Photography for Profit or Fun

You say Tomato, I say Tomato; You say Mamiya, I say Mamiya.

Back in the say, the late sixties and early seventies, there was a crisis of pronunciation, when it came to the names of foreign Manufacturers. Japanese company names were particularly mis-said. I am especially reminded of two incidents that pointed to this problem.

Xerox was king of the plain paper compier for decades. Interestingly the patented process the so zealously guarded with a huge staff off corporate lawyers, had been demonstrated to all of the logical companie to deal with type on paper during the era. I am told tha they included AB Dick, Gestetner, Ditto, AM, etc.

A Japanee company circumvented Xerox patented process by using a liquid toner rather than dry. First with Ricohs technology, then with many others including Mita, Minolta, and many others. The problem was that the general public did not know how to pronounce the vowels, particularly the long or the short of the "I's." An ad campaign took place in Little Rock Arkansas that made Mita, a household word. However, the i was wrongly pronounces as a long i.

I feel sure that the power of this ad campaign was such that there are people in the Little Rock listening area, who would argue you to the wall in defense of the long "i" pronunciation of Mita. I guess it's a good thing Mita was bought out by Kyocera. I woder how they pronounce that one.

The same thing happened with camera manufacturers: Ricoh, Mamiya, Yashica. Many of the people I have discussions with about Mamiya cameras still use a long i sound, and consider you stupid if you say otherwise. This is pretty funny. And all the more so, unnecessay.

As those who study language realize, the conventions of international phonetics govern the US English pronunciation of these company names. The a sounds like saw, the e sounds like prey, the i sounds like yield, o sounds like so, u sounds like cup; this guide will get you through most proper names. Consenonts are pretty much the same. However r is usually a soft d sound. You hear this almost universally in the pronunciation of English words, by those speaking English as a scond language.

I hope this helps. Sorry it is about fifty years late.

Kowa 6 Medium Format Camera

"the Kowa Six 6×6cm SLR, which would meet some success as the poor man's Hasselblad. It was upgraded in 1974 as the Kowa Super 66, which was Kowa's last camera in the century."

 from http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Kowa

 Note the enamel paint worn off the Kowa trigger-release han  dle above, is on  the bracket only. this is not an accurate indication of the wear on the camera, as the bracket did not come with it originally. It can  be eaily repainted for looks.

My Kowa Six Experience 

For a time, near the end of the sixties, it was the only alternative we had to Hasselblad. Dubbed the Japanese Hasselblad by some, the Kowa 6 beckoned from the pages of the vintage photography magazines, as alluring as Homer's Sirens. Well maybe not, but still it did beckon. Hasselblads were great, but they were way expensive. The Kowa looked cool enough, although the backs did not interchange; it was sound enough if not mis-handled, and much less expensive. I have enjoyed my first model Kowa 6. The optics are every bit as good as Carl Zeiss, in my opinion. They do have slightly different characteristics but are today still much sought by working photographers.

The advantages of lenses sporting leaf shutters can't be over-emphasized. It means that an electronic flash will wyynchronize at any shutter speed. This is very desirable when shooting in low light-levels with a strobe, as ambient light will make multiple exposures or ghost images on your frames at typically low sync speeds.

Leaf shutters were once the norm with all fine German cameras including 35's, but they are expensice to make and hard to tear down for repairs. Even when reliably built, they have a lot of parts and tend to make for bulky lenses. The German cameras yeilded to the less-expensive competitive focal plane designs over time. There was one exception, and it was actually a Japanese camera company--Kowa. Kowa was known for their 35 mm leaf shutter cameras.

And Kowa was no shlock outfit. They were a company that began in Japan in the nineteeth century and had a long and vernerable reputaion. They had been in the optics and camera business for more than twenty years too, when they came forth with the Kowa Six. With considerable leaf shutter experience, they were the likely candidate to offer a medium format SLR, and this was it--the first besides Hasselblad in 1968. Eight years oday. later they brought out an updated version with mirror lcok-up and interchangeable backs. All of these medium format cameras were excellent cameras--still very usable today.

Kowas have some idiosyncrosies. Sometimes people toss them becasue they think they are broken. This is because the Kowa Six must have film in it to work right. Nothing shoujld ever be forced on a fine mechanical instrument, let alone a fine camera such as a Kowa Six. Roughly handling of the film transport can damage the gears. Tere is simplhy no need to  break one, however, with normal use. My best advice if you get a Kowa Six is to first download and read the owners manual anda few posts such as those linked at the bottom of this post. Learn how they are different, and you'll make no mistakes. BTW, thiks is doubly true of the smaller 127 film Komaflex-S.

Upon my first wawareness of the Kowa Six, I wanted one. No one  I knew actually had one. As some kids lay awake and dream of girls and cars and motorcycles, I interlaced cameras in between those usual topics. I had a brief experience with a Kamoflex-S 127 Single Lens Reflex Camera, which itself has become a rare collectiable. It was made by Kowa. It was not made for long and it had its design issues, but when the Kowa 6 DID come out, it was designed and looked very much like a large Kamoflex-S.

 

http://shutterbug.com/equipmentreviews/classic_historical/0104sb_classic/

http://stores.ebay.com/Military-Optics-Vintage-Camera-Sale

http://www.kilfitt.org/Cameras/Kowa.htm

http://www.mediajoy.com/en/cla_came/mid.html

Ricohmatic 4x4 127 Film Camera, A different Approach

  

I never owned one of these back inthe day. The closest I came was to see them in a GSA school contract pictured. They had somehow obtained a presence their---if I didn't just dream tha. It is possible that I never saw one. There were less than 14,000 of these made, the best I can calculate. These were made during the year of 1959, and may well have taken a few years to be completely sell.

