Semi Renky
The Semi Renky is a Japanese 4.5×6 camera that was made by Rengo Koki between 1939 and 1941. It looks like the Olympic. The lens and shutter assembly is mounted on a telescopic tube.
The original model of the Semi Renky has a body made of some sort of plastic. A tubular optical finder is mounted on the center of the top plate, with an accessory shoe on the right and the advance knob on the left. The hinged back opens to the right, and has two red windows at the bottom to control film advance. At the base of the telescopic tube there is a massive metal ring engraved RengoKoki on the top and Tokyo at the bottom. On the body's front left, there is a metal plate marked SEMI RENKY in capital letters (this plate looks similar to the one marked The Olympic Camera Workson the Olympic cameras).
The shutter has T, B, 150, 100, 50, 25 speeds, the lens is a 75/4.5 maybe called Renko[1], and the aperture scale is at the bottom of the shutter plate. The latter has a small plate screwed at the top and written Semi Renky.
There was another version:
- New Semi Renky with a different metal body, same shutter, Tenobar Anastigmat 75/4.5 lens
- marked RengoKoki (and Tokyo?) on the helical ring, New Renky on the shutter plate, no body plate (illustrated in McKeown)
- marked New Semi Renky and Rengo Koki Tokyo? on the helical ring, Semi Renky on the shutter plate, no body plate (observed at ebay auction)
Printed 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. Items 321–2.
Links
In Japanese:
- Semi Renky (original model) at Japan Family Camera, with another page that gives the name of the maker in Japanese