Light (4×6.5)

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folding
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rigid or collapsible
4×5 Alfax | Olympus Standard | Sakura (bakelite) | Well Standard
4×6.5 Vest Adler | Vest Alex | Kowa Kid | Light | Light Super | Baby Minolta | Minolta Vest | Regal Olympic | Vest Olympic | Tsubasa Chrome | Zen-99
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unknown
4×5 Vesten
4×6.5 Victor Vest
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Japanese 3×4 and 4×4, 4.5×6, 6×6 and 6×9 ->

The Light (ライト) is a Japanese camera using 127 film, distributed in 1940 by various companies, including Sasaki Shōten, Tōyō Shōkai and Yamamoto Shashinki-ten.

Description of the body

The Light is a dual-format camera, taking 4×6.5cm and 3×4cm exposures. The lens and shutter assembly is mounted on a telescopic tube. The body has a chrome top plate, with a knob at each end. The finder is slightly offset to the left and is contained in a rectangular housing, with a built-in accessory shoe. The name Light is inscribed above, in the same style as the contemporary Leica engravings. It seems that the bottom plate is chrome plated too.

Advertisements

The Light was advertised in Asahi Camera from March to November 1940, and was featured in the new products column of the May issue of the same magazine.[1]

The June advertisement was placed by Sasaki Shōten and that dated November was placed by Tōyō Shōkai and Yamamoto Shashinki-ten.[2] In the November advertisement, the camera is presented together with the Mycro, a camera which was distributed by Sasaki until October 1940; this might indicate that the Light and the Mycro have a common origin.[3]

The two documents are very similar and display a Light logo, styled the same as contemporary Leica engravings. They offer the camera for ¥28 with a Light Anastigmat f/6.3 lens and a shutter called Colt or New-Colt, giving B, 25, 50, 75, 150 speeds. In the pictures, the name NEW–COLT appears at the top of the shutter plate, and a single lever is visible on the shutter casing, certainly meaning that this shutter is everset. The two advertisements mention a helicoid (ヘリコイド式), but the pictures actually seem to show a fixed-focus camera. The pictures slightly differ in the two advertisements: the June camera has a black lens rim, a black shutter plate with clear-coloured inscriptions, and no marking on the top casing, whereas the November camera has the Light logo on the top casing, a silver lens rim and a clear shutter plate with black markings.

The only accessories listed are an ever-ready case at ¥7, and another cheaper case added in November at ¥5.50.

The Light does not appear in the official list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941, presumably because its production had stopped.[4]

Notes

  1. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.342.
  2. Advertisements reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.100, and in Awano, p.7 of Camera Collectors' News no.274.
  3. Mycro distributed by Sasaki until October 1940: Awano, p.3 of Camera Collectors' News no.274.
  4. "Kokusan shashinki no kōtei kakaku".

Bibliography

Original documents

  • Asahi Camera May 1940. "Atarashii kikai to zairyō" (新しい機械と材料, New equipment and machinery). P.831.
  • Asahi Camera. Advertisements by Sasaki Shōten:
    • April 1940, p.A32;
    • May 1940, p.A29.
  • "Kokusan shashinki no kōtei kakaku" (国産写真機の公定価格, Set prices of the Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of October 25, 1940 and setting the retail prices from December 10, 1940. Published in Asahi Camera January 1941 and reproduced in 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. Pp.108—9. The Light does not appear in this list.

Recent documents

  • 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 290.
  • Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Maikuro kamera (senzenhen)" [マイクロカメラ(戦前編), Mycro cameras (prewar)]. In Camera Collectors' News no.274 (April 2000). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp.1–10.

The Light is not listed in Sugiyama.