Earth
This article is a stub. You can help Camera-wiki.org by expanding it.
Earth Kōgaku K.K. (アース光学㈱) was a Japanese company based in Tokyo in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[1] Before getting into camera production, the company was making a pocket monocular.[2] In 1938, it released the Guzzi subminiature camera distributed by Sanwa Shōkai. It also made the Loren 3×4 folder from about 1940.
After 1945, the Guzzi was revived as the Top, ostensibly made by Top Camera Works; it is not known if this was the name of an actual company, maybe a successor to Earth, or a mere dummy name for Earth Kōgaku.
Notes
- ↑ Its address in 1938 was in Nihonbashi-ku (日本橋区); source: column in Asahi Camera June 1938 reproduced in Awano, p.7 of Camera Collectors' News no.277. In 1943 it was Tōkyō-to Mukōjima-ku Azuma-chō Higashi 3123 (東京都向島区吾嬬東3123); source: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras").
- ↑ Column in Asahi Camera June 1938 reproduced in Awano, p.7 of Camera Collectors' News no.277.
Bibliography
- 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.
- Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Gucchī" (グッチー, Guzzi). In Camera Collectors' News no.277 (July 2000). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha.
- "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" (国産写真機ノ現状調査, Inquiry into Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943. Reproduced in Supuringu kamera de ikou: Zen 69 kishu no shōkai to tsukaikata (スプリングカメラでいこう: 全69機種の紹介と使い方, Let's try spring cameras: Presentation and use of 69 machines). Tokyo: Shashinkogyo Syuppan-sha, 2004. ISBN 4-87956-072-3. Pp.180–7.
- 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.253.
