
- ↑ Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten, p. 18.
- ↑ Date: Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 338.
- ↑ Advertisement published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 82.
- ↑ This price is barely legible.
- ↑ Advertisements published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 82.
- ↑ Attribution of the Optor according to this page of the R. Konishi website.
Bibliography
In English:
- 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. 19.
- 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).
- 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). Pp. 537–8.
In Japanese:
- 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 168 and 680. (See also the advertisements for item 170 and the pictures pp. 10 and 428.)
- Miyazaki Shigemoto (宮崎繁幹). Konika kamera no 50-nen: Konika I-gata kara Hekisā RF e (コニカカメラの50年：コニカI型からヘキサーRFへ, Fifty years of Konica cameras: From the Konica I to the Hexar RF). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 2003. ISBN 4-257-12038-X.
- Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten (思い出のスプリングカメラ展, Exhibition of beloved self-erecting cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P. 18.
- Yoshikawa Hayao (吉川速男). Watakushi no Bebī Pāru (私のベビーパール, My Baby Pearl). Tokyo: Genkōsha, 1938.
- Yoshikawa Hayao (吉川速男). Bebī Pāru no dainiho (ベビーパールの第二歩, Second step with a Baby Pearl). Tokyo: Genkōsha, 1939.
Links
In Japanese:
- A-Z 127 film cameras at Asacame, with the Baby Pearl on this page
- The Baby Pearl in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology
- Pages of the R. Konishi Rokuoh-sha website:
- Baby Pearl at Awane-Photo's camera museum
- Baby Pearl at Hiroyuki Hatano's Taki-meguri page
- Baby Pearl, small picture at Ken's website
