Union Ref and Hansa Rollette Ref

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The Hansa Rollette Ref[1] (ハンザ・ローレット・レフ) is a Japanese 4.5×6 pseudo TLR. It is shaped like a twin lens reflex but the viewing lens is not used for focusing. It is said to be fixed-focus.[2]

This camera was surely distributed by Ōmiya Shashin-yōhin, the owner of the "Hansa" brand, but its actual maker is unknown. Its nameplate is only written Rollette Ref.

The Hansa Rollette Ref is featured in the new products column of the February 1936 issue of Asahi Camera.[3] It seems to be the first Japanese camera with the TLR shape.[4] It is listed in the catalogue of Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten dated April 20, 1937[5], for ¥16. It is said to have a Tribar[6] 75/8 lens and a T, B, 25–100 shutter.[7]

Notes

  1. The name is spelled "Hanza Rollette Ref" in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 339, but this is a typo.
  2. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 339.
  3. Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 339.
  4. The Japanese Historical Camera, p. 23 (in Japanese and English); Japanese-only version in this page of the JCII.
  5. Reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 84.
  6. Inferred from the katakana トリバー.
  7. Lens and shutter: Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 339.

Bibliography

In Japanese:

In English:

  • The Japanese Historical Camera. 2nd ed. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2004.
  • 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. 54 (brief mention only).

Links

In Japanese: