Shinko Super
The Shinko Super is a Japanese 6×6cm viewfinder camera with a focal plane shutter, advertised in 1942 by Yamashita Shōten and probably made by Shinkō Seiki (see below).[1]
Description
The Shinko Super has a metal body with rounded edges. It looks somewhat like the Ricohl 3×4cm camera. The top housing contains an eye-level finder offset to the left. The advance knob is at the top left. It seems that there is a flush accessory shoe in the middle of the top plate. The speed selecting knob is offset to the right and a button is visible further to the right, certainly the shutter release. The focal plane shutter gives B, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 200 speeds, and the lens is a collapsible four-element Shinko Anastigmat 80/3.5.[2] (The lens is the same as on the Shinkoflex, but the shutter is certainly similar but for a lower top speed.)
Advertisements and original documents
The Shinko Super is not mentioned in the official list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941,[3] but it appears in a later official price list dated November 1941.[4] The camera was advertised as the Shinko Super I (シンコースーパーⅠ型) in the February 1942 issue of Shashin Bunka.[5] It is also mentioned in the April 1943 government inquiry on Japanese camera production.[6] The maker's name is unfortunately missing from the document, but the maker of the lens is mentioned as Shinkō, the same company which made the Shinko Baby and certainly the Shinkoflex.[7]
No surviving example has been observed so far, but there is a record of an online auction for a Shinko Super I with body no.304 and lens no.311.[8]
Notes
- ↑ Date: advertisements listed in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.337.
- ↑ Four elements: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item M3.
- ↑ "Kokusan shashinki no kōtei kakaku".
- ↑ "Kamera no kōtei kakaku kanpō happyō", November 1941, type 3, section 10.
- ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p.74.
- ↑ "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 100.
- ↑ "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item M3.
- ↑ Extract of a Marktplaats auction found in Google's cache.
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 122.
- "Kamera no kōtei kakaku kanpō happyō" (カメラの公定価格官報発表, Official announcement of the set prices of the cameras), November 1941. Extract of a table listing Japanese camera production and setting the retail prices, reproduced in "Bebī Semi Fāsuto 'Kore ha bebī wo nanotta semi-ki da'" (ベビーセミファースト"これはベビーを名乗ったセミ機だ", Baby Semi First, 'this is a Semi camera called Baby'), an article by Furukawa Yasuo (古川保男) in Camera Collectors' News no. 277 (July 2000). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. P. 27. Type 3, section 10.
- "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" (国産写真機ノ現状調査, Inquiry into Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943. Reproduced in Supuringu kamera de ikou: Zen 69 kishu no shōkai to tsukaikata (スプリングカメラでいこう: 全69機種の紹介と使い方, Let's try spring cameras: Presentation and use of 69 machines). Tokyo: Shashinkogyo Syuppan-sha, 2004. ISBN 4-87956-072-3. Pp.180–7. Item 100.
- "Kokusan shashinki no kōtei kakaku" (国産写真機の公定価格, Set prices of the Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of October 25, 1940 and setting the retail prices from December 10, 1940. Published in Asahi Camera January 1941 and reproduced in 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. Pp.108—9. The Shinko Super does not appear in this list.
This camera is not listed in Sugiyama.
