Kraft

The Kraft (クラフト) is a 4×4cm format camera, using 127 film, made from 1941 to 1943 by Ehito or Ishii (see below).

Relation with the Letix

The Kraft is very similar to the Letix, made from 1940 by Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō (a sub-company of Riken), but it has a metal body whereas the Letix has a bakelite body. The early examples of the Kraft share many parts with the Letix and the two cameras are surely related. It is not known if the maker of the Kraft was a subcontractor of Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō that made the metal parts of the Letix from the beginning or if it bought the design of the Letix and some toolings or parts to sell a modified version with a metal body.

General description

The Kraft has a metal body and a telescopic tube supporting the lens and shutter assembly.

The camera is covered by a top housing except the space around the advance knob, at the left end of the top plate. This advance knob is very thick and has an arrow engraved above indicating the winding direction. The camera has auto-stop film advance, a device that was necessary because the film paperback was not marked for 4×4cm pictures at the time it was sold. Between the finder and the advance knob there is a button that perhaps unlocks the auto-stop advance device. There is also an exposure counter on the right, of which two variants are known, and an accessory shoe on the right end.

The back is said to be removable together with the bottom plate.

The name KRAFT and the serial number are engraved on a nameplate screwed to the front of the top housing and surrounding the viewfinder window.

Early and late model

On the early model, the exposure counter consists of a fully exposed disc engraved from 1 to 12, and the tubular optical finder is a separate part, attached to the middle of the top housing. On the nameplate, the serial number is engraved at the right of the name KRAFT. This model has the same viewfinder, exposure counter, advance knob, accessory shoe and telescopic tube as the Letix, and the top housing is only slightly more angular.

On the late model, the exposure counter disc is placed under the top housing and is only visible though a crescent-shaped window. The viewfinder is incorporated in a slightly modified top housing, with a depression under the left hand button. On the nameplate, the serial number is written under the name KRAFT.

Advertisements and other documents

The camera was listed in the list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941, under the names "Karft I" (¥95) and "Kraft II" (¥125), with no further details. The same document also lists a camera called "Ehito" for ¥125, in the same category, which is perhaps the same as the Kraft II.

In an advertisement dated January 1942, the early model was offered in two versions, both with a Kraft Anastigmat f/3.5 front-cell focusing lens:

• Kraft I: Licht shutter by Seikōsha, T, B, 25, 50, 100 speeds, self-timer (¥109);
• Kraft II: Perfect shutter by Neumann & Heilemann, B, 1–300 speeds, self-timer (¥125).

The focal length of the lens is not given. The advertisement mentions a double exposure prevention device. However that would need a linkage from the shutter release lever to the advance mechanism, that is obviously not present in the variant equipped with an everset Licht.

The names of two companies are indicated in the advertisement: Ehito Kōgaku Kōgyō (meaning Ehito Optical Industries) and Ishii Shōkai (meaning Ishii Trading). The name of the companies tends to indicate that Ehito was the maker and Ishii the distributor. However in the "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), listing the Japanese camera production as of April 1943, the Kraft I and Kraft II were mentioned as manufactured by Ishii and distributed by Ehito. The two companies had nearly the same physical address and were probably closely tied together.

In the 1943 inquiry, the Kraft I is listed with the Licht shutter and a Kraft 50/3.5 lens made by Tōkyō Kōgaku, whereas the Kraft II is listed with a Kraft shutter giving B, 1–300 speeds and a Kraft 50/3.5 lens made by Takahashi. Both lenses have three elements. The only actual example observed so far with a Licht shutter has a Kraft 60mm f/3.5 lens, and Tōkyō Kōgaku is known to have made the Toko 60mm f/3.5 three-element lens for its own Minion camera series, this perhaps indicates a mistake in the focal length given by the document for the Kraft I.

Actual examples

An example of the early model (n°2751) has been observed with a Kraft Anastigmat 5cm f/3.5 lens and a shutter giving B, 1–300 speeds, marked KRAFT–WORKS on the speed rim and at the bottom of the shutter plate. This shutter certainly corresponds to the Kraft shutter mentioned in the 1943 inquiry for the Kraft II. Another example (n°2785) has been observed with a Kraft Anastigmat 60mm f/3.5 lens mounted in a Licht shutter, thus corresponding to the Kraft I.

Only one example of the late model has been observed so far, with a Kraft Anastigmat 5cm f/3.5 front-cell focusing lens, mounted in the same Kraft-Works B, 1–300 shutter as described above.

Bibliography

• Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10–40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7. Item 76.
• "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" (国産写真機ノ現状調査, Inquiry into Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943. Reproduced in Supuringu kamera de ikou: Zen 69 kishu no shōkai to tsukaikata (スプリングカメラでいこう: 全69機種の紹介と使い方, Let's try spring cameras: Presentation and use of 69 machines). Tokyo: Shashinkogyo Syuppan-sha, 2004. ISBN 4-87956-072-3. Pp.180–7. Items 151–2.
• Template:Kakaku1940 Type 1, sections 9 and 10.
• 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. 548–9.

This camera is not listed in Sugiyama.

Links

In Japanese:

• Kraft in the A–Z 127 film cameras at Asacame