Sources: English language

General books on cameras

McKeown's Guide

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). (Template:McKeown12 and inline Template:McKeown)

Matanle's Classic Cameras

Matanle, Ivor. Collecting and Using Classic Cameras. London: Thames & Hudson, 1986. First paperback edition, 1992. ISBN 0-500-27656-0.

Matanle's Classic SLRs

Matanle, Ivor. Collecting and Using Classic SLRs. London: Thames & Hudson, 1996. ISBN 0-500-01726-3.

German cameras

Zeiss Compendium

Barringer, C. and Small, M. Zeiss Compendium East and West — 1940–1972. Small Dole (UK): Hove Books Ltd., 1999 (2nd edition). ISBN 1-874707-24-3.

Japanese cameras

The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras

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. (Template:Zukan and inline Template:Sugiyama)

A large, clothbound book that presents a photograph of and a little very dry text (in both Japanese and English) about each of thousands of cameras. (The Japanese title means "illustrated catalogue" and is more accurate.) Hundreds of these cameras are obscure, giving the impression that the book is comprehensive. It is not: there are glaring omissions among even cameras that are well known (e.g. the Fujica G690 and its interchangable-lens successors). There are also some odd mistakes, many of them concerning the Roman (mis)reading of Japanese names. (The book is acknowledged to be a major resource for McKeown's Guide, and some of its mistakes — such as attributing the Mine Six to "Takamine" instead of Takane — are reproduced there.) While the book should be used with care, it is cumulatively very informative and a remarkable achievement; and it is greatly enlivened by the informal and irreverent asides scattered here and there. Although now (late 2006) out of print, new copies are still available at some retailers (e.g. JCII Camera Museum) for the original (high) price; the price of used copies is sometimes lower than this, more often higher (sometimes with the predictable if dubious claim of rarity).

The History of the Japanese Camera

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), ISBN 0-935398-16-3 (hard). (Template:Lewis)

A large and handsome paperback, whose title page reads From a translation by William and Amy Fujimura of Nihon Camera No Rekishi / Published by / The International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House / For / The Japan Camera and Optical Instruments Inspection and Testing Institute. One wonders what this translation was like. The book consists of sixteen chapters, each originating from an article by one of the following authors: Tanaka Yoshiro, Suzuki Hachiro, Tanaka Masao, Miyabe Hajimu, Shirai Tatsuo, Saeki Kakugoro, Ogura Iwao, Hibi Takashi and William Fujimura. After extensive editing by Lewis, the finished book is most interesting and well written, but it is unfortunately marred by a lot of minor errors. The book supersedes a 1984 exhibition catalogue from the International Museum of Photography, The Evolution of the Japanese Camera (although the minority of cameras in the earlier publication that are shown in photographs are shown larger and more clearly than that for any camera in the later one).

The Japanese Camera

Baird, John R. The Japanese Camera. Yakima, WA: Historical Camera Publications, 1990. ISBN 1-879561-02-6. (Template:Baird Japanese)

The Japanese Historical Camera

The Japanese Historical Camera. 日本の歴史的カメラ (Nihon no rekishiteki kamera). 2nd ed. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2004. (Template:J historical)

A clothbound book in a simple slipcase that presents a photograph and a very few facts about each of over seven hundred cameras, from 1903 to 2003. Most are innovative in some way (often only a small or merely gimmicky way, and sometimes innovative only among Japanese cameras rather than cameras in general). A very few are presented with no claim of innovation but because of their reputation, sales or both; there are surprising omissions, such as the original Asahi Pentax. The terse text is in both Japanese and English (the latter not always completely understandable), the Japanese (but not the English) also appearing in the camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology. This book has no ISBN and perhaps is only sold at and from the museum (for ¥3500). The museum shows it here; however, the site seems to presume that anyone interested in buying it would be living in Japan and would order via fax.

Canon Rangefinder Cameras

Dechert, Peter. Canon Rangefinder Cameras 1933–68. Hove, East Sussex: Hove Foto Books, 1985. ISBN 0-906447-30-5. (Template:Dechert Canon)

A compact, highly informative, and excellently written book that provides a detailed history of Canon's Leica-inspired cameras, and brief looks at other aspects of the company and its products. Dechert goes into enough detail to satisfy earnest rivet-counters, but also clearly enjoys using some of the cameras; the book thus gives plenty of information about how the equipment holds up in use, and thus a copy is an excellent investment for anybody wondering whether or not to buy this or that Canon with the intention of using it rather than merely sticking it in a display cabinet. Used copies of the book are now (2007) often described as "rare" by more optimistic or unscrupulous dealers; meanwhile, new copies are being sold at the modest list price by dealers such as Andrews (Teddington, suburban London).

Kuribayashi-Petri Cameras

Baird, John R. Collectors guide to Kuribayashi-Petri Cameras. Grantsburg, WI (USA): Centennial Photo Service, 1991. ISBN 0-931838-16-9. (Template:Baird Petri)

Topcon Story

Antonetto, M. and Russo, C. Topcon Story. Lugano: Nassa Watch Gallery, 1997. ISBN 88-87161-00-3. (Template:Antonetto Russo)

Chinese cameras

Cameras of the People's Republic of China

St Denny, Douglas. Cameras of the People's Republic of China. Leicester, UK: Jessop Specialist Publishing, 1989. ISBN 0-9514392-0-0.

Photography

History of Japanese Photography

Tucker, Anne Wilkes, et al. The History of Japanese Photography. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-300-09925-8.

An unusually large and lavish catalogue for what must have been a major exhibition. Quite rightly, the vast majority of this book is about the photographs themselves and very little of it is about the cameras used for these photographs. But in addition to its discussion of aesthetics, the book contains a considerable amount of material on the social, economic and political history of photography in Japan, and thus the early history of the Japanese photographic industry, which reached adolescent vigor while exports (and even sales to foreigners within Japan) were negligible. The book has a number of informative and valuable appendices. The production is up to Yale University Press's usual excellent standard.

Japanese photography magazines

Shirayama Mari. "Major Photography Magazines." In The History of Japanese Photography, ed. Ann Wilkes Tucker, et al. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-300-09925-8. Pp. 378–85.

Information about each of forty or so Japanese photography magazines; abridged as well as translated from Shirayama's Shashin zasshi no kiseki.