Mansfield Skylark

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Skylark is the name of no less than four rebadged cameras sold by Mansfield Industries of Chicago, Illinois:

  • the 1957 Skylark, rebadged from the Argon[1] rangefinder camera which was the export version of the Windsor 35 by Tōkō Shashin. This rangefinder camera featured a 45mm / f1.9 lens, shutter speeds B, 1s to 1/500s (a much higher specification than the early-50s Windsor 35 in the current Camera-wiki.org article).
  • the 1957 Skylark E (pictured right) was a Royal 35M by Royal Camera Company, rebadged for Mansfield. Like the 35M, this rangefinder camera had a Tominar 45mm / f1.9-f16 lens, shutter speeds B, 1s to 1/500s with an uncoupled selenium meter,
  • the 1957 Skylark V, from the Royal 35P, was a meterless rangefinder camera with a Cimenar 45mm / f1.9-f16 lens, shutter speeds B, 1s to 1/300s.
  • the 1961 Mansfield Skylark was a slightly modified Palmat Automatic by Yamato Optical Company. This last Skylark was an fixed-focus automatic-exposure viewfinder camera with coupled selenium meter, Mantar or Luminor 40mm / f4 lens, shutter speeds B, 1/10s to 1/200s. It does not take a battery, its selenium meter was driven by light alone. Exposure compensation was set by a lever on the numbered scale on the lens, based on an ASA/DIN film guide inset on the camera’s lift-off back. This was the only Skylark that was actually engraved with “Mansfield” as well as the “MI” crest logo seen on the earlier versions.








Notes and References

  1. Sugiyama/Naoi “Collector’s Guide to Japanese Cameras” code #3099, p.140.

Links

Sample Image Galleries

PBase sample photos[1]