Walz
Walz was a Japanese company that made or sold cameras in the 1950s and early 1960s. Its full name as it appeared in 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 trading 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 December 1936 issue of Asahi Camera. It was simply called Walz, and the company name given was Walz Camera Works (ワルツカメラ・ウオークス). In the 16/6/1937 issue of Asahi Graph there was another ad (visible in this page) with 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"). This would indicate that Walz Works was the maker and Nihon Shōkai was the distributor. The camera pictured in the ads is a strut folder for 127 film (apparently 3×4cm format), with a small tubular optical finder on top. Walz is engraved in the front plate and embossed in the front leather. It has a 50mm f4.5 Walz lens and shutter speeds of 1/25 – 1/100 as well as T and B. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (see below) identifies Walz Camera Works as Okada Kōgaku (which it also describes as the manufacturer of the 1942 Waltax, although not of any of the various postwar Waltax models). It is certainly the same camera that is listed in McKeown as the "Walz Baby" under the Okada entry.
This Japanese page at La Chambre Claire suggests that Nihon Shōkai was the owner of the Walz brand name before the war, and became Walz Shōkai after the war.
Walz also sold many accessories, including filters, selftimers, exposure meters, rangefinders, multifocal finders (including a copy of the Leitz Imarect), flash units, etc.
Contents
120 film cameras
4.5×6 folder
6×6 folder
6×6 TLR
127 film cameras
- Walz
- Walz Automat 44
35mm film cameras
- Walz 35-S
- Walz Electric
- Walz Envoy 35
- Walz Envoy M-35
- Walz Wide
Links
In English:
- A post by Peter Evans at photo.net and another one by J Hopper both discuss Walz, Okada, Waltax, Walcon and so on (to be explored)
In Japanese:
Reference / further reading
- 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
