Walz

Walz was a Japanese company that made or sold cameras in the 1950s and early 1960s. Its full name as it appeared on period ads was K.K. Walz Shōkai (株式会社ワルツ商会). Shōkai literally means "Company" in Japanese, but it is most often used for trade companies, and this looks like a distributor's name. It does not mean however that it did not have its own manufacturing branch.

Walz Shōkai was also an Olympus agent, as stated in a 1954 ad (visible on this page, second ad posted 2005/08/04).

The first camera observed with the name Walz appeared in a 1937 ad (from the 16/6/1937 issue of Asahi Graph, visible in this page). It was simply called Walz. There were the two company names Walz Works and Nihon Shōkai (literally "ワルツウオークス製・日本商會", "Made by Walz Works, Nihon Shōkai"). It seems that Walz Works was the maker and Nihon Shōkai was the distributor. The camera pictured in the ad looks like a 3×4cm format strut folder, with a small tubular optical finder on top. Walz is engraved in the front plate and embossed in the front leather. This camera is probably the same as the "Walz Baby" listed in McKeown at the Okada entry.

120 film cameras

4.5×6 folder

• Walcon

6×6 folder

• Walcon 6

6×6 TLR

• Wagoflex
• Walzflex, various models

Links

In English:

• A post by Peter Evans at photo.net and another one by J Hopper both give about Walz, Okada, Waltax, Walcon and so on (to be explored)

In Japanese:

• Japanese postwar ads, mostly from 1954
• Prewar Japanese ads, including the original Walz