Speed Pocket

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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 in the official price list compiled in October 1940, where it was priced at ¥45 with no further detail, and in a similar list dated November 1941, where it was attributed to Minagawa.[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") 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. "Kamera no kōtei kakaku kanpō happyō", November 1941, 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

  • 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 209. (See also the advertisements for item 199.)
  • Baird, John R. Collectors guide to Kuribayashi-Petri Cameras. Grantsburg, WI (USA): Centennial Photo Service, 1991. ISBN 0-931838-16-9. Pp. 18 and 99–101.
  • "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 2, section 6B.
  • "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 180.
  • Template:Kakaku1940 Type 2, section 6B.
  • 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), 0-935398-16-3 (hard). P. 51.
  • 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). P. 577.
  • 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 1052.

Links

In Japanese:

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