Difference between revisions of "Nifca-Dox"

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* Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Senzen no Minoruta kamera" (戦前のミノルタカメラ, "Prewar Minolta cameras"). {{KKS012}} Pp.13–17.
 
* Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Senzen no Minoruta kamera" (戦前のミノルタカメラ, "Prewar Minolta cameras"). {{KKS012}} Pp.13–17.
 
* {{Baird Japanese}} P.40.
 
* {{Baird Japanese}} P.40.
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* Eimukku 735, Manyuaru Kamera Shirīzu 15 (エイムック735・マニュアルカメラシリーズ15, A-Mook 735, Manual Camera Series 15). ''Minolta: Minoruta kamera no subete'' (Minolta:ミノルタカメラのすべて, Minolta: all of Minolta cameras). "Jabara-shiki kamera no kiseki" (蛇腹式カメラの軌跡", Evolution of folding cameras). Pp.131–2.
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* ''Eimukku 735, Manyuaru Kamera Shirīzu 15'' (エイムック735・マニュアルカメラシリーズ15, A-Mook 735, Manual Camera Series 15). ''Minolta: Minoruta kamera no subete'' (Minolta:ミノルタカメラのすべて, Minolta: all of Minolta cameras). "Jabara-shiki kamera no kiseki" (蛇腹式カメラの軌跡", Evolution of folding cameras). Pp.131–2.
 
* {{Francesch Minolta}} Pp.18–9, 67, 70–1 and 263.
 
* {{Francesch Minolta}} Pp.18–9, 67, 70–1 and 263.
 
* Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Kōkoku ni miru Minoruta kamera no rekishi" (広告に見るミノルタカメラの歴史, "Minolta camera history seen through the advertisements"). {{KKS012}} Pp.9–12.
 
* Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Kōkoku ni miru Minoruta kamera no rekishi" (広告に見るミノルタカメラの歴史, "Minolta camera history seen through the advertisements"). {{KKS012}} Pp.9–12.

Revision as of 12:56, 25 May 2008

Japanese plate strut-folding cameras (edit)
No.0 (4×5cm) CH
atom (4.5×6cm) Idea Spring
meishi (5.5×8cm) Minimum Idea | Korok
daimeishi (6.5×9cm) Idea Spring | Minolta | Auto Minolta | Auto Press Minolta | Nifca-Dox | Vester Klapp
tefuda (8×10.5cm) Focal Happy | Idea Spring | Idea Telephoto
10×15cm Kongo Press
kabine (12×16.5cm) Idea Spring | Idea Telephoto
Japanese plate film: monocular, box, folding bed and SLR ->
3×4 and 4×4, 4×5 and 4×6.5, 4.5×6, 6×6 and 6×9 ->

The Nifca-Dox (ニフカドックス) is a Japanese strut folding camera taking 6.5×9cm film plates or pack film. It was made by Nichidoku Shashinki Shōten (predecessor of Minolta) from 1930 or 1931 (see below).

Name

"Nifca" comes from Nichidoku Foto Camera.[1] Nichi in Nichidoku means Japan, and it is certainly not coincidental that "Nifca" can also be read as Nippon Foto Camera.

It is said that "Dox" refers to the giant flying boat Dornier Do X (see for example this Wikipedia page) which first flew in 1929 and made a transatlantic flight, leaving Friedrichshafen in November 1930 and reaching New York in August 1931.[2]

Description of the body

The Nifca-Dox has a metal body. There is no folding bed but a rectangular front plate supported by straight spring-loaded struts at the four corners. This configuration is similar to that of the Goerz Pocket Tenax. (Nichidoku also copied the Roll-Tenax, another Goerz product, for the focusing device of the Nifcarette A.) Unlike the Tenax, the bellows is of the classical type, with multiple creases.

2396414190_a87f6f18c8_t_d.jpg
Nichidoku logo on a Nifcarette. Picture by Andrea Apra (Image rights)

There is a Newton finder on the photographer's left; the front element swings down along the front plate to gain size, and the rear bead is retractable too. A handle is attached to the right end of the body.

The name NIFCA–DOX is inscribed of the front plate at the bottom right, as seen from the front. The serial number is at the bottom left, and the logo of Nichidoku is at the top left; the logo has the letters N, D, PH and Co assembled inside a circle, surely for Nichi Doku Photo Company. The ground glass back has the same round logo embossed in the leather hood.[3]

Lens and shutter

The shutter is ostensibly a Koilos, but at least one source says for some reason that it was "clearly made by the company (Nichidoku) itself".[4] It is mounted in a black octagonal casing protruding from the front plate. It is everset and gives 25, 50, 100, B, T speeds, set by a wheel at the top. This wheel is covered by a metal plate inscribed KOILOS and Nifca Photo, the same as on the isolated example of the Nifcarette B found with a Koilos shutter. The release lever is attached to the front of the shutter casing, and there is a connector for a cable release protruding from the octagon's left edge (as seen from the front).

The lens is a front-cell focusing Nifca Anastigmat 105mm f/6.8, engraved Nifca–Anastigmat 1:6.8 f=105mm Nr xxxx with no mention of a lens maker. This was certainly an imported German lens that was rebranded; at the same time, the company was using a "Nifcaplan" lens made by Kenngott on the Nifcaklapp, and a "Nifcar" lens is also reported on the Nifcasport.[5] The aperture is set by a wheel protruding from the bottom right edge of the octagon (as seen from the front), certainly containing Waterhouse stops; the selected f-number is read in a small window on the right of the lens.

It is said that the Nifca-Dox was the first Japanese model to have a front-cell focusing lens.[6] If the lens is Japanese, it would also be the first Japanese camera sold with a Japanese lens, released shortly before the Tropical Lily with Hexar lens.

Some sources mention a 105mm f/6.3 lens too, but its existence is unconfirmed.[7]

Commercial life

Most sources say that the Nifca-Dox was released in 1930.[8] However documents compiled by the company Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō (i.e. Minolta) and published in Shashin Kōgyō September 1958 say 1931 instead, and say that the Nifca-Dox appeared after the Nifcaklapp and Nifcasport.[9]

No original document dated 1930 is known to show the Nifca-Dox, and the camera does not appear in the January 1931 advertisement by Nichidoku Shashinki Shōten in Asahi Camera, which shows the Nifca range with the Nifcarette, Nifcaklapp and Nifcasport.[10]

The following February 1931 issue of Asahi Camera contains a full page advertisement for the Nifca-Dox.[11] The price is given as ¥29, with an f/6.8 Anastigmat lens, a Koilos shutter and three plate holders. The advertisement does not mention the Do X flying boat. Two pictures are provided, both heavily retouched; none shows a serial number. One of these pictures was re-used by the company in the September 1958 historical article mentioned above.[12]

It is said that 2–3,000 examples of the Nifca-Dox were made.[13] In his autobiography, Tashima Kazuo mentioned that the camera "sold like hot cakes" (free translation of 飛ぶように売れ).[14]

Actual examples

Very few surviving examples of the Nifca-Dox have been observed so far, perhaps four or five. One has body no.6650, engraved as No 6650.[15] It was belonging to the Minolta Gallery in the 1980s;[16] it was not displayed in the JCII exhibition about Konica and Minolta in 2005, and its current fate is unknown. The second and third examples have no.6671 and no.6798; their serial number is prefixed by Nr instead of No.[17] Pictures are known of perhaps two more examples, but their serial number is not legible.[18] All these cameras look exactly identical, except for the serial number prefix.

Notes

  1. ↑ Taniguchi, p.276 of Shashin Kōgyō no.77 (article also reproduced in Tanimura, p.8 of Camera Collectors' News no.116), Francesch, p.17, Nifcarette page of the Konica Minolta website.
  2. ↑ Taniguchi, p.275 of Shashin Kōgyō no.77 (article also reproduced in Tanimura, pp.7–8 of Camera Collectors' News no.116). This is repeated in Francesch, p.19, Baird, p.40, Lewis, p.45, Scheibel, p.11, Sugiyama, item 1182, Tanimura in Camera Collectors' News no.116.
  3. ↑ Picture of the ground glass back visible in this page of the Nagoya Club website.
  4. ↑ Awano, p.14 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12: シャッターもコイロス名ではあるが、明らかに自社製と思われるものを取り付け.
  5. ↑ Awano, p.14 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12, says that this is a Japanese lens, but this is probably by mistake.
  6. ↑ Awano, p.14 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12.
  7. ↑ McKeown, p.672, says that two models were made, with f/6.8 or f/6.3 lens. This page of the Nagoya Camera Club says that the lens is a Nifca-Anastigmat 105mm f/6.3, but this might be a typo.
  8. ↑ Francesch, pp.18, 67 and 263, Awano, p.14 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12, Saeki, p.77 of the same magazine, Baird, p.40, Scheibel, p.11, McKeown, p.672, Sugiyama, item 1182.
  9. ↑ Taniguchi, p.275 of Shashin Kōgyō no.77, and "Hensen kamera ichiran-pyō", p.295 of the same magazine (documents also reproduced in Tanimura, pp.7–8 of Camera Collectors' News no.116).
  10. ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Awano, p.6 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12.
  11. ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Hagiya, p.9 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12.
  12. ↑ Picture reproduced in Taniguchi, p.275 of Shashin Kōgyō no.77 (article also reproduced in Tanimura, p.8 of Camera Collectors' News no.116).
  13. ↑ According to Tashima Gizō (son of Tashima Kazuo, founder of the company), interviewed by Saeki Kakugorō on p.77 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12.
  14. ↑ Tashima Kazuo, Watakushi no rirekisho, reproduced in Andō, p.2 of Camera Collectors' News no.127.
  15. ↑ Example pictured in Francesch, p.70, and in Sugiyama, item 1182.
  16. ↑ Sugiyama, item 1182.
  17. ↑ No.6671 pictured in Baird, p.40, Lewis, p.45, McKeown, p.672, Scheibel, p.10, this page of the Manual Minolta website and this Chinese webpage. No.6798 pictured in Awano, p.14 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12.
  18. ↑ Example pictured in this page of the Nagoya Camera Club, and example pictured in Minolta Eimukku 735, pp.131–2.

Bibliography

Links

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