Japanese 4.5×6 folders
Between the 1930s and the 1950s, a good number of Japanese companies, some of them very small, produced a quantity of 4.5×6 folders.
There were many models and variants, but most of them were either copies of the Baldax, like the Semi Olympus, the first camera to wear the Olympus name, or copies of the Ikonta or Nettar, like the Semi Minolta, one of the first cameras to wear the Minolta name. The inspiration sometimes came from other German cameras as well. The 1937 Auto Semi Minolta had a body copied on the Weltur 4.5×6 and an exposure counter copied on the Plaubel rollfilm backs and Roll-Op II camera. The rangefinder of the Super Semi Proud was also inspired by the Roll-Op II.
As a consequence, most models had a vertical style folding bed, while most of the Japanese 6x6 folders had an horizontal style folding bed after the Ikonta 6×6. The exceptions to this rule were generally original body designs, not copied from a Western camera, like the Semi Olympus II, the Primo or the Tsubasa Super Semi. The Apollo II had an horizontal style body too, but it was a copy of the Duo Six-20 Series II.
After the war, many models switched from a folding optical finder to a viewfinder enclosed in a top housing, giving a more modern look. The Baldax copies tended to rarify, and most models now had a body styled after the Ikonta. Some makers, like Daido or Mihama, made both 4.5×6 and 6×6 models, but the 4.5×6 folders tended to be abandoned first. They were considered to be cheaper models, and only a few received the advanced features of the last Japanese folders, like the coupled rangefinder or automatic film advance. One of the last and most advanced of these cameras was the Pearl IV by Konishiroku.
By about 1960, all the Japanese 4.5×6 folders had disappeared. Surprisingly, in the 1970s, Fuji sold a 4.5×6 folder again, the rangefinder Fujica GS645. It was the last 4.5×6 folder produced in any country. The later autofocus Fuji GA645 and the rangefinder Bronica RF645 descend in some way from the early 4.5×6 folders, but they don't have bellows any more.