Honor lenses

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The Honor lenses in Leica screw mount were offered by Zuihō Kōgaku Seiki for its Honor S1 and Honor SL rangefinder cameras. These lenses rarely appear in original Japanese documents, and they were perhaps made for export only.

Rebadged products

It is extremely likely that all the Honor lenses were supplied to Zuihō by some subcontractor. Some sources say that the 50mm lenses were made by Konishiroku.[1] This assumption is not supported by any original document, and might be a guess relying on the fact that Konishiroku was Zuihō's former lens supplier, and on the common aperture of the Hexanon f/1.9 and Honor f/1.9. It seems rather illogical, because Konishiroku was a prestigious company, which is not known to have supplied OEM products, and Zuihō would have gained little by selling Hexanon lenses under its own less illustrious brand. It seems more plausible that Zuihō decided to find a cheaper lens supplier, to offer the camera at a lower price,[2] or that Konishiroku decided to stop the production of Leica-mount lenses, forcing Zuihō to find an alternative.[3]

One plausible candidate is the supplier of the Honor or W.Honor 35mm f/3.5, which was either Sankyō Kōki or Kyōei Kōgaku, and might have made the other lenses as well. Neither Sankyō nor Kyōei offered a standard lens under its own Komura or Acall brand, but it might have made some on special order by Zuihō.

Honor 50mm f/2

The Honor 50mm f/2 was certainly the first lens badged by Zuihō. It appears on the Honor S1 in the July 1959 issue of Shashin Kōgyō,[4] and on the Honor SL in the December 1959 issue of Nihon Camera.[5]

The lens has six elements in four groups.[6] The barrel is black and chrome. The focusing ring is predominantly black, and is driven by a tab with infinity lock. The distance scale is engraved in feet on most lenses — certainly for export to the US — and in metres on others[7] — for domestic or other markets. The minimum distance is either 3.5ft or 1m. The aperture ring is black and chrome, with the aperture scale graduated from 2 to 22 in the black portion. The front bezel is black, with Honor 1:2 f=50mm Zuiho Optical Co. Japan N°xxxx engraved in white. The lens is sometimes found with a chrome front cap, engraved Honor in black.

The known serial numbers have four digits, from 5811 to 6295.[8] The sequence maybe started at 5800 or 5801, perhaps indicating that the lens was released in 1958.

Honor 50mm f/1.9

The Honor 50mm f/1.9 came afterwards, and no mention has been found in any original document. The focusing ring is knurled and has a slightly different tab, with no infinity lock. The distance scale is engraved in feet most often, in metres sometimes;[9] the minimum distance is again 3.5ft or 1m. The aperture is all black, graduated from 1.9 to 16. The tip of the barrel is bright chrome, and the base around the lens mount is satin chrome. The front bezel is engraved Honor 1:1.9 f=50mm Zuiho Optical Co. Japan N°xxxxx in white on a black background. The lens takes 43mm diameter filters.[10][11] It is sometimes found with a black front cap, engraved Honor in white.

It is said that the Honor f/1.9 lens performs reasonably well up to f/5.6, but should not be specially looked after for its picture-taking ability.[11]

The known serial numbers have five digits, from 61177 to 61633.[12] It is tempting to say that the two first digits indicate year 1961, though it is not known if the Honor S1 and SL were still offered for sale at the time on some markets.

Honor or W.Honor 35mm f/3.5

The Honor or W.Honor 35mm f/3.5 is the only other Honor lens known so far. Its barrel is extremely similar to the W-Komura 35mm f/3.5 made by Sankyō Kōki or to the W.Acall 35mm f/3.5 made by Kyōei. According to the pictures observed so far, the W.Acall looks more similar, and is almost identical to the Honor; however one source says that the Honor lens is engraved "S.K. Japan" on some part, therefore attributing it to Sankyō Kōki.[11]

The black focusing ring has eight knurls and is engraved in feet only. The base of the barrel is chrome plated and has depth-of-field indications. The front of the barrel rotates during focusing. The aperture is set by turning the chrome front rim, along the two aperture scales engraved from 3.5 to 22 on the front part of the focus ring.

The front bezel is either engraved HONOR 1:3.5 f=35mm or W.HONOR 1:3.5 f=35mm.[13] The only number confirmed so far is 10093, with a "K." prefix: K. No.10093. The meaning of this prefix is unknown: "K." might stand for the Komura brand name or for the maker's name Kyōei.

The lens was supplied with a dedicated auxiliary finder. It is shaped as a cylinder, with a black main part engraved HONOR and 35mm in white at the top. The front and rear ends are chrome-plated. The rear part rotates for parallax correction, and is engraved in metres and feet, from ∞ to 1m or 3ft. This viewfinder is exactly similar to that supplied by Kyōei for its own W.Acall 35mm f/3.5 — maybe Sankyō Kōki was offering the same viewfinder for the W-Komura at the same time.

Notes

  1. HPR, pp.188 and 415, this page by Ian Norris, this page at Kuroneko Camera, this page and this page at Pacific Rim Camera.
  2. This is the hypothesis favoured in Awano, p.56 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.37, and Nekogahora, p.15 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.45.
  3. This is compatible with the dates of production of the Konishiroku lenses.
  4. Column in Shashin Kōgyō July 1959, p.39.
  5. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.379 (item 1140).
  6. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.379 (item 1140), after Nihon Camera December 1959.
  7. See for example the pictures in this page at Kuroneko Camera.
  8. No.5811 pictured in the column in Shashin Kōgyō July 1959, p.39. No.6295 observed in an online auction.
  9. An example in metres is pictured in Nekogahora, pp.14–5 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.45, and another in this page at Innovative Cameras.
  10. Awano, p.13 of Camera Collectors' News no.36 and p.57 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.37.
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Nekogahora, p.15 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.45.
  12. No.61177 observed in an online auction. No.61633 sold on a Honor S1 as lot no.47 of the June 8, 1995 auction by Christies.
  13. HONOR: lens pictured in this page by Nekosan. W.HONOR: lens pictured in this page and this page by Pacific Rim Camera.

Bibliography

Original documents

  • Shashin Kōgyō no.87, July 1959. "Line-Up: Kokusan fōkaru purēn shattā tsuki 35-miri kamera" (国産フォーカル・プレーンシャッター付35ミリカメラ, Japanese 35mm cameras with focal-plane shutter). Pp.38–9.

Recent sources

Links

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