Talk:Proud postwar folders

Million name

In the advertisements for the Million Proud (Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 172), there is apparently an explanation for the "Million" name: "100万人の愛好者に贈る一躍王座を占めたセミ判決定版". I am a bit puzzled by this sentence, that I would translate by "Definitive edition of the Semi camera that (一躍 = suddenly?) occupied the top (king's) place granted by one million amateurs." This should mean something, but what? It seems impossible that one million Proud cameras were made, even including the prewar ones. There must be an allusion by some vote by more than one million readers of a magazine or something similar, unless I severely misunderstood the sentence. --Rebollo fr 19:06, 8 October 2006 (EDT)

I think you're being a bit too earnest about this. It's ad copy after all, and furthermore ad copy written at a time and place when (I think) there was no truthfulness watchdog. So I don't think 100万人 is supposed to be taken literally. Secondly, although 版 very much refers to printing, the phrase 決定版 is (even now) widely used to mean something like "definitive version" (I think with no connotations of printing). (And yes, it is also used for the definitive editions of books.) But even if I'm right with both of these, I too am a bit puzzled. I'll tentatively and provisionally guess: "The camera that's suddenly jumped to the top dog position as the definitive Semi: a camera to give to a million photographers" (e.g. your son on the occasion of his graduation from junior high school). -- Hoary 01:34, 9 October 2006 (EDT)