Talk:Okada and Daiichi

Waltax attribution

I don't think there's any doubt that all the postwar Waltax models came from Daiichi. (The questions are: What were Okada, Walz, and Daiichi, and how were they interrelated?) -- Hoary 20:25, 27 May 2006 (EDT)

I have not yet seen a definitive proof, such as an ad or a Daiichi marking on a Waltax, while I have already seen a good proportion of postwar Waltax (with top housing) wearing Okako markings. (McKeown illustrates the Daiichi Waltax with a camera wearing a "Waltax Okako" logo and with another marked OKAKO in big letters on the shutter plate, so I was not particularly convinced.) If you have seen some definitive proof, such as an ad by Daiichi marketing the Waltax, please tell me. What is sure is that the Zenobia and postwar Waltax are essentially the same camera. But this is only the beginning and I have not researched too far for the moment. --Rebollo fr 06:51, 28 May 2006 (EDT)

I was busily scanning ads for the Waltax a short time ago (guess why!), but didn't actually examine them. On p. 75 of The History of the Japanese Camera (a handsome book published in the US in 1991, very well informed but alas not without misprints), we read: "Okada Kogaku, later Daiichi Optical, made the Waltax Senior...." We read on p. 104 that Waltz (sic) went bankrupt in April 1961, suggesting something about the end of the company; unfortunately nothing is written about its beginning. -- Hoary 08:38, 28 May 2006 (EDT)