Speed Pocket

From Camera-wiki.org
Revision as of 12:03, 29 May 2007 by Rebollo fr (talk | contribs) (minor)
Jump to: navigation, search
Japanese Vest (4×5 and 4×6.5) (edit)
folding
4×4.5 Orient
4×5 Minion
4×6.5 Clover Vest | Dianette | Eagle | Friend | Kooa | National | New Vest | Nifcarette | Pearlette | B Pearlette | Special Pearlette | Pionette | Pocket Prince | Sirius Bebe | Speed Pocket | Tsubasa Spring | Victory
rigid or collapsible
4×5 Alfax | Olympus Standard | Sakura (bakelite) | Well Standard
4×6.5 Vest Adler | Vest Alex | Kowa Kid | Light | Light Super | Baby Minolta | Minolta Vest | Regal Olympic | Vest Olympic | Tsubasa Chrome | Zen-99
box
4×6.5 Baby Clover | Sakura (box) | Spirit
unknown
4×5 Vesten
4×6.5 Victor Vest
unknown Meiro
Japanese 3×4 and 4×4, 4.5×6, 6×6 and 6×9 ->

The Speed Pocket (スピード・ポケット) is a Japanese folding camera taking 4×6.5 pictures on 127 film made by Kuribayashi.[1] It was advertised in 1936 and 1937 by First Camera Works or Minagawa Shōten, and it was perhaps still made during the war.[2]

Description of the body

The Speed Pocket is a vertical folder copied from the Agfa Billy 0, with a body made of alloy.[3] The metal struts have an incurved slot guiding the front standard when folding the bed. There is a folding frame finder in the middle of the top plate. The key to wind the film and the folding bed release are at the bottom right, as seen by a photographer holding the camera horizontally. The back is hinged to the left.

The top and bottom plates and the standing leg have "art-deco" patterns directly copied from the Billy 0. The name SPEED is embossed in the front leather, in capital letters with a higher "S".

The Pocket Prince distributed by Fukada Shōkai and usually attributed to Prince Camera Works or Fujimoto has an extremely similar body, with no provision for 3×4cm exposures and no decorative patterns. It is not known if the two cameras were related. Kuribayashi perhaps supplied the bodies of the Pocket Prince to Fukada Shōkai.

Evolution, lens and shutter equipment

The Speed Pocket was featured in the new products column of the January 1937 issue of Asahi Camera.[4] The camera was called Speed Pocket and mentioned as a new model in an advertisement dated December 1936.[5] It was offered for ¥50 with a Toko f/4.5 three element lens by Tōkyō Kōgaku and a selftimer-equipped Licht shutter by Seikōsha.[6] Versions equipped with a Magna shutter and an f/6.3 or f/4.5 lens were announced as available soon. No mention was made of the ability to take 3×4cm pictures and in the advertising picture (also reproduced in this page of the JCII collection) the viewfinder does not appear to be adapted for half-frame exposures.

In an advertisement dated April 1937 mentioning the dual-format feature, the Licht and Toko combination was offered for the slightly lower price of ¥48 and the Magna shutter was no more mentioned.[7] Both advertisements cited give the company name First Camera Works and a list of authorized dealers.[8]

The Speed Pocket was listed for ¥45 in the official price list compiled in October 1940, with no further detail.[9] It was still mentioned in the "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), listing the Japanese camera production as of April 1943, with the Toko 75/4.5 lens and the Licht shutter.[10]

Actual examples

The camera pictured as a Speed Pocket in Sugiyama, Baird, McKeown and Lewis[11] is probably misidentified: it has a Baron Anastigmat 7.5cm f/4.5 lens in a Kerio shutter, no art-deco patterns and no SPEED embossing, and it is certainly a Pocket Prince. No genuine surviving example of the Speed Pocket has been observed so far.

Notes

  1. Attribution to Kuribayashi: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 180.
  2. Dates: Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 340, lists advertisements and articles dated 1936 and 1937. Baird, pp. 99–101, says that it was first called "Speed Pocket" in 1934 then "First Speed Pocket" in 1936 but this seems wrong, and Lewis, p. 54, also gives 1934 as the release date. Sugiyama, item 1052, McKeown, p. 577, and this page of the JCII collection all say 1936. The Speed Pocket appears in the list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and in the "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras") listing the Japanese camera production as of April 1943.
  3. Alloy body: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 180.
  4. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 340.
  5. Advertisement published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 86.
  6. Three elements: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens item Lc1.
  7. Advertisement published in Camera Club, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 88.
  8. List of authorized dealers: Hattori Tokei-ten, Ōmiya Shashin-yōhin, Mizuno Shashinki-ten, Asanuma Shōkai Honten, Misuzu Shōkai and Ueda Shashinki-ten.
  9. Template:Kakaku1940 short, type 2, section 6B.
  10. "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), item 180.
  11. Sugiyama, item 1052, Baird, pp. 99–101, McKeown, p. 577 and Lewis, p. 51.

Bibliography

Links

In Japanese: