NKS

NKS is a brand of shutters that were made in the 1940s and 1950s by the Japanese company Nippon Kōsokki, which also made the Taron cameras, and mounted on various Japanese cameras.

The original NKS shutter is a copy of the Prontor II. It appeared in 1940 with B, 1–200 speeds. Both NKS-TOKIO and NKS TOKYO markings have been observed on the speed rim of wartime cameras, with T, B, 1–200 speeds.

Production was resumed after the war, and later variants are the NKS-FB with B, 1–300 speeds, and the NKS-SC.

Camera list

Here is an incomplete list of cameras equipped with a NKS shutter (it was not necessarily the only type of shutter available on these models):

• Amiflex
• Atom Six
• Beautyflex
• Carl Six
• Chest 35 (NKS or NKS-SL)
• Daido Six
• Elmoflex
• Gelto (NKS TOKYO, NKS or NKS-TB)
• Gnoflex
• Malcaflex
• Mamiya Six (NKS–TOKIO)
• Middl 120-A
• Mihama Six
• Mizuho Six
• Monade Flex
• Ofuna Six
• Pigeon 35 (B-10-200)
• Pigeonflex
• Roico (NKS–TOKIO marking)
• Semi Mihama
• Sunflex
• Taroflex (NKS–TOKIO marking)
• Taron 35 (NKS-MX)
• Toyoca B35 (NKS or NKS-SL)
• Toyocaflex
• Zenobia P

Bibliography

• Kamera no mekanizumu sono I: "Hai! Chīzu" Shunkan o torae-tsuzukeru shattā-ten (カメラのメカニズム・そのⅠ・「ハイ！チーズ」瞬間をとらえ続けるシャッター展, Camera mechanism, part 1 "Cheese!" Exhibition of instant taking shutters). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2002. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number)

Links

In English:

• A post about the NKS shutter at the Classic Camera Repair Forum

In Japanese:

• Tubasaflex Junior and Silverflex at Oozusi's Ricohflex website, the last pictures show an opened NKS (B, 10–200).