Mulber Six

The Mulber Six (マルバシックス) was a Japanese folding camera taking both 6×6 and 4.5×6 format pictures on 120 film. In the ads observed, the company name was Kuwata Shōkai (桑田商会), probably the distributor's name. The same name appears in an ad for the Mulix.

The Mulber Six had a vertical folding body, unlike most 6×6 folders. It was copied on the Baldax. There was a folding optical finder, with a cross engraved on the front window and indents in the four corners to indicate the 4.5×6 frame size.

The Mulber Six was advertised in the 14 July 1937 issue of Asahi Graph (ad visible in this page) as a new model, for both 6×6 and 4.5×6 formats. It was offered in two variants, both with an f:4.5 Eclat lens (written エクラ) and a Mulber shutter (exceptionally written マルバー):

• speeds from 1s to 1/300, for ¥75
• speeds from 1/5 to 1/150, for ¥60

The case cost an extra ¥5.

It was also advertised in the Sep 1938 issue of Asahi Camera, together with a 3×4 camera simply called Mulber. A total of six variants of the Mulber Six were offered, all with a 75/4.5 lens. The lens names were Eclat and another name, maybe Lausar (ローザー):

• Mulber 5–150 shutter, Eclat lens for ¥60 and Lausar (?) lens for ¥65
• Mulber 1–300 shutter, Eclat lens for ¥60 and Lausar (?) lens for ¥65
• 1–300 shutter with selftimer, Eclat lens for ¥60 and Lausar (?) lens for ¥65

The Mulber Six has been observed with a 7.5cm f:4.5 lens and a 5–150, B, T shutter marked Patents~Pending on top and MULBER at the bottom in handwritten style. There was a logo on the right of the shutter plate, with the letters F and D (or B?) mixed in a circle. This logo was obviously intended to remind the Deckel logo present on the Compur shutters.

Another example has been observed with an Eclat Anastigmat 7.5cm f:4.5 lens and a similar 5–150, B, T shutter with the same markings except that MULBER was replaced by KOMPUR, with obvious afterthoughts.

A later camera has been offered for sale as a Mulber Semi. It had a squarer body with different folding struts. There was a small housing containing both an eye level and a waist level finder. The front leather was embossed Mulber. The lens was a Mulber Anastigmat (at least f:3.5 considering the diameter of the front element) and the shutter was a Mulber-Rapid (speeds B, 1s to unknown).

Links

In Japanese:

• The Prince Flex page in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology
• Old Japanese ads, including the Mulber Six