Difference between revisions of "Heliostar"
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* [http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/987/2006-05-09-1 Unknown plate folder] with a Heliostar 105mm f/4.5 lens and a [[Koilos]] shutter at the [http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/987/ Monomono blog] | * [http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/987/2006-05-09-1 Unknown plate folder] with a Heliostar 105mm f/4.5 lens and a [[Koilos]] shutter at the [http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/987/ Monomono blog] | ||
* [http://takemovies.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2007/04/post_ce89.html Plate folder] (certainly a [[Nifca and Molta plate folders|Happy]]) with a Heliostar 105mm f/4.5 lens and a [[Lidex]] shutter at [http://takemovies.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ takemovies] | * [http://takemovies.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2007/04/post_ce89.html Plate folder] (certainly a [[Nifca and Molta plate folders|Happy]]) with a Heliostar 105mm f/4.5 lens and a [[Lidex]] shutter at [http://takemovies.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ takemovies] | ||
− | * [http:// | + | * [http://endoscopy.jp/moto/camera/favorite/heliostar/ Heliostar 105mm f/6.3 enlarging lens] at [http://endoscopy.jp/moto/camera/ Takasaki Motohiro's camera site] |
[[Category: German lenses]] | [[Category: German lenses]] | ||
[[Category: Japanese lenses]] | [[Category: Japanese lenses]] |
Revision as of 14:20, 17 January 2009
The Heliostar lenses are found on various Japanese cameras of the late 1920s and early 1930s. They do not appear on Western cameras, and it seems that the trademark was used in Japan only.
Left: Heliostar Anastigmat München 105mm f/4.5 lens no.79355 on a Lomax. Right: Heliostar Anastigmat München 105mm f/6.3 lens no.96185 on a Tokiwa No.3. Pictures courtesy of eBayer hbpartner. (Image rights) |
The full engraving is M. Steinheil München Heliostar on the early lenses, replaced by Heliostar Anastigmat München with no indication of the company on later lenses.[1] (In the marking, the word "Heliostar" is easily mistaken for Hellostar.)
Contents
Origin
At first glance, the early engraving seems to indicate that the Heliostar lenses originated from the German company Steinheil. However some details are strange, notably the "M. Steinheil" writing, which is found nowhere else and does not correspond to the initials of any known member of the Steinheil family.[2] The engraving style does not correspond to that of contemporary Steinheil lenses either, and the serial numbers do not seem to belong to the same sequence.
The above points give almost compelling evidence that the engraving of the lens bezel did not take place at Steinheil but in Japan. This might suggest that the lenses were locally assembled from imported elements. (At a later date in the mid-1930s, the Japanese company Neumann & Heilemann assembled Radionar lenses from loose elements supplied by Schneider.)
The removal at some point of the prestigious Steinheil name is quite surprising. It might suggest that the initial use of the name was unauthorized: the non standard "M. Steinheil" was perhaps a mere trademark usurpation, and even the continuous use of the place name "München" was perhaps deceiving. Another plausible reason for dropping the name would be a switch in the supplier of the lens elements or lens units.
The only absolute certainty is that the individual lens elements were manufactured in the West. It is widely reported that the manufacturing of complex camera lenses did not occur in Japan until Konishiroku released the Hexar in 1931 (see the corresponding page). If another Japanese company had developed a purely national Anastigmat lens in that early period, it would not have faked a German origin with a "München" marking.
The Heliostar lenses were frequently mounted on cameras made by Molta (predecessor of Minolta). The original Minolta strut-folder by the same company have an Actiplan Anastigmat München 105mm f/4.5 lens, whose origin might be the same as that of the Heliostar. This lens was in turn replaced by an Actiplan Anastigmat Nippon with similar features.
