Bonny Four

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The Bonny Four (ボニー・フォアー) is a Japanese camera taking 4×4cm pictures on 127 film. It was made by Yamasaki Seiki and distributed by Ōmiya Shashin-yōhin in the first half of the 1940s.[1]

Sources

The Bonny Four was mentioned in the Template:Kakaku1940 short compiled in October 1940, at the set price of ¥60 with no further detail.[2] It was advertised in 1941 by Ōmiya Shashin-yōhin together with the Bonny Six, again with no detail.[3] An advertisement dated October 1942 shows the only known picture of the camera.[4] The Bonny Four was still mentioned in the "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), listing the Japanese camera production as of April 1943.[5]

No surviving example of the Bonny Four is known.

Description

The Bonny Four has an alloy body.[6] There is a telescopic tube supporting the lens and shutter assembly. The advance knob is at the right end of the top plate. The viewfinder is slightly offset to the left and is contained in a small housing extending to the left and supporting an accessory shoe.

The lens is a three-element Bonny Anastigmat 50/4.5 made by a company called Suzuki.[7] It is probably front-cell focusing.

The shutter gives T, B, 25–150 speeds and was made by Hasegawa.[8] It seems that something is written at the bottom of the shutter plate, perhaps the name BONNY.

Notes

  1. Made by Yamasaki Seiki: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 199.
  2. Template:Kakaku1940 short, type 1, section 5.
  3. Advertisement dated 1941 reproduced in the Nostalgic Camera page by Toshio Inamura.
  4. Advertisement published in Shashin Bunka, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 92.
  5. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 199.
  6. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 199.
  7. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item Jc3. The name and aperture are confirmed by the October 1942 advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 92.
  8. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), shutter item 18-V-7. The speed range confirmed by the October 1942 advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 92.

Bibliography

This camera is not listed in Sugiyama.

Links

In Japanese: