Minion

Template:127 Japan The Minion is a series of folding cameras taking 4×5cm pictures on 127 film, made by Tōkyō Kōgaku (the maker of the Topcon) between 1938 and 1943 and again after the war. The company later made 35mm cameras called Minion 35, see the corresponding page.

General description

The Minion is a horizontal folder, with straight diagonal struts and a folding optical finder. None has a body release. The 127 film paperback is not marked for the unusual 4×5cm format, and all the Minion variants have an exposure counter, manual or automatic. Film is loaded through the top plate, and at least on some models Tōkyō Kōgaku supplied a card to make this operation easier, with loading instructions printed on one face and a depth-of-field table on the other. The front leather is faintly embossed Minion on some examples but not all (no application pattern is identified).

Prewar and wartime period

Common features

The prewar cameras have a Toko 60/3.5 triplet lens made by Tōkyō Kōgaku and a Seikosha Licht shutter, giving T, B, 25, 50, 100 speeds and equipped with a self-timer. The shutter plate is marked LICHT at the top and SEIKOSHA at the bottom.

Today's collectors distinguish between the "Minion I" and "Minion II" but no original evidence of this designation has been found yet, and modern sources are contradictory when they describe the distinguishing features of models I and II. It seems that the modifications were introduced gradually rather than all at once, and this makes the evolution of the type quite difficult to follow.

The main change that occurred during the production is the adoption of auto-stop film advance, and it seems to be simultaneous with the introduction of a chrome finish version.

Manual film advance

The first Minion was released in 1938: it is featured in the new products column of the June 1938 issue of Asahi Camera and it is advertised in the same magazine from April 1938. There is no automatic stop advance. A small housing at the left end of the top plate contains a manual exposure counter, visible through a hole in the top. The first exposure is set via the red window and the film is advanced by manually turning the knob until the next number is displayed. This advance system is obviously not very reliable. The front part of the viewfinder is engraved Minion and folds above the rear part. An example is pictured in Antonetto and Russo, p. 24.

The camera later adopted a newer viewfinder: the rear part folds above the front part, and it is spring loaded with a release button situated on the right. This variant is pictured in an advertisement dated September 1939, that offers the Minion for ¥70, in black finish only. The finder is described as of the "Newton type", and a circular depression is visible in the rear folding part. This variant was maybe introduced in 1939: the Minion is featured again in the new products column of the May 1939 issue of Asahi Camera and it is advertised in the same magazine from April 1939 after a ten-month interruption.

Automatic film advance

The auto-stop feature was probably added at the end of 1939: a variant equipped with this feature appears in the new products column of the November 1939 issue of Asahi Camera and is advertised in the same magazine from October 1939.

The small housing on the left of the top plate now has the exposure counter disc on top and a small button at the rear to unlock film advance. No other modification is visible at the beginning. An example is pictured as a black Minion I in this page of the Topcon Club website.

Soon after, the camera was equipped with reinforced folding struts and a thicker focusing ring sporting bigger numbers. This variant is pictured in an advertisement dated November 1939, and is available in black finish for ¥83 and in chrome finish for ¥93. The finder is again described as of the "Newton type", its release button is still to the right and the same circular depression as mentioned above is visible. The advertisement simply says Chrome Minion and Black Minion, not "Minion II". An example in chrome finish is pictured in this page at Asacame.

The finder's release button was later moved to the front, but it seems that the finder remained at first of the Newton type, with a circular depression inside the rear folding part instead of the rectangular frame of the later Galilean finder. An example is pictured as a black Minion II in this page of the Topcon Club website. It is also the variant pictured in the instruction manual reproduced in Nekosan's website.

The viewfinder was later transformed into a Galilean type, only recognizable by the rectangular frame inside the rear folding part, holding an additional optical element. The variant with Galilean finder is the most common one and is pictured in McKeown, p. 924, in Antonetto and Russo, p. 25 and in various websites linked below. The back has a single red window, protected by a vertically sliding cover, to set the first exposure, and an exposure table attached by four screws. This description of the back probably applies to the previous variants as well, but no back picture has been observed to confirm this.

In the wartime period, advertisements are reported until 1943.

Postwar period

It is said that some examples of the prewar model were assembled in 1945 from old stocks of parts.

A postwar model appeared in 1946, called "Minion III" by some sources. It differs by the back and by the lens and shutter equipment. The lens is a four-element Simlar 6cm f/3.5 by Tōkyō Kōgaku and the shutter is a Seikosha-Rapid giving T, B, 1–500 speeds and synchronized via a PC connector. The aperture scale is moved to the bottom of the shutter housing. The speed rim is engraved SEIKOSHA-RAPID and the shutter plate is marked TOKYO OPT. CO. at the top. The back has no exposure table and the cover for the red window is rotated 90° and slides horizontally.

Bibliography

• Antonetto, M. and Russo, C. Topcon Story. Lugano: Nassa Watch Gallery, 1997. ISBN 88-87161-00-3.
• 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. Items 267–8.
• 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). P. 924.

Links

In English:

• Minion at Nekosan's website, with the following sub-pages:
  • Black Minion
  • Chrome Minion
  • Postwar Minion
  • Instruction manual
  • Depth-of-field table

In Japanese:

• Related pages at the Topcon Club website:
  • Various Topcon cameras, including the Minion
  • Minion II vs Minion 35
  • Topcon chronology
• Related pages at Asacame:
  • Minion page, both 1935 and 1949 dates are mistakes
  • A-Z 127 film cameras, with the Minion in this page
• Minion's use at the 44 Club