Pearl (for plates and rollfilm)

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 6×9 and larger folders: see also Pearl (4.5×6); and, for 127 film, Baby Pearl and Pearlette.

The first Pearl

Pictures courtesy of eBayer stan7623. (Image rights)

The original Pearl (パール), released by Konishi Honten in 1909, was a copy of the No.3 Folding Pocket Kodak, but for tefuda (3¼×4¼ in.) format plates as well as 118 film. Most versions were called the Pearl Portable (パール手提暗函) and have only a brilliant finder perched on the front of the lens. Various lenses and shutters were available for it; for example, the no.3 Pearl had a Rapid Rectilinear lens and Simplex shutter, and the no.4 Pearl had a Zeiss Protar lens and an Automatic shutter, or a IIB Tessar lens and Compound shutter. Meanwhile, the Special Pearl (スペシャルパール) added a folding viewfinder, and had a Deltas f/6.8 or Velostigmat Series IV f/6.3 lens in tefuda format or a Velostigmat Series IV f/6.3 or f/7.5 lens for 4×5 in. format.

The Pearl No.2, roll film camera

See the main article Pearl No.2.

The Year-Eight Pearl, "spring camera"

The Year-Eight Pearl (8年型パール, April 1933) is a folder with a self-erecting lens: the bellows open and the lens board springs forward when the front is opened. It thus appears to be a copy of the Zeiss Ikonta of 1929; however, focusing moves the entire lens assembly, mounted on a helical, and not merely the frontmost element. There is a folding frame finder on the body and a brilliant finder on the shutter housing. 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), but the camera has also been observed with a Durax shutter (T, B, 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 125).

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.

The Year-Eleven Pearl and further innovations

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). 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.

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 tōchaku sareta '11nen 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 Hexar-lens-equipped first Japanese spring camera: The Year-Eleven Pearl). 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.6, 11, 15, 18.
• Konika-Minoruta-ten (コニカミノルタ展, Konica Minolta exhibition). Exhibition catalogue. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2005.
• Konishiroku Kamera no Rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, History of Konishiroku cameras), vol. 10 (Autumn 1985 issue) of Kamera Rebyū Bessatsu: Kurashikku Kamera Senka / All about Historical Cameras.
• 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.
• Tamura Hiroshi (田村寛). "Nichiro-sensō ato no shashin seihin to fukyū" (日露戦争後の写真製品と普及, Diffusion of photography and photographic products after the Russo-Japanese War). 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. Pp.40–3.
• 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.

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
  • Pearl Portable advertisements (1909)
  • Special Pearl advertisement
  • "Pearl Kodak" advertisement
  • Camera list with the Pearl Portable, Pearl 2 and Year-Eight Pearl
  • 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
• Pearl Portable, Pearl 2, Improved Pearl 2 and Year-Eight Pearl in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology
• N°2 Pearl and Testar 90/6.8 lens specs at at ksmt.com
• Camera page presenting a N°2 Pearl with a Wollensak Deltas Aplanat 105/6.8 lens at Pleasure Classic Lenses by K. Yamazaki
• Special Pearl and more pictures in Miyazawa Noriyuki's camera site