Neumann & Heilemann
Neumann & Heilemann was a company founded in the 1930s by Billy Neumann and Willy Heilemann, two German people living in Japan. Billy Neumann had previously worked for Krauss in Paris, and Willy Heilemann for Kenngott, then they had helped Kazuo Tashima to found the Nichi-Doku company (that would later become Minolta), before founding their own company. Its logo was NH inside a circle. It made the Rulex and Perfect (or Perfekt) shutters as well as lenses and maybe cameras.
Contents
Cameras
The company certainly participated in the development of the Prince Flex, the first Japanese TLR (1937), distributed by Fukada Shōkai. Some sources say that it was made by Neumann & Heilemann[1], and the camera is indeed engraved with the company name. A rumor says that Neumann & Heilemann merged with the Prince factory and that the Prince Flex was the first resulting product.[2] However the company continued to produce shutters under its own name at least until the war. Maybe it was only its camera department that was merged with Prince.
McKeown says that Neumann & Heilemann made a 4.5×6 folder called Condor.[3] This is probably a confusion with the Condor folders, most of them having a Rulex shutter made by the company.
Shutters
- Rulex (various versions)
- Perfect (sometimes written Perfekt): a copy of the Compur[4], seen with T, B, 1–300 speeds
List of cameras equipped with a Neumann & Heilemann shutter (this list is incomplete, and that a model appears in the list does not mean that all its variants are concerned):
- Adler (by Riken)
- Semi Condor, New Semi Condor and Condor Six
- Semi Prince (by Fujimoto)
- Semi Proud (prewar) (by Proud)
- Semi Olympus (by Takachiho)
Lenses
- Radionar 75/4.5, probably under license from Schneider, equipped some Semi Prince
- Tritar 105/4.5, camera unknown, shown here
List of cameras equipped with a Neumann & Heilemann lens (this list is incomplete, and that a model appears in the list does not mean that all its variants are concerned):
Bibliography
- Baird, John R. The Japanese Camera. Yakima, WA: Historical Camera Publications, 1990. ISBN 1-879561-02-6.
- 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).
- 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.
