Special Camera plate folder

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Japanese plate cameras, folding bed (edit)
No.0 (4×5cm) Alpha | Sweet | Pony Sweet | Taishō-shiki
atom (4.5×6cm) Monarch | Need | Palma
meishi (5.5×8cm) Eagle | Idea A | Idea B | Idea Snap | Idea No.1 | Iris | Lily (horizontal) | Pearl No.3 | Special Camera | Venis | X
daimeishi (6.5×9cm) Apollo | Arcadia | Crite | Special East | Eaton | Elliotte | First | First Etui | Gold | Happy | Hope | Idea No.1 | Idea (metal) | Kinka | Kokka | Lily (horizontal) | Lily (metal) | Tropical Lily | Lloyd | Lomax | Masnette | Mikuni | Need | Nifca Klapp | Nifca Sport | Ohca | Palma | Peter | Prince | Prince Peerless | Proud | Romax | Rosen | Rubies | Sirius | Sun | Super | Tokiwa | Venus | Weha Idea | Weha Light
tefuda (8×10.5cm) Eagle | Idea A | Idea B | Idea No.1 | Idea (metal) | Iris | Lily (original) | Lily (horizontal) | Lily (metal) | Palma | Pearl No.3, No.4 | Minimum Pearl | Special Pearl | Sakura Palace | Sakura Pocket Prano | Star | Tokiwa | Weha
nimaigake (8×12cm) Eagle | Idea | Idea Binocular | Sakura Prano | Sakura Binocular Prano | Star Premo
hagaki (8×14cm) Eagle | Noble | Pearl No.3, No.4 | Star
kabine (12×16.5cm) Idea | Noble | Sakura Prano | Star Premo
Japanese plate film: monocular, box, strut-folding and SLR ->
3×4 and 4×4, 4×5 and 4×6.5, 4.5×6, 6×6 and 6×9 ->

The Special Camera is a Japanese folding camera reportedly taking meishi-size (5.5×8cm) exposures on glass plates.[1] It is only known from a single example pictured in Sugiyama, where it is attributed to a company called "Best Camera Co.", for some reason.[1] It might be related to the no-need-darkroom Special Best Camera pictured in the same source, and attributed to the same "Best Camera Co."

Description

The camera itself is a regular plate folder with a wooden body. Its front standard is manually pulled out of the body and slid back and forth by hand on two rails for focusing. There is a distance scale and a brilliant finder on the photographer's left, and a handle at the top. The shutter plate is inscribed Special Camera above the lens, and has other markings, which are illegible on the available picture. The lens has a diaphragm; the aperture range reportedly goes from 6.3 to 32. The shutter is said to provide Bulb and Instant exposures, and the word "Handol" is reportedly inscribed on the release lever, probably a typo for the English word "handle".

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Sugiyama, item 4070.

Bibliography

  • 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 4070.