Super Flex Baby

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The Super Flex Baby (スーパー・フレックス・ベビー) is a Japanese 4×4 SLR made from 1938 to 1942–3.[1] It was sold and advertised by the retailer Kikōdō, but it was manufactured by Umemoto Seisakusho.[2]

The Super Flex Baby was the first Japanese 4×4 SLR and the first Japanese rollfilm SLR. (The first Japanese SLR was the Sakura Reflex Plano by Konishi, later Konica, taking film plates.)

Description

The Super Flex Baby is inspired from the Karma Flex 4×4 SLR, with a near cubic shape altered by the film spool compartments on both sides. The lens is removable and the shutter is placed behind the lens mount. The speeds are set by a wheel attached to the front plate, placed at the top right as seen from the front. The shutter release is situated on the right hand side of the body, as seen by the photographer. On all the models, the lens is focused by turning the front element.

Most of the top plate is occupied by the viewfinder. The viewing hood contains a sports finder that is marked SUPER FLEX BABY inside a coat of arms. The advance knob is at the left end of the body and there are strap lugs on both sides. The back is hinged to the left and contains three red windows, protected by a common cover vertically sliding under a metal plate having 1 3 5 7, 2 4 6 8, 1 3 5 7 markings. This complicated system was required by the 4×4cm format, for which there was no indication on the rollfilm paper backing at the time.

Evolution

The Super Flex Baby appeared in mid 1938. Kokusan kamera no rekishi says that it was featured in the new products column of the August 1938 issue of Asahi Camera.[3]

Original model

The original model has a black and chrome speed wheel and lens barrel. The engraving on the viewing hood is black filled. The shutter release is a simple pivoting lever and is painted black.[4] The shutter speeds are B, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100.

An advertisement dated June 1938[5] offered the camera for ¥49 with a U.L.L. Anastigmat 75/4.5 lens. Kokusan kamera no rekishi says that it was the only advertisement to offer this lens option and that the camera was normally sold with a Super Anastigmat 7.0cm f/4.5, as listed in an advertisement dated February 1939[6] where the camera is priced ¥58.

Super Flex Baby II

The Super Flex Baby II appeared in mid 1939.[7] It has an all chrome speed wheel and lens barrel.[8] It was offered for ¥65 in an advertisement dated June 1939.[9]

Super Flex Baby III and IIIA

The Super Flex Baby II was replaced by the Super Flex Baby III at the beginning of 1940.[10] This model has a new type of release lever, consisting of a folded metal plate, vertically sliding on the right hand side of the camera. There is a button at the bottom of the release mechanism, that is used as a release lock allowing for time exposures.[11]

An advertisement dated April 1940[12] still offered the model II for ¥65 along with the new model III costing ¥78. It explicitly stated that the difference was the ability to take time exposures.

The Super Flex Baby IIIA was introduced at the beginning of 1941[13] as a more expensive alternative with a Super Anastigmat 65mm f/3.2 lens. It seems that the body has no difference, so that a III can be turned into a IIIA and vice versa by swapping the lens.[14]

An advertisement dated March 1941 offers the model III for ¥77 and the model IIIA for ¥88.[15] In an advertisement dated March 1942, the prices were respectively ¥90 and ¥102, and the f/4.5 model was called model II probably by mistake.[16] This March 1942 advertisement is the last one listed in Kokusan kamera no rekishi[17] and the camera production was soon interrupted by the war.

About the name

The name "Super Flex Baby" has been used throughout this article. The original documentation is not consistent and the camera is called "Super Flex Baby" or "Baby Super Flex" or simply "Super Flex", depending on the advertisement. (There is even one advertisement where the case is mentioned as "for the Baby Super Ref"[18] (ベビースーパーレフ用) while the camera is called "Super Flex Baby" in the header.) The camera itself is always marked "Super Flex Baby".

The brand name "Super" was certainly owned by the distributor Kikōdō that also sold Super plate folders and the Super Makinet Six.

Notes

  1. ↑ Dates: the advertisements mentioned in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 337, run from 1938 to 1942, and the Umemoto company history says that it was perhaps made until the beginning of 1943.
  2. ↑ No original document has been found to confirm this but it is stated in the Umemoto company history that is redacted by the grandson of the Umemoto founder.
  3. ↑ Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 337
  4. ↑ An example of this model is pictured in this page of the JCII collection and another in Sugiyama, item 2001.
  5. ↑ Published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 75.
  6. ↑ Published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 74.
  7. ↑ Date: advertisements mentioned in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 337.
  8. ↑ An example is pictured in Sugiyama, item 2002, and in Lewis, p. 75.
  9. ↑ Published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 75.
  10. ↑ Date: advertisements mentioned in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 337.
  11. ↑ An example is pictured in Sugiyama, item 2003, and another in Watanabe, p. 8 of Camera Collectors' News no. 40. The time exposure feature is confirmed in the Umemoto history page.
  12. ↑ Published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 75.
  13. ↑ Date: advertisements mentioned in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 337.
  14. ↑ An example is pictured in Sugiyama, item 2004, and another in the Umemoto history page.
  15. ↑ Advertisement published in Shashin Bunka, reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 75. The focal length is said to be 65mm for both models but this is surely a mistake.
  16. ↑ Advertisement published in Hōdō Shashin, reproduced in the Gochamaze website. Another advertisement reproduced in Nostalgic Camera by Toshio Inamura gives the same prices.
  17. ↑ Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 337
  18. ↑ "Ref" is an abbreviation often used for "Reflex" in Japan at the time.

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. Items 126–8.
  • Christies auction catalogue: "Fine and Rare Cameras", 5 November 1992, lot 334.
  • 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. 55.
  • 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. Items 2001–4.
  • Watanabe Katsumi (渡辺勝美). "Baby Super Flex" (ベビースーパーフレックス). In Camera Collectors' News no. 40 (October 1980). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp. 8–9.

Links

In Japanese:

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