Honor S1
The Honor 35 (オーナー35) or Honor S1 (オーナーS1) is a Japanese Leica copy, made from 1956 to 1959 by Mejiro Kōgaku, later Zuihō Kōgaku. It seems that the project was originally developed by Daiichi Kōgaku as the Ichicon-35 (イチコン35) around 1954, before that company went bankrupt. The camera was succeeded in 1959 by the Honor SL.
Contents
Description
The Honor is copied on the Leica screw models, with a horizontally running focal-plane shutter and a screw mount lens.
The camera has a die-cast body and an integral top plate, as on the Leica IIIc and later. The position of the controls — advance knob, exposure counter, release button, rewind lever, speed dial and rewind knob — is the same as on the Leica. The advance knob contains a film reminder disc at the top. The main speed dial normally has the following positions: B, 25–1 (in red), 50, 75, 100, 200, 500, and the slow speed dial at the front has T, 1, 2, 4, 8, 25. The camera is synchronized for flash, and has two PC sockets at the front.
The eyepieces of the viewfinder and rangefinder are separate parts, spaced by a few millimetres only, a configuration which is intermediate between the Leica IIIa and IIIb. The rangefinder eyepiece has a diopter correction lever, shaped the same as on the Leica IIIa. The rangefinder has 1.5× magnification and 38mm distance between the two windows, giving 57mm effective base.[1] The viewfinder window is surrounded by a thin rectangular bump, and there is a small screw on the side, certainly for rangefinder adjustment. There is a small hump under the rewind knob, as on the Leica IIIc, but this is a stylistic feature only.
The back is removable together with the bottom plate for film loading, and is locked by two keys at the bottom. The camera can take standard film cartridges or refillable Leica cassettes.[2] There are strap lugs on both sides of the body, slightly offset to the front.
Ichicon-35 prototype
Original idea by Kumagai Genji
It seems that the camera was first developed by the company Daiichi Kōgaku as the Ichicon-35 (イチコン35), though no original document has yet been found to confirm this.
The story was first related in the late 1970s in an interview of Kumagai Genji, former developer of the Nippon Leica copy.[3] The text of the interview does not easily make sense. Kumagai apparently told that he brought a camera to "Zenobia Kōgaku" before that company faced failure, then someone rescued the project and released the camera as the Honor, without noticing him.[4]
Kumagai does not mention the name "Ichicon-35", which is found on at least one surviving example, or the name variant "Zenobia 35" (see below). The mention of "Zenobia Kōgaku" is perhaps inaccurate: the company, whose main product was the Zenobia folding camera, was actually called Daiichi Kōgaku until it temporarily closed its doors in March 1955 — certainly the failure told by Kumagai. It was reorganized as Zenobia Kōgaku only in February 1956, operating under that name until its final demise in 1958. The name "Ichicon" was certainly chosen after the current company name.
The original camera brought by Kumagai was certainly a hand-built prototype; at least one author suggests that this was the Jeicy, but this is not certain.[5] In the same interview, the Jeicy was presented as Kumagai's last attempt at camera production;[6] this camera, of which at least two surviving examples are known, shares various parts with the Ichicon-35 and early Honor S1 but has a hinged back. Kumagai says that the hinged back was added on special request of someone,[7] and it seems that the Jeicy corresponds to a further development of the Ichicon project, using salvaged parts.
It seems that all the recent sources linking the Ichicon-35 to Daiichi Kōgaku are based on Kumagai's interview. Many state that the camera was made in 1954,[8] but it seems that this is only a guess, based on the date of Daiichi's bankruptcy and subsequently repeated.
Surviving example(s)
At least one example of the Ichicon-35 has survived, pictured in various collectors' books.[9] It is extremely similar to the early Honor S1 (see below), but has a single PC socket at the front. The name ICHICON — 35 is inscribed above the viewfinder, together with a serial number, and no company name appears on the camera.
