Lord (Tōkyō Kōgaku)
The Lord was the first camera made by Tokyo Kogaku (later Topcon). It was a coupled rangefinder 4.5x6 camera. The lens and shutter assembly was mounted on a two-part telescopic tube with a focusing helical. The combined range and viewfinder was enclosed in a top housing, with a LORD logo at the front. There was a big advance knob at the left, with a crude type of exposure counter. You had to turn the knob and manually stop at the next number. It was necessary to set it to S for "start" after loading, as Jason Schneider explains in his book (see the bibliography).
The Lord had a Simlar 7.5cm/3.5 (said to be a four element Tessar type). The shutter was a Seikosha #0 T-B-1-250. In the book by Antonetto and Russo, it is called "Seikosha type S" and the top speed is said to be 1/200, but the picture of the camera in Schneider's book clearly shows 1/250. The shutter plate was marked SEIKOSHA-TOKYO on top and SEIKOSHA at the bottom. There was some sort of bar linked to the shutter, acting as a shutter release.
It is said only 50 were built in 1937 and 1938.
Bibliography
- Topcon Story, by Marco Antonetto and Claudio Russo, ed. NWG, p23
- Jason Schneider on Camera Collecting, Book Two, by Jason Schneider, ed. WH, p109, the camera illustrated is probably the same, but the picture is better
Links
- A page with the Lord of the Topcon Club website, the mention of a 75/6.3 lens is contradicted by the pictures