Pearl (6×9 self-erecting)

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523431527_497051c88d_m_d.jpg
(Image rights)
Japanese older 6×9 (edit)
folding First Center | First Roll | Kinka Roll | Lyra (6×9) | Pearl No.3 | Pearl No.2 | Year-Eight Pearl | Reex | Royal Junior
box Dox | Sakura (box)
3×4 and 4×4, 4×5 and 4×6.5, 4.5×6, 6×6 and plate ->
Modern 6×9 RF and SLR ->
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The name Pearl (パール) was given by Konishi Honten and Konishiroku Honten (the later Konica) to many models of rollfilm folders.[1] 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 Year-Eight Pearl 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 sold from 1933 onwards are vertical folders with a self-erecting lens: the bellows unfold and the lens board springs forward when the front is opened. The camera 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 shutter housing. The advance key is at the top right — as seen by the photographer holding the camera vertically. 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 Year-Eight Pearl, "spring camera"

The Year-Eight Pearl (8年型パール, April 1933)[2] has a mere folding frame finder on the body side. The lens is an f/6.3 or f/4.5 10.5 cm Zion triplet (swiftly replaced by or renamed as Optor), designed by Konishiroku and manufactured by Asahi Kōgaku. There was a choice between two Konishiroku shutters, both with two blades and having a dial under the brilliant finder: an Apus shutter (copy of the German Vario; T, B, 25, 50, 100) or a ゼウス shutter (copy of the German Ibsor; T, B, 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 125),[3] but the camera has also been observed with a Durax shutter (T, B, 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 125).[4]

The Year-Eleven Pearl and further innovations

523431527_497051c88d_m_d.jpg 523431539_91526b458c_m_d.jpg 523431537_822dba8a23_m_d.jpg 523431533_c09c18311f_m_d.jpg
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Year-Eleven Pearl, Hexar Ser.1 10.5cm f/4.5 no.3149, Durax shutter. (Image rights)

In November 1936 was announced an additional option: a Pearl with an f/4.5 11.5 cm Hexar lens, the Year-Eleven Pearl (11年型パール).[5] This camera would come in several variations, which together can be differentiated from the Year-Eight Pearl in having a single slider on the back to cover both red windows. It has a two-part folding finder on the top of the body: some examples have two glassless frames; others have glass in a large rectangular frame at the front and a smaller circle behind. The Hexar lens, a Tessar-based design by Konishiroku with four elements in three groups, had earlier appeared on the Tropical Lily. The 11.5cm focal length was later supplemented by 10.5cm and 12cm. On the model with the 12cm lens, the folding frame finder is at the far left (as seen by the photographer), above the hinge, thereby making space for a separate, horizontal rangefinder, attached via an accessory shoe. For each focal length, a metal plate showing depth of field is attached to the back.

The "Sakura" brand rangefinder supplied 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 Year-Eleven Pearl, the rangefinder (in both metre and foot versions) was sold separately, for ¥12. It came with a free accessory shoe, thus encouraging the owner of another camera to have its standard viewfinder offset and the accessory finder attached.[6]

The High-Grade Pearl (高級パール)[7] 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).[8]

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.[9] From 1949, Konishiroku would skip the qualifier "Semi" and would use the name "Pearl" for 4.5×6 folders.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Pearl" is written in roman script on most or all of these models. In Japanese, the line was and is called Pāru (i.e. the English word "Pearl" within Japanese phonology): the Japanese word for "pearl" is shinju (真珠), but this does not seem ever to have been applied to the camera. None of the cameras dealt with in this article was exported, and it is unlikely that any was either labeled or advertised with any roman script other than "Pearl". Thus the choice of names within this article is sometimes difficult.
  2. ↑ "Year-Eight Pearl" is an arbitrary translation of hachinen-gata Pāru (8年型パール) named after year 8 of Shōwa, i.e. 1933.
  3. ↑ Hagiya, "Kokusan-hatsu no supuringu kamera," p.40; Japanese Historical Camera, p.18; Konika-Minoruta-ten, p.6; Tanaka, p.58.
  4. ↑ Durax shutter: Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten, p.17.
  5. ↑ "Year-Eleven Pearl" is a translation of jūichi-nen-gata Pāru (11年型パール) named after year 11 of Shōwa, i.e. 1936.
  6. ↑ Hagiya, pp.42–3. Tanaka (p.58) claims that early examples had Optor lenses, and the choice of an Apus or a Durax shutter. Perhaps this is true, perhaps it is a confusion with conversions of earlier cameras.
  7. ↑ "High-Grade Pearl" is a translation of Kōkyū Pāru (高級パール).
  8. ↑ Tanaka, pp.58–9; Hagiya, pp.42–3.
  9. ↑ Japanese Historical Camera, p.60.

Sources and further reading

Links

In English:

In Japanese:


Konishiroku prewar and wartime cameras (edit)
plate hand cameras stereo hand cameras strut folders box telephoto SLR
Idea (original) | Idea A | Idea B | Idea Snap | Idea No.1 | Idea (metal) | Lily (original) | Lily (horizontal) | Lily (metal) | Tropical Lily | Noble | Ohca | Sakura Palace | Sakura Pocket Prano | Sakura Prano Idea Binocular | Sakura Binocular Prano Minimum Idea | Idea Spring | Korok Champion | Cherry | Sakura Army | Sakura Honor | Sakura Navy Idea Telephoto Idea Reflex (1910 and 1911) | Idea Reflex (1932) | Neat Reflex | Sakura Reflex Prano
rollfilm folders box or collapsible TLR
Pearlette | Special Pearlette | B Pearlette | Pearl (for plates and rollfilm) | Pearl No.2 | Pearl (Year 8) | Baby Pearl | Semi Pearl | Sakura Palace Record | Sakura (box) | Sakura (bakelite) Sakura-flex
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