The serial number of the surviving camera is 5512; this might indicate that it was the 12th camera produced in 1955 but this is unconfirmed. It is usually pictured with a collapsible Hexanon 50mm f/3.5, itself a prototype too, but its owner says that this lens was not originally mounted on the camera but attached at a later period.[10]
It is said that other cameras exist with the name "Zenobia 35", but no picture has been found yet.[11] This hypothetical Zenobia 35 is not to be confused with the later Zenobia 35 rangefinder camera with leaf shutter, made from 1957 by Zenobia Kōgaku.
Early Honor S1
Late Honor S1
Notes
- ↑ Yamashita, p.105 of Shashin Kōgyō August 1956, gives the physical spacing and effective base; the magnification is deduced by dividing the two.
- ↑ Yamashita, p.105 of Shashin Kōgyō August 1956.
- ↑ Shirai, p.25 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte.
- ↑ Shirai, p.25 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte: さらには、ニッポンカメラの製造を誇りうけたいといって、カメラをもっていったゼノビア光学は倒産して、だれかがそこから持ち出したカメラが、「オーナー」という名で熊谷氏にことわりなく作られた.
- ↑ Awano, p.1 of Camera Collectors' News no.35 and p.56 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.37.
- ↑ Shirai, p.26 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte: これはカメラ界で最後に作ろうとして果たせなかった会社の名である (about "Jeicy Camera Works").
- ↑ Shirai, p.26 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte: 氏が念願だった裏ブタがはずせるライカで.
- ↑ Sugiyama, item 3277, HPR, pp.183 and 185, Pont / Princelle, p.200, McKeown, p.239.
- ↑ Example pictured in Awano, pp.5–6 of Camera Collectors' News no.35 and pp.56–7 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.37, in Sugiyama, item 3277, and in HPR, p.185–6. The drawing in Pont / Princelle, p.202, is based on those pictures but shows wrong serial numbers.
- ↑ Awano, p.2 of Camera Collectors' News no.35.
- ↑ Mention in Awano, p.56 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.37.
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. Item 1138–9.
- Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Kokusan Barunakku-gata kamera: Ōnā, Ichikon" (国産バルナック型カメラ・オーナー、イチコン, Japanese Leica-type cameras: Honor, Ichicon). In Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.37, March 1996. No ISBN number. Leica Book '96 (ライカブック'96). Pp.56–7.
- Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Ōnā 35 S1" (オーナー35S1, Honor 35 S1). In Camera Collectors' News no.35 (May 1980). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha.
- HPR. Leica Copies. London: Classic Collection Publications, 1994. ISBN 1-874485-05-4. Pp.183–90.
- 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.239 and 1064.
- Pont, P.-H., and Princelle, J.-L. 300 Leica Copies. Neuilly: Fotosaga, 1990. ISBN 2-906840-03-3. Pp.200–2.
- Shirai Tatsuo (白井達男). "Nippon Kamera" (ニッポンカメラ, Nippon Camera). Pp.17–26 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte (幻のカメラを追って, Pursuing phantom cameras). Gendai Kamera Shinsho (現代カメラ新書). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1982. ISBN 4-257-08077-9. (First published in Kamera Rebyū / Camera Review no.2, February 1978.) Contains an interview of Kumagai Genji.
- Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. Items 3273–4 and 3277.
Links
In English:
- Honor family, Honor S1 and W.Honor 35mm f/3.5 lens at Pacific Rim Camera (what is said of the Ichicon-35 is based on the book by HPR)
- Honor S1 at Kuroneko Camera
- Honor family at Nekosan's website (what is said of the Ichicon-35 is based on the articles by Awano or the interview by Shirai)
- Honor S1 at Ian Norris' Prime Lens
- Past sales by Westlicht:
- Honor S1 with Hexar 50mm f/3.5: lot no.407 of auction no.9 (May 20, 2006)
- Honor S1 with Hexanon 50mm f/1.9: lot no.261 of auction no.10 (November 18, 2006)
- Honor S1 with Honor 50mm f/2: lot no.340 of auction no.12 (November 17, 2007)
- Honor S1 with Honor 50mm f/2: lot no.408 of the October 28, 2007 auction by Skinner
- Honor S1 with Hexanon 50mm f/1.9: lot no.21 at January 28, 2007 auction by Tamarkin
