Kowa
Kowa is a Japanese company, which manufactured cameras from 1954 to 1978. It continued to make binoculars and telescopes (among much else), and in 2005 marketed a "spotting scope" with integrated digital camera, thereby again becoming a camera manufacturer of a sort.
Contents
History
The company was founded in Nagoya in 1894 as a textile shop, and entered the spinning industry in 1919.[1] In 1939, the trading and spinning activities were separated, and the trading company was incorporated as Kōwa K.K. (興和㈱).[1] After 1945, the company attempted to diversify its activities, and created the dependent Kōwa Kōki Seisakusho (興和光器製作所, meaning Kowa Optical Works) in 1946.[2] It produced eyeglasses for a short period, then switched to higher value products such as opera glasses, binoculars, rifle scopes or spotting scopes, some of which were bought by the US forces.[2] It also made projection lenses, both regular and anamorphic (for the CinemaScope process), under the Prominar brand name,[2] and the rare Prominar lenses in Leica screw mount certainly date from that period.
The company entered camera production in 1954 with the Kalloflex 6×6 TLR, then made a series of 35mm cameras with a leaf shutter, some with a fixed wide-angle or tele lens and some with an interchangeable lens. Many of these were rebadged by Graflex as the Century 35 series. In 1960, Kowa inaugurated a series of amateur 35mm SLR cameras, all with a leaf shutter. The last of the series was the Kowa UW190 (1972), equipped with a fixed ultra-wide-angle 19mm lens. In 1968, the company introduced a more ambitious project: the Kowa Six 6×6cm SLR, which would meet some success as the poor man's Hasselblad. It was upgraded in 1974 as the Kowa Super 66, which was Kowa's last camera in the century.
In 2005, Kowa, which had continued to sell equipment for birdwatchers and others, marketed a "spotting scope" with integrated digital camera, thereby again becoming a name on a camera. The product was the TD-1. In early 2009 the company described this as discontinued but still in stock; Kowa was marketing a variety of adapters to mate its spotting scopes with cameras from other manufacturers.[3]
35mm film
35mm viewfinder
35mm rangefinder
- Kowa Kallo 35 (f/3.5, f/2.8, f/2)
- Kowa Kallo 140
- Kowa Kallo 180
35mm SLR
- Kowaflex
- Kowa Model E
- Kowa H
- Kowa SE
- Kowa SET
- Kowa SETR
- Kowa SET R2
- Kowa UW190
120 film
6×6 SLR
- Kowa Six
- Kowa Six MM
- Kowa Super 66
6×6 TLR
- Kalloflex
- Kallovex
127 film
4×4 SLR
4×6.5
- Kowa Kid, also called Kowa Zen-99, Super-Lark Zen-99 or Light Super
16mm film
Other
Digital camera
- TD-1 [4]
Large format lenses
- Kowa 90mm f/8.0: hugest circle of any 90mm LF lens - covers 8×10in format at f/16.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chronology of the Kowa official website.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Takasaki, p.12 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.40.
- ↑ Accessories for cameras from Kowa USA.
- ↑ See the review of the TD-1 at www.oceanwanderers.com and Kowa's product page.
Bibliography
- Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard).
- 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.546–8.
- Takasaki Akio (高崎晶夫). "Kōwa kamera no ayumi 1954–1978 nen" (興和カメラの歩み1954–1978年, History of Kowa cameras 1954–1978). 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.40, December 1996. Kōwa no subete (特集：R型ライカのすべて, All of Kowa) and Roshia kamera korekushon (ロシアカメラコレクション, Russian camera collection). Pp.12–7.
Links
In English:
- Kowa Six page at kilfitt.org, with a picture showing a Kilfitt prototype apparently related to the Kowa Six
- Company data in English and in Japanese in the Kowa official website
- Kowa SETR and Kowaflex (English) on Frank Mechelhoff's privates virtuelles Camera Museum (substantially in German)
- Cameras at www.collection-appareils.fr
- Kowa instruction manuals at Orphancameras.com
In Japanese:
- Kowa camera page by Shihira
- Kowa camera page
- Kallovex, Kallo 35, Kallo T85, Kallo T100 and Kowa UW190 and Kowa Six at Nagoya's Camera Club
