Difference between revisions of "Yamasaki"
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A catalogue by [[Asanuma|Asanuma Shōkai]] dated October 1941 gives the following list of Congo lenses:<REF> Catalogue by [[Asanuma|Asanuma Shōkai]], dated October 1941, p.16. </REF> | A catalogue by [[Asanuma|Asanuma Shōkai]] dated October 1941 gives the following list of Congo lenses:<REF> Catalogue by [[Asanuma|Asanuma Shōkai]], dated October 1941, p.16. </REF> | ||
Revision as of 14:28, 26 October 2007
Yamasaki Kōgaku Kenkyūsho (山崎光学研究所, meaning Yamasaki Optical Laboratory) is a Japanese lens maker.
See also the company Yamasaki Seiki Seisakusho which made the Bonny cameras in the first half of the 1940s and is probably unrelated.
Contents
History
Yamasaki Congo 21cm f/4.5 lens
Picture courtesy of eBayer Oddog2. (Image rights)
K. Yamasaki (山崎光七),[1] founder of the company, was a former employee of Asanuma Shōkai.[2] He opened a camera shop called Shūzandō Yamasaki Shōten (秀山堂山崎商店) in 1924 and worked in the shop's basement after business hours to develop a camera lens.[3] The result of this hard work was the Congo 210/4.5 lens released in 1931.[4] Yamasaki has used the name "Congo" (コンゴー, Kongō) for its lenses since that date. The Japanese word kongō means "great strength" and "diamond", but it is said that the lenses were named after the Japanese battleship Kongō (金剛, usually spelled "Kongo" in English contexts), built in Britain as a battle cruiser in 1911 and sunk in 1944.[5] (The ship was itself named after the 1112m-high Mt Kongō (金剛山, Kongō-san) on the Ōsaka/Nara border.)[6]
The company was incorporated as K.K. Yamasaki Kōgaku Kenkyūsho (㈱山崎光学研究所, Yamasaki Optical Co., Ltd.) in 1955.[7] It is based in Hino-shi, suburban Tokyo (山崎光学研究所) since 1972.[8] It has concentrated on lenses for large-format cameras.
Yamasaki seems to buck stereotypes about Japanese companies. It caters for a niche market, advertises little, and sells directly via mail and its website; the FAQ in its website answers just three questions, of which the first is of why the prices are so low.[9]
Cameras fitted with Congo lenses
Congo lenses
|
| Yamasaki Congo 21cm f/4.5 lens Picture courtesy of eBayer Oddog2. (Image rights) |
A prewar advertisement for the Congo lenses lists the following:[10]
- 150/4.5 (¥42)
- 180/4.5 (¥50)
- 210/4.5 (¥58)
- 300/4.5 (¥135)
- 210/6.3 (¥28)
- 300/6.3 (¥75)
|
| Congo lenses in an Asanuma catalogue (October 1941). (Image rights) |
A catalogue by Asanuma Shōkai dated October 1941 gives the following list of Congo lenses:[11]
- 150/4.5, tefuda format (¥71.90)
- 180/4.5, kabine format (¥84)
- 210/4.5, kabine format (¥101.10)
- 210/6.3, kabine format (¥41.65)
This source says that the f/4.5 lenses have four elements and the f/6.3 lens is a triplet.[12]
The current lens range (as of 2005) consists of:[13]
- Commercial Congo 90/3.5 (6×9cm)
- Commercial Congo 105/4.5 (6×9cm)
- Commercial Congo 135/4.7 (3×4")
- Commercial Congo 135/4.7 (4×5")
- Commercial Congo 150/4.5 (4×5")
- Commercial Congo 150/6.3 (4×5")
- Commercial Congo 180/6.8 (5×7")
- Commercial Congo 210/6.3 (5×7")
- Commercial Congo 240/6.3 (5×7")
- Commercial Congo 250/6.3 (6×8")
- Commercial Congo 300/6.3 (8×10")
- Commercial Congo 360/6.8 (10×12")
- Tele-Congo 300/8 (4×5")
- Tele-Congo 400/8 (4×5")
- Tele-Congo 500/9.5 (4×5")
- Wide Angle Congo 90/6.3 (4×5")
- Wide Angle Congo 120/6.3 (5×7")
- Soft Focus Congo 150/4 (4×5")
- Soft Focus Congo 200/4 (Cabinet size)
- Alto-W 180/5.6 (5×7")
- Alto-W 210/5.6 (6×8")
Notes
- ↑ The first name perhaps reads Kōichi. See Baird, p. 59.
- ↑ Yamasaki history page; Inoue, p. 130; Baird, p. 59.
- ↑ Name of the shop: Inoue, p. 130. 1924 date: Yamasaki history page and Baird, p. 59. Working after office hours in the basement: Inoue, p. 130; Baird, p. 59.
- ↑ Yamasaki history page; Inoue, p. 130. Baird, p. 59, says 1932.
- ↑ Niimi, p. 102; Inoue, p. 130.
- ↑ See this page about the battleship.
- ↑ Yamasaki history page.
- ↑ Yamasaki history page.
- ↑ Yamasaki Optical FAQ.
- ↑ Advertisement by Asanuma Shōkai for the Congo lenses, reproduced in Inoue, p. 130.
- ↑ Catalogue by Asanuma Shōkai, dated October 1941, p.16.
- ↑ Catalogue by Asanuma Shōkai, dated October 1941, p.7.
- ↑ Congo lens specifications in the Yamasaki official website.
Sources / Further reading
- Asanuma Shōkai. Shashinki to zairyō (Cameras and supplies). Catalogue dated October 1941. P.16. Document partly reproduced here in rebollo_fr's Flickr account.
- Baird, John R. The Japanese Camera. Yakima, WA: Historical Camera Publications, 1990. ISBN 1-879561-02-6. Pp. 58–61.
- Inoue, Mitsuo (井上光朗). "Shashin renzu no yoake. Renzu-ya Funsenki" (写真レンズの夜明け・レンズ屋奮戦記, Dawn of the photographic lens – Fierce war tales between lens shops). 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.14, October 1989. No ISBN number. Rikō kamera no subete (リコーカメラのすべて, special issue on Ricoh). Pp 128–132.
- Niimi Kahee (新見嘉兵衛). Kamera-mei no gogen sanpo (カメラ名の語源散歩, Strolls in the etymology of camera names). 2nd ed. Tokyo: Shashin Kōgyō Shuppansha, 2002. ISBN 4-87956-060-X.
Links
In English:
In Japanese:
