Japanese aerial cameras

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Various Japanese companies manufactured aerial cameras. Most were made for the Japanese military forces before and during World War II. Further cameras, such as the Konica Type G, were made after 1945 for Japan's Self-Defense Forces or for other countries.

Handheld reconnaissance cameras

Nedinsco type

The first aerial camera used by the Japanese air forces in some quantity was the Nedinsco FK I.[1] (Nedinsco was a Dutch branch of Carl Zeiss, and "FK" perhaps means Fliegerkamera.) It was adopted by the Japanese Army as the 25cm Aerial Camera (二十五糎航空写真機),[1] named after its 25cm focal length. It was also used by the Navy as the Handheld Aerial Camera 25cm (手持式航空写真機二五糎).[2]

The Nedinsco camera was later produced in Japan by Rokuoh-sha,[1] perhaps after an official license was bought or as an unauthorized copy. Cameras made in the 1930s have a Hexar Ser.1 25cm f/4.5 lens.

The camera takes 13×18cm film plates. The rigid body is made of wood, with a characteristic octagonal front section, covered by a cap. There is a built-in grip on the left and a separate wooden handle on the right.

The focal-plane shutter is a separate unit, which can be slid out of the body for maintenance or repair. It has vertically travelling curtains, and the range of speeds is 1/90, 1/180, 1/375 and 1/750.[1][2]

The aperture is set by an index at the top of the camera, in front of the identification plate, with f/4.5, f/6.3 and f/9 positions.[3] There is an articulated mechanism placed around the lens, holding two filters controlled by external knobs on either side of the body.

Handheld Aerial Camera 25cm F-8 type, for the Navy

The Handheld Aerial Camera 25cm F-8 type (手持式航空写真機25cm F-8型) was made for use by the Japanese Navy from 1924 or 1925 to 1938.[4] The camera was essentially copied on the American Fairchild F-8 aerial camera, and was produced by Rokuoh-sha.[5][6] Original imported Fairchild cameras were perhaps used by the Japanese Navy as well.[7]

The F-8 type takes 13×18cm exposures. A report from the U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan, written in December 1945, says that very early examples were taking six glass plates within a magazine, but the camera was later modified to use rollfilm.[8] All the surviving examples known so far take 18cm wide film rolls.[5][6] Most sources say that these were 3.7m long,[9] allowing for 25 frames,[5] but at least one source says 6m instead.[6]

The camera body is made of metal. The shutter is of the focal-plane type, with 1/60, 1/100, 1/160, 1/200, 1/300 and 1/400 speeds.[5] When rotated, the right handle advances the film, winds the shutter and advances the exposure counter in a single movement.[6] There is a folding frame finder at the top, of which variations are known.

The early examples, made from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, certainly had an imported German lens. The examples found today normally have a Hexar Ser.1 25cm f/4.5 (same as mounted on the Nedinsco type), sometimes with abbreviated markings Hexar.1 4.5 25.

Surviving examples have been observed in two main variants. The first variant[10] has a large black identification plate, with the camera's official name in Japanese characters (手持手持式航空寫眞機25cm F-8型), a serial number, the year and month of manufacture, and the words Tokyo (東京) and Rokuoh-sha (六櫻社). There is a small housing on the left side, behind the left handle. There is no control lever above the camera, and the aperture is perhaps directly controlled by turning a ring around the lens. Finally, there are four screw threads at the front of the main body, probably provided to attach the camera to a fixed aircraft mount. The December 1945 American report says that attempts were made to use the F-8 type as a vertical camera, and about 25 mounts were produced for the C6N Saiun (Myrt) reconnaissance plane, but the trials were not satisfactory and the camera was only used hand-held.[8]

The second variant[11] is presumably later. It has a small white plate with Rokuoh-sha or Konishiroku's logo (the character roku 六 inside a stylized cherry blossom) and a serial number. Two levers are visible at the top, in front of the frame finder. The front lever controls the aperture and has three positions: 4.5, 6.3 and 9. The second lever was used to compensate for proper focus with infra-red film.[8] The small housing on the left side and the four screw threads at the front are no longer present.

Type 96 Small Aerial Camera

To be done.

Type 99 Handheld Aerial Camera (15cm), for the Navy

The Type 99 Handheld Aerial Camera (15cm) (九九式航空写真機十五糎) was produced for the Japanese Navy by Rokuoh-sha (and later Konishiroku), from 1939 to 1945.[5] It is said that the introduction of the camera was plagued with reliability problems, and it only went into full service around 1943.[5]

The picture format is about 7.5×10cm.[12] The camera is loaded with perforated film rolls, said to allow 6, 10 or 20 exposures — depending on the sources.[13][14]

There is a folding frame finder at the top, and wooden handles on both sides of the body. The shutter is of the focal-plane type, with horizontally running curtains. It normally gives 1/75, 1/150, 1/250 and 1/400 speeds,[15] selected by a wheel at the top. (At least one source mentions 1/25 to 1/500 speeds, perhaps by mistake.)[16] The main release has the shape of a trigger, actioned by the right index. The film is advanced and the shutter is wound by turning the right-hand handle by 90 degrees twice.[17][5] The camera has an automatic exposure counter, either at the top left or to the right of the viewfinder.[18] The back is fully removable and is locked by two keys, with open (開) and close (閉) indications.

It is said that two versions of the camera were made, one for aerial use only and the other for both aerial and terrestrial use.[5] The American report already cited above mentions two versions distinguished by the lens maximal aperture, either f/3.5 or f/4.5, saying that the latter was more common.[8] Variations have been observed in the surviving camera bodies, but no clear pattern has been identified.[19] At least one surviving camera is known to have a Hexar Ser.1B 15cm f/4.5.[20] The lens is attached to the camera by four screws and has three prongs at the front for filter attachment. The aperture is controlled by a large ring at the front of the outer lens cone, connected to the lens diaphragm via a lever.

Type 99 Ultra Small Aerial Camera (GSK-99)

4648910067_137e1f32a1_m.jpg
Konishiroku-built Army Type 99 Ultra Small Aerial Camera (GSK-99).
Pictures by Dirk HR Spennemann. (Image rights)

The Army Type 99 Ultra Small Aerial Camera (GSK-99) entered service in 1940. Unlike the standard Navy Type 99 and Army Type 100 models, the GSK-99 had interchangeable roll holder backs for 120 film. The camera has a wind up mechanism that triggered both film advance and cocked the shutter, allowing for rapid shooting of up to six images. In total, ten 6×6 images can be fit on a 120 roll of film. In total, about 3,000 units may have been built by Tōkyō Kogaku and Konishiroku. The Tōkyō Kogaku-built GSK-99 was equipped with a fixed focus 75mm f=3.5 Simlar lens, while the Konishiroku-built GSK-99 was fitted with a fixed focus 75mm f=3.5 Hexar lens, set in a Compur-type Seikosha shutter.

Type 100 Small Aerial Camera (SK-100)

To be done.

Fixed reconnaissance cameras

Fixed Aerial Camera K-8 type, for the Navy

To be done.

No.1 Automatic Aerial Camera 25cm, for the Army

To be done.

New Type Automatic Aerial Camera, for the Army

To be done.

Machine-gun training cameras

Machine-gun training cameras are shaped as a machine gun, and are used to train the gunners. Rokuoh-sha made various such cameras from the mid-1920s onwards, and Tōkyō Kōgaku made at least one model in the late 1930s.

Type 15 Gun Camera, for the Navy

The Type 15 Gun Camera with Watch (一五式写真銃時計附)[21][22] was made by Rokuoh-sha for the Navy, and the Type 15 Gun Camera Modified 1 (一五式写真銃改一)[23] was certainly an evolution.

This machine-gun camera was ordered in May 1925 by Yamada Kōgorō (山田幸五郎) of the Japanese Navy, was produced from 1926 under the supervision of Mōri Hirō (毛利広雄), and delivered from 1927.[23] It was inspired by the Hythe gun camera made by Thornton-Pickard in Great-Britain from 1915,[21][23] itself based on the Lewis machine gun. The Japanese copy was initially equipped with Wollensak or Zeiss Tessar lenses.[23] It is said that it was produced until 1942,[23] certainly switching to Japanese lenses at some point.

