Pearl (6×9 self-erecting)

This is a work in progress.

The name Pearl (パール) was given by Konishi Honten and Konishiroku Honten (the later Konica) to many models of rollfilm folders. This article deals with the 6×9cm self-erecting models, sold from 1933 to the immediate postwar period.

See also the Pearl (for plates and rollfilm), Pearl No.2 and Pearl (4.5×6); and, for 127 film, the Baby Pearl and Pearlette.

"Spring camera"

The Pearl sold from 1933 onwards are vertical folders with a self-erecting lens. It was the first Japanese folding camera whose lens would spring to the ready when the body was opened. This innovation very quickly became as ubiquitous among Japanese as among other folding cameras, to the point where "spring camera" (supuringu kamera) became the standard Japanese term for a folding camera. Japanese accounts of domestically produced "spring cameras" of course start with the Year-Eight Pearl, which thus has rather more historical significance within Japan than someone not speaking Japanese might guess.

Common features

The Pearl appears to be a copy of the Ikonta (520/2) released in 1929 by Zeiss Ikon, from which it retains the octagonal body sides, strut arrangement and self-erecting mechanism; however, focusing moves the entire lens and shutter assembly, mounted on a helical, and not merely the frontmost element.

All the models have an eye-level finder on the body side and a brilliant finder on the front standard. The advance key is at the top right — as seen by the photographer holding the camera vertically — and the release button for the folding bed is placed next to it. There are two tripod threads: under the folding bed and opposite the advance key. The back is hinged to the bottom, and has a depth-of-field table attached towards the top. The film advance is controlled via two red windows, allowing to take 4.5×6cm exposures with a mask in the exposure chamber.

The lens and shutter unit as a whole is mounted on a helix driven by a small tab, allowing to focus down to 2m. This feature was quite unusual on folding cameras in the 1930s, and was an improvement on the original Ikonta design. It is not known if the Japanese engineers chose this solution because it was theoretically better, or because they did not master the computations involved by front-focusing lenses: these were only recently introduced on the Ikonta, whereas the first Japanese camera lenses were commercially available for two years only.

The Year-Eight Pearl

The Pearl camera released in April 1933 is called Year-Eight Pearl (an arbitrary translation of 八年型パール, hachinen-gata Pāru) after the release year, the eighth of the Shōwa era. The name was perhaps used at the time for advertising — this is confirmed for the similarly named "Year-Eight Idea" but not for the Pearl.

The camera has a folding optical finder on the body side, with two hairlines on the front element to delineate the field of view for 4.5×6cm exposures, and a blue-tinted round eyepiece. The two red windows are uncovered, and have a characteristic shape with a round indent allowing to see the number before it comes into the proper position. At the time of the release, the lens was announced as a Zion 10.5cm f/6.3 or f/4.5, certainly a triplet designed by Rokuoh-sha and manufactured by Asahi Kōgaku, and there was a choice between two self-cocking shutters made by Rokuoh-sha: an Apus (アパス, copy of the German Vario; T, B, 25, 50, 100) or a Zeus (ゼウス, copy of the German Ibsor; T, B, 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 125). Both shutters have two blades, a dial at the top, and a simple "thread-and-pin" self-timer device. The prices reportedly ranged from ¥43 (f/6.3, Apus) to ¥58 (f/4.5, Zeus). The Zion was swiftly replaced by or renamed as the Optor, again a triplet, and the Zeus shutter became the Durax, with similar features. No actual example of the Pearl has been found with a Zion lens or Zeus shutter, but some Zion lenses are known on Pearlette cameras.

After some time, it seems that the f/6.3 option became associated to the cheaper Apus shutter only. The back was modified with a single slider to cover both red windows, perhaps with the introduction of the Sakura Pan F panchromatic film by Rokuoh-sha in January 1936, and certainly before the introduction of the Hexar lens (all the cameras with Hexar lens observed so far have covered red windows). This feature is sometimes presented as defining the "Year-Eleven Pearl" (11年型パール, jūichinen-gata Pāru), but this name was recently invented by collectors and is rarely used, the camera being merely called "Pearl" at the time.

Hexar lens and Rangefinder Pearl

Pearl, Hexar Ser.1 10.5cm f/4.5 lens no.3149, Durax shutter. (Image rights)

In November 1936 was announced an additional lens option: the Hexar f/4.5, only available with the Durax shutter. When this option was introduced, it was simply presented as a "new Pearl camera" (新型パールカメラ). The Hexar is a Tessar-based design with four elements in three groups, made by Rokuoh-sha, and which had earlier appeared on the Tropical Lily. It originally appeared in 11.5cm focal length, which was later supplemented by 10.5cm and 12cm. (The metal depth-of-field plate attached to the back is adapted for each focal length.)

