Royal Senior
The Royal Senior (ローヤルシニア) is a Japanese camera taking 4×4cm pictures on 127 film.
Origin
One source says that the Royal Senior was made around 1954 by "Royal Works".[1] The model is probably related to the Royal Junior distributed by Sanshin Sangyō in 1951–2. The body shows similarities with the Royal 35 pictured in Sugiyama.[2] The date of 1954 seems too late, and the camera was more probably made a few years earlier.
Description
The Royal Senior has a metal body with rounded edges, similar to that of the Royal 35 but a little higher. The viewfinder is contained in the middle of the top housing. There is an accessory shoe on the left, as seen by the photographer. The name ROYAL SENIOR is engraved at the front, on either side of the viewfinder. The format 4×4 is engraved in red above the viewfinder, together with a logo showing a doublet lens above a triangle pointing downwards. The same logo is repeated on the rectangular metal plate screwed to the front of the body.
The film is loaded through the bottom plate. It is said that there is a screw on the back, pulling back the pressure plate for easier film loading.[3]
The lens and shutter assembly is mounted on a metal tube. The shutter is a Neuman, reportedly giving B, 1–250 speeds. It has a thread for a cable release and a synch pin at the bottom. The release lever is placed on the shutter casing itself. The shutter plate is inscribed NEUMAN at the top and NEUMAN OPTICAL WORKS at the bottom. The origin of this Neuman shutter is unknown. The name is reminiscent of Neumann & Heilemann but has a single "n", and it is probably not directly related: Billy Neumann died in a traffic accident in the late 1930s.[4] However the related Royal 35 is known with a Perfect shutter by Neumann & Heilemann, a surplus dating from the late 1930s, and the company which made the two cameras perhaps reused a similar name on purpose.
The lens is a front-cell focusing Royal Anastigmat 50mm f/3.5, the same as on the Royal 35.
Surviving examples
Two surviving examples of the Royal Senior are reported.[5] One of them is pictured in this page of the AJCC, and the other is certainly pictured in the October 1996 issue of Camera Collectors' News.
Notes
- ↑ Attribution to Royal Works: this page of the AJCC.
- ↑ Sugiyama, item 3742.
- ↑ Details of the back: this page of the AJCC.
- ↑ Tanimura, p.99 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.12.
- ↑ See this page of the AJCC.
Bibliography
- Camera Collectors' News, October 1996.
- 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. Item 3742 (Royal 35), for comparison purpose.
- Tanimura Yoshihiko (谷村吉彦). "Neumann & Heilemann: kieta ashiato, Minoruta setsuritsu to sono ato no karera wo otte" (Neumann & Heilemann 消えた足跡・ミノルタ設立とその後の彼等を追って, On the traces of Neumann & Heilemann at the founding of Minolta and afterwards.) 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.12, October 1988. No ISBN number. Minoruta kamera no subete (ミノルタカメラのすべて, special issue on Minolta). Pp.96–9. (About the fate of Billy Neumann.)
The Royal Senior is not listed in Kokusan kamera no rekishi or in Sugiyama.
Links
In Japanese:
- Royal Senior in a page of the AJCC