The camera takes 120 size rollfilm, and reportedly makes 4×4.5cm exposures, with target rings superimposed on the image.[21] The time is recorded on the rest of the 6×6cm frame[21] via a secondary lens on the side, taking pictures of a watch dial placed under the front bead. The camera has no sequential firing ability, and the frames are advanced by a spring motor one by one.[22] The gun camera normally has a drum magazine at the top, only used to enhance the similarity with the Lewis machine gun.[22]

Revolving Target-checking Camera, for the Army

The Revolving Target-checking Camera (廻転式射撃鑑査写真機) was a similar camera made by Rokuoh-sha for the Army.[24][23] (In the name, the word "revolving" either refers to the drum magazine mounted at the top or to the fact that the camera was mounted on a turret.) The camera was also called "Hythe type" (ハイス型),[25] after the original Hythe gun camera of which it was a copy.[26]

This model was perhaps released around 1926, at the same time as the Type 15 for the Navy. The image size is 4.5×6cm on 120 film,[24] and there is no time recording device. It is said that the early cameras have Wollensak or Zeiss Tessar lenses.[23] Later ones have an Optor 28.5cm f/11 lens.[24][27]

The same camera was also made by Tōkyō Kōgaku, which supplied 605 units to the Japanese Army.[28] The version made by this company is called "Model 17" in some recent sources, but this is perhaps a confusion with the serial number of a surviving camera.[29]

Type 89 Machine-gun Camera

The Type 89 Moving-image Machine-gun Camera (八九式活動写真銃) was an all new model by Rokuoh-sha. It is said that four experimental cameras were made in 1929.[23] (In the name, "Type 89" stands for year 2589 in the Japanese mythological calendar, i.e. 1929.) That early version perhaps had imported lenses. The improved Type 89 Moving-image Machine-gun Camera Kai (八九式活動写真銃改) or "Kai 1" (改一) followed in 1931 with Hexar lenses.[23] The final version was the Kai 2 (改二), serial produced from 1933 to about 1944.[23]

The camera takes 18×24mm pictures[30] on 35mm cine film loaded in 2.5m strips.[31] It is driven by a spring motor, and can take sequences at 10 frames per second.[30] The taking lens is a Hexar Ser.1 7.5cm f/4.5, and the firing time is recorded via a Hexar Ser.1 4cm f/4.5 auxiliary lens aimed at a stop watch dial.[23][30] The optical sight, handgrip and attachment lugs are removable, and minor variations may exist.[32]

Fixed target cameras

Target cameras are attached inside or outside the aircraft, and are able to shoot a rapid sequence of images to document the result of a combat action or for training purpose.

Attached outside the aircraft

The Fixed Target-checking Camera (固定射撃鑑査写真機)[33] was patterned after the profiled gun camera made by the French company OPL. It was also called "Levallois type" (ルバロア型),[34] certainly for that reason (OPL is "Optique de Précision de Levallois"). The camera is contained in an aerodynamic fairing, attached outside the aircraft under the fuselage or wings. It takes 4.5×6cm exposures on 120 film, and has a single shutter speed.[35]

At least some examples were made by Tōkyō Kōgaku, and have a Toko 35.6cm f/4.5 fixed-focus lens.[35] It is said that they were issued in 1941 and used by the Navy on the Zero fighter;[36] however the camera looks older and it is likely that the Zero had more modern gun cameras mounted inside the wings (see below).

