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 main designer of the Minion was Otagi Michifusa. The company later used the name Minion again 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. It is thus possible to load a roll of film with the camera standing in its case. 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).

The Minion I and II

Common features

The Minion I and II have a Toko 6cm f/3.5 triplet lens made by Tōkyō Kōgaku and a Licht shutter made by 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. The back has a single red window, protected by a vertically sliding cover, to set the first exposure, and an exposure table written in Japanese and attached by four screws.

Modern sources do not agree on the distinguishing features of models I and II, and the original documents observed so far do not clearly describe them. 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 and in Fujishima. In the April 1938 advertisement, the camera was 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 was named as Tōkyō Kōgaku Kikai. The next month Hattori Tokei-ten Shashinki-bu was named as the distributor, a price of ¥58 was specified, and the lens was described as fast (明るい) rather than new, the light weight of 320g was touted, as was 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 offered the Minion for ¥70, in black finish only. The finder was 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. Its back exposure table is black and its red window cover has no marking. 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 was 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. This model has a white exposure table and the Tōkyō Kōgaku logo on the red window cover; these features of the back probably applies to the previous auto-stop variants as well, but no description or picture has yet been found to confirm or refute this. 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 Minion was listed in the official price list compiled in October 1940, in four versions called "Black Minion I", "Black Minion II", "Chrome Minion I" and "Chrome Minion II" with no further detail. The price was set at ¥92 for all four versions. A similar price list dated November 1941 mentions the "Black Minion II", "Chrome Minion II" and Chrome Minion III" (see below).

The Minion was mentioned in the "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras") of early 1943 as made by Tōkyō Kōgaku and distributed by Hattori. Three versions were listed: the "Black Minion II" and "Chrome Minion II", with the Toko 60/3.5 three-element lens by Tōkyō Kōgaku and the Licht shutter by Seikōsha, and the "Chrome Minion III" described below. In the wartime period, advertisements are reported until mid-1943.

It is said that some examples of the Minion II were assembled in 1945 from old stocks of parts, and that the camera was priced ¥1,100 in 1946.

One very late example is known with a modified back: the exposure table is absent, and the cover for the red window is rotated 90° and slides to the left. This might be a feature of the postwar cameras.

The Minion III

The Minion III differs in the back, lens and shutter type. 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 at 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 on the examples observed. The only back picture observed so far shows the newer back with no exposure table and a rotated red window cover.

Most modern sources say that the Minion III was released after the war, but a "Chrome Minion III" was already mentioned in the November 1941 official price list cited above, and described in the early 1943 inquiry, with the same lens and shutter equipment. The wartime examples certainly do not have the TOKYO OPT. CO. marking because the company would not have spelt its name in English at the time, and it is not known if they have the modified back or not. No example of the wartime Minion III has been observed so far, and it is not certain that this model was actually sold during that period.

After the war, it is said that the Minion III was offered from 1946. Two examples have been observed with no flash synchronization, and one with a PC synch connector at the top of the shutter casing, maybe 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.
• 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.
• Fujishima Kōichi (藤島広一). "Meiki no sekkeisha" (名機の設計者, Designers of famous cameras). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.4, March 1984. No ISBN number. Meiki no keifu (名機の系譜, special issue on famous camera families). Pp. 86–90.
• 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.)
• "Kamera no kōtei kakaku kanpō happyō" (カメラの公定価格官報発表, Official announcement of the set prices of the cameras), November 1941. Extract of a table listing Japanese camera production and setting the retail prices, reproduced in "Bebī Semi Fāsuto 'Kore ha bebī wo nanotta semi-ki da'" (ベビーセミファースト"これはベビーを名乗ったセミ機だ", Baby Semi First, 'this is a Semi camera called Baby'), an article by Furukawa Yasuo (古川保男) in Camera Collectors' News no. 277 (July 2000). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. P. 27. Type 2, section 7; type 3, section 7B.
• "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" (国産写真機ノ現状調査, Inquiry into Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943. Reproduced in Supuringu kamera de ikou: Zen 69 kishu no shōkai to tsukaikata (スプリングカメラでいこう: 全69機種の紹介と使い方, Let's try spring cameras: Presentation and use of 69 machines). Tokyo: Shashinkogyo Syuppan-sha, 2004. ISBN 4-87956-072-3. Pp.180–7. Items 175–7.
• Template:Kakaku1940 Type 2, section 7.
• 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
• Minion in the Zeppan Tōsan photo site (incorporating this photograph). If the link does not work, go to the Zeppan Tōsan photo site, follow the link marked "武器庫" in the page menu, and then the link marked "東京光学　ミニヨンＩＩ" in the "next" menu