Kowa Model E

Kowa E image by Howard Somerville (Image rights)

The Kowa E (which appears to have been branded as the Kowaflex E in the USA) was the base model for subsequent Kowa 35mm SLR cameras.

It's a fully manual camera, with an external selenium meter located on the pentaprism housing, and a match-needle pointer in the viewfinder, along with a central split image rangefinder. There's an instant return mirror, and what Kowa claimed (in the camera's instruction manual) to be the world's first instantaneous return (automatic) diaphragm. The lens is a fixed 50mm f/2, and the leaf shutter a Seikosha-SLV with speeds of B and 1-1/500s. The film speed, focus, aperture and shutter speed controls are all around the lens.

Introduced in 1961, this model was replaced by the Kowa SE in 1964.

Specification

• Lens: Lens not removable. Fitted with a Kowa f/2 50mm (6 elements in 4 groups), with an f/4 86mm, and f/4 36mm conversion lenses available, and close-up lenses. In the USA, the conversion lenses appear to have been 71mm and 35mm options.
• Focus: Pentaprism with condenser, Fresnel lens, and split image rangefinder.
• Shutter: Seikosha SLV leaf shutter with a range of 1 sec to 1/500th plus B.
• Meter: External coupled selenium meter on pentaprism housing.
• Exposure: Fully manual with viewfinder match needle.
• Film Speed: 10 to 1600 ASA.
• Flash: M and X contact, and an accessory shoe mounting port on the right side of (i.e. not on top of) the top plate (facing). This was an L shaped bracket, that positioned a cold shoe above the rewind crank.
• Film Advance: 180° lever.
• Frame Counter: Automatic count-up and reset.
• Rewind: Via crank and bottom release button.
• Size: 143 x 97 x 87mm (W x H x D).
• Weight: 875g.

Links

• Kowa E instruction manual at Butkus.org
• Kowa E on www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand (in French)