Pocket Prince

The Pocket Prince is a Japanese folding camera taking 4×6.5 pictures on 127 film, advertised in 1939 and 1940 by the distributor Fukada Shōkai. The camera is usually attributed to Fujimoto or to Prince Camera Works, (but the latter was not the name of any actual company).

Description of the body

The Pocket Prince is a vertical folder copied from the Agfa Billy 0. The metal struts have an incurved slot guiding the front standard when folding the bed. There is a folding frame finder in the middle of the top plate. The key to wind the film is at the bottom right, as seen by a photographer holding the camera horizontally. The back is hinged to the left and contains a single uncovered red window in the middle, with a hexagonal shape, the same as on the Billy 0.

The Speed Pocket made from 1936 by Kuribayashi and distributed by Minagawa has a similar body, with provision for 3×4cm exposures and decorative patterns on the top and bottom plates and on the standing leg. The two cameras are certainly related. Kuribayashi perhaps supplied the bodies of the Pocket Prince to Fukada Shōkai. The Speed Pocket is extremely similar to the Billy 0, even in small details, and a bolder guess would be that camera bodies were supplied by Agfa to both companies, and that only the final assembly took place in Japan.

Lens and shutter equipment

Advertising

In an advertisement dated October 1939, the Pocket Prince was announced as a new product but no lens and shutter was mentioned.

In advertisements dated April 1940 and August 1940, the camera was offered for ¥58 with a Baron 75/4.5 lens and a Kerio shutter giving 25, 50, 100, 150, T, B, speeds. In all the advertising pictures observed, the folding bed release is next to the viewfinder and the shutter is a Prontor II, despite what is said in the advertising text. Kokusan kamera no rekishi mentions versions with a Radionar f/4.5 lens and a Prontor II or a Compur shutter.

The Pocket Prince was listed for ¥69 in the official price list compiled in October 1940, with no further detail.

Actual examples

One example is pictured in Sugiyama with a Prontor II shutter giving 175–1, B, T speeds and a Schneider Radionar 7.5cm f/4.5 lens. The folding bed release is next to the advance key and there is a black accessory shoe at the right end of the top plate, which is perhaps not original.

Another camera is pictured in Sugiyama, Baird, McKeown and Lewis, where it is identified as a Speed Pocket. This identification is very unlikely and the camera is certainly a Pocket Prince: it has a Baron Anastigmat 7.5cm f/4.5 lens in a Kerio shutter, no "art-deco" patterns on the top and bottom plates and on the standing leg, and no SPEED embossing. The folding bed release is on the same side as the viewfinder.

Bibliography

• 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 230. (See also the advertisements for item 155.)
• Baird, John R. Collectors guide to Kuribayashi-Petri Cameras. Grantsburg, WI (USA): Centennial Photo Service, 1991. ISBN 0-931838-16-9. Pp. 99–101.
• Template:Kakaku1940 Type 2, section 6B.
• 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). P. 51.
• 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. 331 and 577.
• 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. Items 1052 and 1233.