Daido Six

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Daidō Seikō (大同精工), the predecessor of Takane, brought out the Daido Six in December 1953. It is a rangefinderless folder whose body was based on that for the Mihama Six. It has two finders, for 6×6 and 4.5×6; and two windows, each with a sliding mask, for film numbers.

Like all its successors from Takane, the Daido comes with a 75mm f3.5 lens. This one is named C. Daido Anastigmat and has front-cell focusing; it was from a dealer in Ikebukuro (Tokyo).[1] The NKS shutter provides for speeds of 1–200 and B and is synchronized for flash.

As the photographer views the camera from above, the film wind knob is on the left and what appears to be a knob with a milled edge is on the right; the latter is a dummy that unscrews. An accessory shoe is left of centre; just in front of this is a button to release the door. Right of centre is the shutter release button, which has no provision for a cable release: the cable release screws directly into the shutter.

Two variants have been observed:

  • Top plate engraved Daido MODEL-I; the uppermost area of the top plate is rectangular, and a lower area is simple, without a concave form around either the film winding knob or the dummy knob on the left. Viewed from the front, the uppermost part of the top plate slopes down toward the left, rather than dropping directly down.[2]
  • Top plate engraved Daido Six MODEL-II; the uppermost area of the top plate extends a little way in front of the accessory shoe and thus is no longer a simple rectangle; there is a concave area part of the way around each of the film winding knob and the the dummy knob on the left. Viewed from the front, the uppermost part of the top plate drops straight down next to the shutter release button.[3]

At the rear of the Model-II, just below the accessory shoe, is a thumbwheel marked 4.5×6 and 6×6. Turning this slides a red mask that obscures either one of the two finder windows. No such thumbwheel is visible in the photograph on the Japan Family Camera website of the rear of a Model-I; the small photograph hints that a slider may be to the right of the finder eyepieces.[4]

The front of the door of the Model-II has a decorative silver plate marked Daido. The hinges of the struts are inscribed DAIDO. No company name appears anywhere on the exterior of the camera, but oddly the film pressure plate is marked DAIDOSEIKO. The film mask consists of a pair of hinged metal flaps. The lens is calibrated in feet.

The Daido Six (Model-I) is advertised in the December 1953 issue of Asahi Camera[5] for ¥9,000. It was distributed by Satsuki Shashin Shōkai together with the Amiflex.

Daidō advertised the Daido Semi[6] at the same time as the Daido Six. This is a simplified and cheaper version, for 4.5×6 only. No picture has yet been found of it, and it is not clear if it was actually marketed.

The successor of the Daido Six would be the Sisley.

Notes

  1. Lens from Ikebukuro: Hagiya, p. 131.
  2. Pictured in McKeown, p. 239, and in this page at Japan Family Camera.
  3. Illustrated in Hagiya, pp. 130 31.
  4. Daido Six.
  5. Advertisement for the Amiflex and Daido Six, published in the December 1953 issue of Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, item 581.
  6. According to Kokusan kamera no rekishi, it appears in a special issue of Photo Art dated November 1953. The same source does not mention any advertisement, and for some reason it attributes the Daido Semi to Kantō Kōgaku, the maker of the Amiflex.

Sources / further reading

In English:

  • 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. 239.
  • 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). P. 83 (brief mention only).

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 581–2.
  • Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Mine Shikkusu: Gunma-ken Takasaki-shi no kameramēkā" (ミネシックス:群馬県高崎市のカメラメーカー, Mine Six: A camera-maker in Takasaki, Gunma). Chapter 7 of Zunō kamera tanjō: Sengo kokusan kamera jū monogatari (ズノーカメラ誕生:戦後国産カメラ10物語, The birth of the Zunow camera: Ten stories of postwar Japanese camera makers). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1999. ISBN 4-257-12023-1. This history of Takane is based on Hagiya's interviews with four people who had been key figures in the company.

External links

In Japanese: