Japanese 3×4 and 4×4 pseudo TLR

Template:127 Japan The Riken Chukon Ref was a 3×4cm format camera released around 1940. It was a pseudo TLR: its shape imitated a twin lens reflex but it was fixed-focus and the finder was nothing more than a big brilliant finder. It had a black bakelite body, a Chukon Anastigmat 50/6.3 three-element lens and a B-25-50-75-100 shutter marked Chukon Ref and R.K.K. for Riken Kōgaku Kōgyō (Riken Optical Industries). It is said at Ricoh's corporate site that it was only sold by Riken and was made by another company.

Most of the information above comes from Ricoh's corporate site; very little other information has been found.

There is a reference on this page at tlr-cameras.com to a 1939 fixed focus pseudo TLR made by Prince and called "Prince Baby Ref", possibly the same as the Chukon Ref. A very similar camera called "Clover Baby Ref" is also reported as made in 1937 by Hagi Kōgyō Bōeki (荻工業貿易, Hagi Industries and Trade) (see the links).

Note: The name Chūkon (忠魂) means "faithful spirit" and can have the sense of "loyal dead" or "war dead". Riken used such weird "patriotic" names during the war.

Links

Ricoh's corporate website:

• Chukon Ref
• Riken wartime camera names: featured article

Other:

• The Clover Baby Ref in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology