X (Sone)

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Japanese plate cameras, folding bed (edit)
No.0 (4×5cm) Alpha | Sweet | Pony Sweet | Taishō-shiki
atom (4.5×6cm) Monarch | Need | Palma
meishi (5.5×8cm) Eagle | Idea A | Idea B | Idea Snap | Idea No.1 | Iris | Lily (horizontal) | Pearl No.3 | Special Camera | Venis | X
daimeishi (6.5×9cm) Apollo | Arcadia | Crite | Special East | Eaton | Elliotte | First | First Etui | Gold | Happy | Hope | Idea No.1 | Idea (metal) | Kinka | Kokka | Lily (horizontal) | Lily (metal) | Tropical Lily | Lloyd | Lomax | Masnette | Mikuni | Need | Nifca Klapp | Nifca Sport | Ohca | Palma | Peter | Prince | Prince Peerless | Proud | Romax | Rosen | Rubies | Sirius | Sun | Super | Tokiwa | Venus | Weha Idea | Weha Light
tefuda (8×10.5cm) Eagle | Idea A | Idea B | Idea No.1 | Idea (metal) | Iris | Lily (original) | Lily (horizontal) | Lily (metal) | Palma | Pearl No.3, No.4 | Minimum Pearl | Special Pearl | Sakura Palace | Sakura Pocket Prano | Star | Tokiwa | Weha
nimaigake (8×12cm) Eagle | Idea | Idea Binocular | Sakura Prano | Sakura Binocular Prano | Star Premo
hagaki (8×14cm) Eagle | Noble | Pearl No.3, No.4 | Star
kabine (12×16.5cm) Idea | Noble | Sakura Prano | Star Premo
Japanese plate film: monocular, box, strut-folding and SLR ->
3×4 and 4×4, 4×5 and 4×6.5, 4.5×6, 6×6 and 6×9 ->

The X is a Japanese folding camera taking meishi-size (5.5×8cm) plates, made by Tokyo Camera Works, the manufacturing branch of Sone Shunsuidō, in the late 1910s or early 1920s.

No original document mentioning the X has been found so far, and the only known surviving example is pictured in an article by Yazawa.[1] It has a wooden body, quite similar to that of the wooden Sweet but with folding struts on both sides. There is a focusing lever on the photographer's right, moving the bottom rails back and forth, and a crude distance scale inscribed LANDSCAPE, SKETCH and PORTRAIT. There is a rectangular logo attached to the left-hand side of the body, which is the same as found on the wooden Sweet, and is said to be typical of Sone.[2] The bottom of the front standard has a nameplate inscribed TRADE X MARK. The shutter has O, T, I settings (respectively for Time, Bulb and Instant), the shutter plate reads "X" AUTOMATIC at the bottom and has the words MADE BY TOKYO CAMERA WORKS under the lens. (Tokyo Camera Works was the name of the manufacturing branch of Sone Shunsuidō in the 1920s.)

Notes

  1. Example pictured in Yazawa, pp.23–4 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.11.
  2. Typical of Sone: Yazawa, p.24 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.11.

Bibliography