Yallu Flex
The Yallu Flex (ヤルーフレックス) is a 35mm TLR produced as a prototype in 1949 by Yallu Optical Co Ltd (ヤルー光学, Yarū Kōgaku), a company formed afresh for the purpose. It was named after the Yalu river.[1]
The Yallu Flex (sometimes referred to as "Yalluflex") was influenced by the Zeiss Contaflex, which was available in Japan at a very high price and was of particular interest in view of the patchy availability of roll film. The Yallu Flex was ingeniously and elegantly designed and was well equipped and appealingly advertised, but in the end it was never offered for sale: it is said that potential dealers were unimpressed by the prototypes that they received. About fifty were produced.
Yallu Optical survived the disappointment, renaming itself Aires and bringing out 120 TLRs and other cameras.
Notes
- ↑ Or perhaps after the American pronunciation of the name of this river (in Chinese Yālǜjiāng, 鴨綠江, 鸭绿江; in Korean Amnokkang, 압록강; in Japanese Ōryokkō 鴨緑江). See the English Wikipedia page about the Yalu River.
Sources / further reading
- Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛). "Airesu no kamera: Yarūfurekkusu soshite 6×6-han niganrefu, 35mm kamera e" (アイレスのカメラ：ヤルーフレックスそして6×6判二眼レフ、35mmカメラへ, The Aires cameras: From the Yallu Flex to 6×6 TLRs and 35mm cameras). Chapter 5 of Zunō kamera tanjō: Sengo kokusan kamera jū monogatari (ズノーカメラ誕生：戦後国産カメラ10物語, The birth of the Zunow camera: Ten stories of postwar Japanese camera makers). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1999. ISBN 4-257-12023-1.
- Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.35, November 1995. Nihon no kamera 50nen (日本のカメラ50年, special issue on 50 years of Japanese cameras).
- Watakushi no ni-gan-refu kamera-ten (私の二眼レフカメラ展, Exhibition of twin lens reflex cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P. 32.
Links
In English:
- Marriage, John. "History of the 35mm Twin Lens Reflex".
- 35mm TLR at Massimo Bertacchi's Innovative cameras, also reproduced here at Fotografia e Reflex (these pages are based on the above article by John Marriage)
- Yallu Flex, lot no.697 of auction no.7 (21 May 2005) by Westlicht Photographica Auction
In Japanese:
- Advertisement for the Yallu Flex (billed as "Yallu Reflex-35"), reproduced at Nostalgic Camera, a page of old Japanese magazine advertisements by Toshio Inamura
- Kurashikku Kamera Senka 21–25 a page about five issues of a Japanese periodical, clearly showing the front cover of each; no. 22 shows a Yallu Flex
- Yallu Flex at Nagoya's Camera Club