Fitted inside the wings

Rokuoh-sha made various cameras, mounted inside the aircraft wings.[31] The Type 1 Fixed Target-checking Camera (一式固定射撃鑑査写真機), for the Army, takes 16mm film and has an Optor 75/3.5 lens.[31] The Type 2 Fixed Target-checking Camera (二式固定射撃鑑査写真機) is shaped as a machine gun, and takes 16mm film cartridges akin to bullet magazines.[31] It was also made for the Army from 1942 to the end of the war.[31] The Type 2 Moving-image Machine-gun Camera (二式活動写真銃) is another gun camera made for the Navy from 1942, reportedly used in the Zero fighter.[37] It is unclear if it takes 16mm or 35mm film.[38] It has a Hexar 45/2, and takes 300 shots at 12 frames per second.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 25cm Aerial Camera (Nedinsco type) at Wetwing Aerial Camera.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Handheld Aerial Camera 25cm at Kore Nāni.
  3. ↑ Pictures in this page at Kore Nāni.
  4. ↑ 1924 to 1938: Aerial camera types at Wetwing Aerial Camera. 1925 to 1938: Iwama, pp.55 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Aerial camera types at Wetwing Aerial Camera.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Iwama, pp.55 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10.
  7. ↑ This is suggested in Japanese Naval Photography, p.7.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Japanese Naval Photography, p.10, repeated in this page at Airrecce
  9. ↑ Japanese Naval Photography, p.10.
  10. ↑ Examples pictured in this WorthPoint entry (with Rokuoh-sha Tokyo Hexar Ser.1 25cm f/4.5 lens no.5382), and in this page and this page at Wetwing Aerial Camera (with serial no.1176).
  11. ↑ Examples pictured in this page at Airrecce, and in F-8 this page of the NASM.
  12. ↑ Iwama, p.54 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10, this page at Wetwing Aerial Camera, and Japanese Naval Photography, p.11, all say 7.5×10cm. This page at Kore Nāni says 70×100mm, and Sugiyama, item 6010, says 72×98mm.
  13. ↑ this page at Wetwing Aerial Camera, says 6 or 10 exposures. Japanese Naval Photography, p.11, this page at Kore Nāni, and this page at Airrecce, all say 20 exposures.
  14. ↑ Sugiyama, item 6010, says that the camera takes glass plates and sheetfilm, but this is surely a mistake.
  15. ↑ This page at Kore Nāni, ans specifications in Sugiyama, item 6010.
  16. ↑ Japanese Naval Photography, p.11, repeated in this page at Airrecce.
  17. ↑ This page at Kore Nāni.
  18. ↑ Compare the two examples pictured in Iwama, p.54 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10.
  19. ↑ Examples pictured in this page at Kore Nāni, in this page at Wetwing Aerial Camera, in Sugiyama, item 6010, and in Iwama, p.54 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10.
  20. ↑ Example pictured in this page at Kore Nāni.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Sugiyama, item 6014.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Nakayama and Imai, pp.126–7 of Militarī gun'yō kamera daizukan.
  23. ↑ 23.00 23.01 23.02 23.03 23.04 23.05 23.06 23.07 23.08 23.09 23.10 This page at R.Konishi Rokuoh-sha. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "hexar0" defined multiple times with different content
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Sugiyama, item 6018.
  25. ↑ Label inside the original box, observed in a picture posted at a forum.
  26. ↑ Iwama, p.54 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10, mentions a "Hythe model Target-checking Camera" (ハイス型射撃鑑査写真機) for the Navy. This is probably a confusion between the Army's Revolving Target-checking Camera and the Navy's Type 15 Gun Camera.
  27. ↑ Example pictured in this page at Seawood Photo.
  28. ↑ Sugiyama, item 6016.
  29. ↑ The camera is called "Model 17" in Sugiyama, item 6016, but the Japanese text actually corresponds to a serial number (第十七号), certainly that of the pictured example. Antonetto and Russo, p.25, repeat the name "model 17", certainly after Sugiyama, and say that this was a "rapid-firing camera capable of shooting a burst of 4.5×6cm frames", perhaps by mistake.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Sugiyama, item 6015.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 Iwama, p.54 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10.
  32. ↑ Minor variations are reported between the two examples pictured in Nakayama and Imai, pp.124–5 of Militarī gun'yō kamera daizukan.
  33. ↑ The name is given in this page of the Yokohama Radio Museum. It is called "Zero Fighter Target-checking Camera" (固定射撃鑑査銃, literally "Fixed Target-checking Gun") in Sugiyama, item 6017.
  34. ↑ This page of the Yokohama Radio Museum.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Sugiyama, item 6017.
  36. ↑ Sugiyama, item 6017. This is repeated in Antonetto and Russo, p.25. The latter source mistakenly says that the camera was relatively similar to the preceding "Model 17" machine-gun target-checking camera.
  37. ↑ Iwama, pp.54–5 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10.
  38. ↑ Iwama, pp.54–5 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10, mentions 16mm film in the text but 2.4×3.6cm frame size in the picture caption.

Bibliography

  • Antonetto, M. and Russo, C. Topcon Story. Lugano: Nassa Watch Gallery, 1997. ISBN 88-87161-00-3. P.25.
  • Iwama Tomohisa (岩間倶久). "Konica history 8. Konishiroku no gun'yō kamera." (Konica history 8. 小西六の軍用カメラ. Konishiroku military cameras.) 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.10, September 1987. No ISBN number. Konishiroku kamera no rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, special issue on Konishiroku). Pp.54–5.
  • 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.538, 545 and 673–4.
  • Nakayama Kaeru (中山蛙) and Imai Kesaharu (今井今朝春). Militarī gun'yō kamera daizukan (ミリタリー軍用カメラ大図鑑, Album of military cameras). Tokyo: Green Arrow, 1997. ISBN 4-7663-3192-3.
  • 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 6010–18.
  • U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan. Aeronautics Targets. Japanese Naval Photography. Index No. A-39. Report dated Dec. 20, 1945. Available in pdf format.

Links

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