Talk:Kigawa

Kigawa and Optochrom

We read: It was probably the successor of the Optochrom company. Its full name was Kigawa Kōgaku (木川光学, Kigawa Optical). "Kabushiki Kaisha" aside, that was indeed one of its full names. Previously, it had had a different name also starting "Kigawa".

Unless there's an objection, I'm soon going to merge the stuff from Optochrom into this article, adding stuff on the additional Kigawa name.

Because "Carl" was the final name -- as far as I know, but imaginably "Carl" was renamed into something else -- perhaps this should all be merged into Carl. However, the name Kigawa was used for a long time and for a lot of cameras, so merging it all into Carl seems a bit perverse. -- Hoary 20:26, 4 June 2006 (EDT)

Long interruption between 1946 and 1950

There is a long interruption in the ads mentioned by Kokusan kamera no rekishi between the 1946 ads for the Kiko Semi (item 471) and the ads dated 1950 to 1952 for the Tsubasa Semi, Tubasaflex and Grace Flex. I wonder what happened to the company. I also notice that the 1946 ad reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi does not give the company name, thus it is not completely certain that it was already Kigawa Kōgaku. --Rebollo fr 12:00, 4 July 2006 (EDT)

The missing chain seems to be the Shin Nippon company. McKeown lists a Poppy subminiature and a Poppy Six, both with Erinar lenses. The Poppy Six looks very similar to the Gotex. --Rebollo fr 12:02, 4 July 2006 (EDT)

Unfortunately I don't know anything about Kigawa other than what's already in this article. I do, however, know quite a bit more about some other companies of the time (e.g. Ōfuna) than what's in their articles. (And I'll happily add it. Just give me an eighth and ninth day per week, every week for a few years.) By the time the war had ended, none was a camera company. Instead, most had a certain amount of burned-out ruins plus some stock of military-related products. There had been much more of a demand for binoculars (for example) than cameras, and after the war this demand continued to some extent. But many other companies were grateful to be making anything that they could make: kettles, irons, anything. My guess is that at the end of the war Kigawa had some stock of old cameras or parts for old cameras and sold them till they ran out, as it concentrated on other products. In 1950, it was ready to produce another camera. -- Hoary 19:35, 4 July 2006 (EDT)

I understand what you describe. The Kiko Semi advertised in 1946 is probably old stock, or assembled from old stock parts.

I am sure that Shin Nippon is related in some way (see Gotex and Poppy Six), but it does not necessarily mean that Kigawa Seimitsu became Shin Nippon then became Kigawa Kōgaku.

--Rebollo fr 04:19, 5 July 2006 (EDT)

As for old stock, I've just found that Konishiroku was selling the (6x9) Pearl after the war. (I'll add that info soon.) Oh yes, and I recently bought a new (though probably fifty-year-old) "Rainbow" brand push-on lenshood for my Mihama. -- Hoary 04:37, 5 July 2006 (EDT)