 

When you are reading about the history of various 127 cameras, different perceptions and opinions are expressed about the time-frame during which 127 film cameras enjoyed teir greatest popularity. The 127 4x4 Baby Rolleifley camera camer out first substantially prior to WWII. I can find little referece to using it to make so-called Super-Slides when these early 4x4 TLR's are cited.

 

This idea probably came about as driven by marking departments after field photographers collectively discovered that the 127 film (1-5/8 x 1-5/8 inches) format used by these TLR's incidentally would make the same size transparency, and fit within the portal for the 35 mm film slide projectors. With a new square mount, the resulting image area projected from these new mounts was much larger and more impressive. Thereby the Super-Slide was born.

I am guessing, based on all the infromation that I can find, as well as recollections of my own dad's activities with these cameras, as pertaining to slides. Now, I do recall hanging around and watching Dad develope full-sized 120 color transparencies. Talk about super slides. He had a special 120 capable projector to fit them. Ofteh, Dad would meticulously plce finish transparencies betwwen two thin piece of clear greenish glass. The he'd use medical tape to tape the sides carefully until a slide was finished. 

This had to have been around 1955 or 1956. Dad had Rolleicords, Rolleiflexes and a host of accessories. I beleive that he also had one Baby Rollei. I don't recall then or now seeing any 127 super- slides from that period. Going thrugh the family pictures that I have access to, the first 127 super-slides came about during 1956 until about 1963. This is my perspective. Others say that the super-slide phenomenon occrred much earlier in the fifties or late forties.

Here's my theory. WE know that 127 film became available during the first decade ore so of the 20th Century--by one account for the Kodak vest-pocket camera. Quite a lot of thes cameras were made over the years leading up to the advent of the Baby Rollei and other 4x4 TLR's. It would be silly to assume that quite a number of users became aware of this larger slide idea and used them with homemade mounts until some enterprising manufacturer offered the mounts commercially.

Kodak was much the MicroSoft of last Century. When a new idea came out that they liked, they bought it or jusrt stole it and it became one of their products. My money is on them having been active in makin gthe mounts early and pushing this idea of super-slides trough advertisements. At least until they decided to come out with their 126 Instamatic cassette which became their proprietary baby.

The fact that so many companies seemed to try to get on the super-slide bandwagon during the last few years of the fifties sixties and the first few years of the sixties, indicates a perception that a boom was happening with 127 Super-Slide cameras. Sawyer's, the View Master people took on their sold camera of their existence during this time. It was a Topcon 127 TLR camera called the Primo Junior under the Topcon Label, and simply Sawyer's 55--under the former.

Minolta is said tohave had one. I have never had a MInolta. Komaflex-S was an SLR devoted to 127 during the same period. Yashica, Topcon, Rollei, also had theri 44 TLR's. AND RICOHEVER PRESN T IN THE PHOTOGRAPHY MARKET OF THOSE DAYS HAD A FEW ATTEMPTS IN THIS FORMAT FOR BOTH UPPER AND LOWER END MARKETS. The culmination seemd to be about the turn of the r year from 1959-1960. Some of these TLR 127 cameras were both announce and discontinued the same year of straddling the years 1859-1960.

One of the most interesting 127 TLR offering actually came from Ricoh during 1959. It was the Ricoh high-end Ricohmatic 44. I have one now and am very imressed with the design. Although, the overall concept was very simkilar to other TLR's of the period--the styling and design departed in two important ways. First, the style was after the very popular early 60's squares, lines, and streamlining that eventually took over almost everything of th eera. 

Replacing the leather case with a plasic hinged cover, and the elatheretter body covering with a quality metal finished in a intrument-like greay, light tan, or blue finish, certianly broke the mold for that vintage. Controls were well-thought out, nothing startlingly new but mostly borrowed or rearranged to make controls seem different. For example, the two side thub-index finger levers were obviously inspired mby the Minolta Autocord (or Meopta or early Mamiya)--but it was exactly the same. The thumb wheels that controlled the the shutter speed and aperature, where called ASA and light respectively.

The selenium passive lightmeter (requiring no battery), was coupled to the controls so that by aligning the light meter with the meter needle, you were actually setting the controls--linked qas they were. This feature was most like the Rollei Magic. The instruction manual, however, did fully explain how to use the sttintg manually as well.

The lens was a Riken lens, 3.5 as were most other cameras of this configuration. The viewfinder was bright, and the flip up finder used an old Voigtlander inovation for tricking one eye into folloowing the action through it when it was down and superimposing the outline of the from ot the finder over the scene being followed by the other eye. It kind of like what used to happen when men would wear only one eyeglass--or monocle. It made them think they were seeing clearly out of both eyes. This kind of optical illusion approach has been used for many different applications over the yearsw. It is used quite cleverly here.

The viewfinder focusing magnifier flips up with a finger. They tend to be very hard to get up until you think you are going to break it. This may be adjustable. But if not, it is inconvenient. The front cover will not come down without the lens hood being up, but the entire cover can be removed easily enough. If I were using it in the field, the cover would have to go.

The back film access latch takes th eform of a twist key which is unique too. The cable release socket is recellsed into the left side near the shutter release. The shutter is cocked automatically upon d.