Minion

The Minion (ミニヨン) is a series of Japanese folding cameras taking 4×5cm pictures on 127 film, made by Tōkyō Kōgaku (the maker of the Topcon cameras) between 1938 and 1943 and again after the war. The company later used the same name for 35mm cameras; see Minion 35.

General description

The Minion models are horizontal folders, with straight diagonal struts and a folding optical finder. None has a body release. The 127 film paper backing is not marked for the unusual 4×5cm format, and all the Minion variants have an exposure counter, manual or automatic. (Ten exposures can be taken per roll.) Film is loaded through the top plate, opened by a button on the right of the top plate. At least for 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 pattern has been identified).

Prewar and wartime period

Common features

The prewar cameras have a Toko 6cm f/3.5 triplet lens made by Tōkyō Kōgaku and a Licht shutter made bby Seikōsha, 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 do not agree on 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 camera quite difficult to follow.

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

Manual film advance

The first manual variant was released in 1938: it was featured in the new products column of the June 1938 issue of Asahi Camera and was 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. In the April 1938 advertisement, the camera is touted as having a new feeling, a new size (presumably negative size) and new lens (新しい感じ 新しいサイズ 新しいレンズ). The advertiser is named as Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai. The next month Hattori Tokei-ten Shashinki-bu is named as the distributor, a price of ¥58 is specified, and the lens is described as fast (明るい) rather than new, the light weight of 320g is touted, as is the ability to change films while the camera is still in its ever-ready case.

The second manual variant has 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,, which offers the Minion for ¥70, in black finish only. The finder is described as "Newton type", and a circular depression is visible in the rear folding part. This variant may have been introduced in 1939: the Minion was featured again in the new products column of the May 1939 issue of Asahi Camera and was advertised in the same magazine from April 1939 after a ten-month interruption. An example is pictured in this page at Cam's. Another example is pictured in Sugiyama as the "Minion II".

Automatic film advance

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

The first auto-stop variant has the exposure counter disc on top of the small housing on the left of the top plate and a small button at the rear to unlock the 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.

The second auto-stop variant is equipped with reinforced folding struts and a thicker focusing ring sporting bigger numbers. This variant is pictured in an advertisement dated November 1939, and was available in black finish for ¥83 and in chrome finish for ¥93. The finder is again described as "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 third auto-stop variant has the finder's release button moved to the front, but it seems that the finder at first remained the Newton type, with a circular depression in the rear folding part instead of the square 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. Another example is pictured in Sugiyama as a "Minion I".

The fourth auto-stop variant has a Galilean viewfinder, only recognizable by the square frame in the rear folding part, holding an additional optical element. This is the most common one and is pictured in McKeown, in Antonetto and Russo 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 description or picture has been found to confirm or refute 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. It is said that the "Minion II" was priced ¥1,100 in 1946.

A postwar model appeared in 1946, called "Minion III" by some sources. It differs in the back, 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. 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.

The camera is usually not synchronized but the example pictured in Antonetto and Russo has a PC synch connector that is perhaps not original.

Bibliography

• Advertisements in Asahi Camera, April 1938, p. A38; May 1938, p. A40; June 1938, p. 38.
• Antonetto, M. and Russo, C. Topcon Story. Lugano: Nassa Watch Gallery, 1997. ISBN 88-87161-00-3. Pp. 23–7.
• Atarashii kikai to zairyō (新しい機械と材料, New equipment and machinery). Asahi Camera, June 1938, pp. 914–5. (The Minion appears on p. 914.)
• 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.
• Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard). Pp. 55 and 60.
• 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.
• Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten (思い出のスプリングカメラ展, Exhibition of beloved self-erecting cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P. 28.
• Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. Item 1177–8 and 1355.

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 at Cam's
• Minion's use at the 44 Club