Pearl IV

The Pearl IV is a 4.5×6cm folder, released by Konishiroku (the later Konica) in December 1958. It succeeded the Pearl III, and was the last of a long line of cameras called "Pearl", inaugurated in 1909. (Other articles deal with the early Pearl for plates and rollfilm, the Pearl No.2, the self-erecting 6×9 Pearl, the Semi Pearl, the Pearl (I), II and III, and the Baby Pearl and Pearlette cameras.)

Description

The camera is a radical redesign of the Pearl III, with a completely different diecast aluminium body and a finder of advanced design with a projected frameline. The finder has additional lines for parallax but there is no automatic parallax correction: the frame does not move when focusing.

The door over the bellows is hinged on the right hand side (as experienced by a photographer holding the camera horizontally), as opposed to all the earlier models; the shutter release is still at the top of the door and near the hinge, it is thus pressed by the right hand whereas the earlier models had a left-handed release button. The diecast body pushes the weight over 700g. The housing for the finders extends almost the whole way across the top, and the accessory shoe is no longer next to it but instead above its centre. The Hexar lens and Seikosha-MXL shutter are inherited from the Pearl IIIL, but the focusing aid is no longer convex but instead a simple tab. There is double exposure prevention as well as auto-stop film advance and an auto-reset exposure counter.

Commercial life

At ¥22,000, the IV was slightly cheaper than the IIIL (¥24,800). However, interest in folding cameras was waning fast, and production of this camera stopped after about six months and after only about five thousand had been made.

Posterity

The Pearl IV is now regarded as one of the finest cameras of this format. Konishiroku would never again attempt anything like it (or reuse the name "Pearl"). The closest thing to a successor is probably the Fujica GS645 of 1983.

The Pearl IV is often referred to as a rarity. This is an exaggeration: five thousand is not so few, and it is not the kind of device that even the ignorant will unhesitatingly throw into the trash. Examples are not particularly hard to find in the Japanese market; however, they are expensive by folder standards, now (2006) costing around three times as much as examples of the Pearl III in similar condition.

Konishiroku's next medium-format rangefinder would be the Koni-Omega Rapid of 1964; Konishiroku also made an abortive attempt at another 4.5×6 camera with the Konica SF SLR.

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 1443.
• Konika-Minoruta-ten (コニカミノルタ展, Konica Minolta exhibition). Exhibition catalogue. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2005.
• 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).
• McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). P.544.
• Miyazaki Shigemoto (宮崎繁幹). Konika kamera no 50nen: Konika I-gata kara Hekisā RF e (コニカカメラの50年：コニカI型からヘキサーRFへ, Fifty years of Konica cameras: From the Konica I to the Hexar RF). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 2003. ISBN 4-257-12038-X.
• 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.18.
• 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:

• Pearl IV at The Classic Camera
• Pearl IV, lot no.791 of auction no.9 (20 May 2006) by Westlicht Photographica Auction

In Japanese:

• Pearl IV at The Classic Camera
• Pearl IV and more pictures at Hayata Camera Laboratory
• Pearl IV: repair notes and sample pictures at Kan's Room
• Pearl IV within a Konishiroku page at Yume o hakobu shashinki
• Pearl IV within a Konica page at Sarusuberi