From December 1936, the Pearl was offered in a special version, whose main finder is offset to the far left (as seen by the photographer holding the camera horizontally), above the hinge, thereby making space for a separate, horizontal rangefinder, attached via an accessory shoe. This version is today called "Rangefinder Pearl" (距離計付パール); at the time, it was announced as the "rangefinder-equipped Pearl camera" (距離計を備えたパールカメラ). The prices reportedly ranged from ¥60 to ¥85, including the rangefinder.

The "Sakura" brand rangefinder supplied with the Rangefinder Pearl is a device of high quality, with a baselength of 60mm (and calibrated in metres). It is black and inscribed with a stylized cherry blossom (sakura) leaf in the centre of which is a stylized character 六: the roku (literally "six") of both Konishiroku and Rokuoh-sha. As well as being part of a set with the camera, the rangefinder was sold separately for ¥12, in both metre and foot versions. For owners of a regular Pearl, the conversion to the rangefinder-equipped version was offered for free.

The regular Pearl continued to be available after the introduction of the rangefinder-equipped version. An advertisement in Kogata Camera February 1937 gives the price of ¥43 with an Optor f/6.3 (unchanged since 1933) and ¥73 with an Hexar f/4.5.

High-Grade Pearl

The High-Grade Pearl (高級パール) came out in November of 1937. It has a folding albada finder on the top, sometimes central, sometimes offset for an accessory shoe and rangefinder. There is a variety of lens/shutter combinations, each f/4.5 10.5cm, with a shutter in the rim: earlier, a Hexar lens with either Compur Rapid (B, 1–400) or Durax shutter; later a f/4.5 Simlar lens (from Tōkyō Kōgaku) and Seiko Leo shutter (B, 1–250).

Demise of the big Pearl

The Pearl does not seem to have been developed further. Stocks of parts were still assembled into whole cameras after the war, when its lack of a body shutter release and its consumption of film would have made it seem seem old-fashioned and extravagant. Its 1946 retail price was fixed at ¥2320, less than a Semi Pearl B (¥3050) but as much as an Olympus Six. From 1949, Konishiroku would skip the qualifier "Semi" and would use the name "Pearl" for 4.5×6 folders.

Sources and further reading

• 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. Item 167 (the Year-Eleven Pearl).
• Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Kokusan-hatsu no supuringu kamera de Hekisā renzu ga sōchaku sareta '11-nen-gata Pāru'" (国産初のスプリングカメラでヘキサーレンズが装着された「11年型パール」, The Year-Eleven Pearl, first Japanese spring camera, equipped with a Hexar lens). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.76, June 2005. ISBN 4-257-13078-4. Kurashikku kamera katachi to kinō 'supuringu kamera hen' (クラシックカメラ形と機能「スプリングカメラ編」, special issue on spring cameras). Pp.40–43.
• Inoue Yasuo (井上康夫). "Koten meigyoku o sagasō: Hachinen-gata Pāru, Oputā 10.5cm f/4.5" (古典名玉を探そう: 8年型パール・オプター10.5cmF4.5, Let's hunt out famous old lenses: The Year-Eight Pearl and Optor 10.5cm f/4.5). Shashin Kōgyō, March 2005.
• The Japanese Historical Camera. 日本の歴史的カメラ (Nihon no rekishiteki kamera). 2nd ed. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2004. Pp.15 and 18.
• Konika-Minoruta-ten (コニカミノルタ展, Konica Minolta exhibition). Exhibition catalogue. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2005.
• Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard).
• Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten (思い出のスプリングカメラ展, Exhibition of beloved self-erecting cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P.17.
• Tanaka Masao (田中政雄). "Konica history 5. Shōwa 8-nen – 20-nen." (Konica history 5. 昭和8年–20年. From Shōwa year 8 (1933) to Shōwa year 20 (1945).) Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.10, September 1987. No ISBN number. Konishiroku kamera no rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, special issue on Konishiroku). Pp.40–4.
• Tanaka Masao (田中政雄). "Nihon no supuringu kamera: Konishiroku" (日本のスプリングカメラ Konishiroku, The spring cameras of Japan: Konishiroku). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.8, September 1986. No ISBN number. Supuringu kamera (スプリングカメラ, special issue on spring cameras). Pp.58–61.
• Yamawaki Kunio (山脇邦男). "Senzen kokusan taishū kamera no genten: Pearl, Semi Pearl" (戦前国産大衆カメラの原点・パール・セミパール, The Pearl and Semi Pearl, origin of the prewar Japanese popular cameras). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.4, March 1984. No ISBN number. Meiki no keifu (名機の系譜, special issue on famous camera families). Pp.108–10.

Links

In English:

• Year-Eight Pearl, lot no.721 of the auction no.11 (26 May 2007) by Westlicht Photographica Auction

In Japanese:

• Pages of the R. Konishi Rokuoh-sha website:
  • Pearl cameras
  • Year-Eight Pearl in the camera list
  • Sakura rangefinder documentation and picture
  • Some early lenses and the Konishiroku cameras to which they were fitted
  • Cameras of the thirties, and other Konishiroku information
• Year-Eight Pearl in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology