Ohca

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The Ohca is a Japanese 6.5×9cm plate folder made from 1935 by Rokuoh-sha, the manufacturing branch of Konishiroku.

Name

The name is often spelled "Ohka" by mistake, but the markings on the camera read Ohca. This name is usually written in katakana script (オーカ) in the original documents; at least one leaflet confirms that it comes from the word 桜花 in kanji script, meaning "cherry blossom".[1] The name would later be used for the 1945 suicide plane, but this is the same oh character as that in Rokuoh-sha, and the company had long used both sakura (the other reading of the same character) and "cherry" to name its products.

Description

The Ohca has a metal body, similar to that of the Idea (1933). It is easily distinguished by its focusing worm screw on the photographer's right. The bellows has true double extension. The distance scale is on the left of the focus rails, and there is sometimes a depth-of-field table on the camera's left side. There is brilliant finder atop the front standard, and a wireframe finder on the left. The camera has limited vertical movement ability. The name Ohca is inscribed on an oval plate riveted inside the folding bed between the focus rails.

Lens and shutter

The Ohca was offered with either an Apus (T, B, 25–100) or a Durax (T, B, 1–125) dial-set shutter, and a Rokuoh-sha Optor Anastigmat 10.5cm lens in either f/6.3 or f/4.5 aperture.[2] (Despite the Rokuoh-sha engraving on the lens rim, the Optor lenses were supplied by Asahi Kōgaku.) Surviving examples are confirmed with the Optor f/6.3 and the Apus or Durax.[3] The depth-of-field table on the side has the lens name Optor Anas't 10.5c.m and the word 焦点震度表 (meaning "depth-of-field table").

Examples are also known with a Durax shutter and a Rodenstock-Trinar-Anastigmat f/4.5 lens, and perhaps no depth-of-field table.[4] The markings on the lens rim do not display the focal length but 2¼×3¼ instead, indicating the intended format in inches.[5]

Commercial life

The Ohca was advertised from November 1935 and was featured in the December 1935 issue of Asahi Camera.[6] Advertisements dated December 1935, September 1936 and February 1937 all give the same prices of ¥32 with an f/6.3 lens and ¥37 with an f/4.5.[7] The last reported advertisement is in Asahi Camera May 1939; it gives the prices as ¥47 with an f/6.3 lens and ¥52 with an f/4.5, both with a Durax shutter.[8] This advertisement also says that brown or green leather covering was available for ¥2 extra. The official list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941 still has an Ohca I (¥43), Ohca II (¥52) and Ohca III (¥54), with no further detail.[9]

Notes

  1. Leaflet reproduced in this page of the R. Konishi Rokuoh-sha website.
  2. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.334.
  3. Apus, Optor f/6.3: example pictured in Sugiyama, item 1149, and example observed in an online auction. Durax, Optor f/6.3: example pictured in Tanaka, p.41 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.10.
  4. Example pictured in Sugiyama, item 1150, showing no depth-of-field table, and example pictured in this page at Asacame.
  5. Marking visible in this page at Asacame.
  6. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.334.
  7. Advertisement in Photo Times December 1935 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.82. Advertisement in Asahi Camera September 1936 reproduced in the same, p.60. Advertisement in Kogata Camera February 1937 reproduced in the same, p.82.
  8. Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.82. It is the last advertisement listed in this source, p.334.
  9. "Kokusan shashinki no kōtei kakaku", type 8, sections 1, 2 and 4A.

Bibliography

Links

In Japanese: