Pearl IV

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The Pearl IV is a 4.5×6cm folder, released by Konica (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.)

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.[1]

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.

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.[2]

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.

Notes

  1. ↑ The finder is sometimes described as having a frameline whose position adjusts to compensate for parallax. This is untrue: hold the camera steady, focus from the closest distance to infinity, and the view is unchanged and the frameline stays where it was. The frameline does have extra lines to indicate the variation caused by parallax: in this it is similar to some of the better accessory viewfinders (for 35mm rangefinder cameras, etc.) that lack an adjustment for distance.
  2. ↑ Miyazaki, Konika kamera no 50-nen, pp.129–30; Tanaka, "Nihon no supuringu-kamera: Konishiroku", p.61.

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. Items 169, 675–9, 1440–43. (See also the advertisement for item 168 and the picture on p. 20.)
  • Iwama Tomohisa (岩間倶久). Atarashii Pāru no tsukaikata (新しいパールの使い方). Tokyo: Amico, 1956.
  • Kawamata Masataku (川又正卓). "Konishiroku Pāru III" (小西六パールIII, Konishiroku Pearl III). Supuringu kamera de ikō: Zen 69 kishu no tsukaikata to jissha sakurei (スプリングカメラでいこう: 全69機種の使い方と実写作例, Let's try spring cameras: The use of and actual examples from 69 machines). Tokyo: Shashinkogyo Syuppan-sha, 2004. ISBN 4879560723 Pp.98–9. About the Pearl IIIL.
  • 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).
  • 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). Pp.544–5.
  • Miki Akira (三木旺). Pāru no tsukaikata (パールの使い方). Tokyo: Amico.
  • 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.
  • Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. P.76.
  • 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.
  • Tanimura Yoshihiko (谷村吉彦). "Dentō aru kyorikei-rendō semi-han supuringu kamera Pāru II" (伝統ある距離計連動セミ判スプリングカメラ：パールII, A coupled-rangefinder 4.5×6 spring camera with tradition: The Pearl II). 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.35, November 1995. Nihon no kamera 50nen (日本のカメラ50年, special issue on 50 years of Japanese cameras). P.63.
  • Uchida Yasuo (内田康男). "Hekisā 75mm no shikaku ni osamatta sangaku-shashin: Konpakuto na Pāru RS" (ヘキサー75mmの視角に収まった山岳写真: コンパクトなパールRS, Mountain photography from the perspective of a 75mm Hexar: The compact Pearl RS). 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.32–5.
  • Yazawa Seiichirō (矢沢征一郎). "Renzu no hanashi (164) Konitā" (レンズの話[164]コニター, Lens story [164] Konitor). In Camera Collectors' News no.254 (August 1998). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp.13–6.
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