List of cameras equipped
This list is incomplete, and not all the versions have a Heliostar lens:
- Arcadia: 105mm f/4.5 (observed)
- Eaton: 105mm f/4.5 (observed)
- Happy: 105mm f/4.5 (observed)
- Lomax: 105mm f/4.5 (observed)
- National (4×6.5): f/6.3 (advertised)
- Nifcarette: 75mm f/6.3 (observed)
- Sirius: 105mm f/6.3 and 105mm f/4.5 (observed)
- Super and Special Super: f/4.5 (advertised)
- Tokiwa: 105mm f/6.3 and 105mm f/4.5 (observed)
- Weha: 105mm f/6.3, 105mm f/4.5 and 130mm f/4.5 (observed)
- Weha Idea: f/6.3 and f/4.5 (advertised)
Enlarging lenses
Left: Heliostar Anastigmat München 105mm f/6.3 enlarging lens no.94093. Picture courtesy of Jay Tepper. (Image rights) Right: Asanuma Shōkai catalogue dated October 1941, listing the Heliostar 105mm f/6.3 enlarging lens. (Image rights) |
The Heliostar 105mm f/6.3 lens was also supplied for enlargers.[3] It was listed in an Asanuma Shōkai catalogue as late as October 1941, for ¥33.43.[4]
Table of known lenses
Lens numbers are known in a wide range: lowest is 73230 and highest is 96185. Here is a list of the Heliostar lenses observed so far:
lens number | lens type | shutter | camera[5] |
73230 | 105mm f/6.3 (Steinheil marking) |
Koilos | Sirius |
73x25 | 105mm f/6.3 (Steinheil marking) |
Koilos | Sirius |
7427x | 105mm f/4.5 | Koilos | Sirius |
75004 | 75mm f/6.3 | Koilos | Nifcarette |
75739 | 105mm f/4.5 | Neuheil | Arcadia |
75791 | 130mm f/4.5 | Ibsor | Weha |
78237 | 130mm f/4.5 | Neuheil | Weha |
7912x | 105mm f/4.5 | Neuheil | Weha |
79355 | 105mm f/4.5 | Koilos | Lomax |
81392 | 105mm f/4.5 | Lidex | unknown[6] |
81897 | 105mm f/4.5 | Lidex | Happy |
84086 | 105mm f/6.3 | Neuheil | Weha |
84311 | 105mm f/6.3 | Koilos | Tokiwa |
861x1 | 105mm f/4.5 | Koilos | unknown[7] |
8758x | 105mm f/4.5 | Lidex | Weha |
94093 | 105mm f/6.3 | _ | enlarger[8] |
96185 | 105mm f/6.3 | Lidex C | Tokiwa |
Notes
- ↑ The early marking is visible in this page at Asacame.
- ↑ The history of Steinheil in Wilkinson and Glanfield's Lens collector's vade mecum mentions Karl August, Hugo Adolf, Eduard and Rudolf as the main members of the Steinheil family who founded and ruled the company.
- ↑ Examples pictured in this article, in this page at Takasaki Motohiro's website, and observed in an online auction on a CH enlarger.
- ↑ Catalogue by Asanuma Shōkai dated October 1941, p.16.
- ↑ The source is indicated in the page on the corresponding camera, or in a dedicated footnote when the camera model is unknown.
- ↑ Lens pictured in Yazawa, p.16 of Camera Collectors' News no.56.
- ↑ Camera pictured in this page at Monomono.
- ↑ Lens pictured in this article.
Bibliography
- Asanuma Shōkai. Shashinki to zairyō (写真機と材料, Cameras and supplies). Catalogue dated October 1941. Pp.7 and 9. Document partly reproduced in this Flickr album by Rebollo_fr.
- Kamera no mekanizumu sono I: "Hai! Chīzu" Shunkan o torae-tsuzukeru shattā-ten (カメラのメカニズム・そのⅠ・「ハイ!チーズ」瞬間をとらえ続けるシャッター展, Camera mechanism, part 1 "Cheese!" Exhibition of instant taking shutters). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2002. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number) P.21. (Has a picture of a Heliostar 105mm f/4.5 lens in a Lidex shutter.)
- Wilkinson, M. and Glanfield, C. A lens collector's vade mecum. Version 07/05/2001. Distributed as a CD or PDF file.
- Yazawa Seiichirō (矢沢征一郎). "Shashin renzu hattatsu-shi dai-12-kai: Kokusan renzu no rekishi (zenpen)" (写真レンズ発達史第12回・国産レンズの歴史[前編], History of the development of photographic lenses no.12: History of the Japanese lenses [first part]). In Camera Collectors' News no.56 (February 1982). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp.11–6. (Shows a picture of a Heliostar lens.)
Links
In Japanese:
- Sirius with a Heliostar 105mm f/6.3 lens and a Koilos shutter at Asacame
- Unknown plate folder with a Heliostar 105mm f/4.5 lens and a Koilos shutter at the Monomono blog
- Plate folder (certainly a Happy) with a Heliostar 105mm f/4.5 lens and a Lidex shutter at takemovies
- Heliostar 105mm f/6.3 enlarging lens at Takasaki Motohiro's camera site