Semi Olympus II

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Semi Olympus II

582928294_ce7d22ba80_m_d.jpg 582928368_0248f1fde7_m_d.jpg 582928302_97860db83c_m_d.jpg
582928362_63cf3054a6_m_d.jpg 582928304_1471663c58_m_d.jpg 582928308_ce7d22ba80_m_d.jpg
Semi Olympus II no. 6641, Zuiko 7.5cm f/4.5 lens no. 6168, Koho shutter to 1/200, no T setting.
Pictures courtesy of Richard Marks. (Image rights)

The Semi Olympus II (セミ・オリンパス・Ⅱ型) was the first camera entirely made by the company. The body was designed by Mr Kitagawa (北川).[1]

Description

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(Image rights)

The Semi Olympus II is a horizontal folder taking 4.5×6cm pictures. The folding struts are the same as on the Balda products, certainly under the influence of the previous Semi Olympus. The camera has a tubular viewfinder, an advance knob at the left end of the top plate and an accessory shoe at the right end. The serial number is engraved in the advance knob, together with an arrow indicating the winding direction. The back is hinged to the left and the back latch is covered by a leather handle; there are two red windows at the bottom to control the film advance, covered by a black plate pivoting on an axis in the middle. The bottom of the camera has two film flanges, with the shape of a truncated cone; one has a 1/4″ tripod thread and the other has a 3/8″ thread. The OLYMPUS TOKYO logo is embossed at two places: in the back leather (above the red windows) and in the handle. The lens is the same Zuiko 75/4.5 as on the previous Semi Olympus.

Evolution through original documents

The Semi Olympus II was advertised in Asahi Camera from October 1937 to March 1940, and it was featured in the January 1938 issue of the same magazine.[2]

The first version of the camera is pictured in advertisements from October 1937 to February 1938 and in a brochure dated 1937.[3] The viewfinder is offset to the left (as seen by the photographer) and the folding bed release in in the middle of the top plate. In the documents, the shutter is called Laurel (ローレル, rōreru) and is said to give 1–150, B, T speeds with a self-timer. The name LAUREL is engraved at the base of the speed rim. The shutter plate is inscribed OLYMPUS-TOKYO-N at the top and the aperture scale is at the bottom. No surviving example has been observed with the offset finder and the Laurel shutter, and it is not clear whether this version was actually sold.

In the October 1937 advertisement in Asahi Camera,[4] no price is given and the camera is presented together with the Olympus Standard; Misuzu Shōkai and Yamashita Yūjirō Shōten are given as authorized dealers for the Standard, and it is unclear whether this applies to the Semi II as well.

The advertisement that appears in the November and December issues of Asahi Camera photographs the camera from a slightly different angle, prices the camera at ¥95, and names Misuzu and Yamashita as distributors for the Standard, not mentioning any distributor for the Semi. In the full-page advertisement for the Semi Olympus II in the January 1938 issue of Asahi Camera, the Laurel shutter is stated to be designed by Takachiho based on the Prontor II shutter. Yamashita is given as the distributor. The advertisement in the February issue is revised: the distributors are now Yamashita and Mizuno Shashinki-ten.

The advertisement in the March 1938 issue of Asahi Camera is the first in that magazine to show the regular version, with the tubular finder in the middle of the top plate and the folding bed release on the right. That in the April issue at first looks the same, but there is no mention of the shutter (which is anyway not shown in the photograph of the camera).

One of the pictures in the May 1938 advertisement in Asahi Camera[5] shows a number of cameras from a distance (at least twenty), indicating that the serial production of the camera bodies had begun. In another picture showing a camera from a closer distance, the shutter rim reads DAURED (or possibly DAUREL). It is not clear whether this engraving actually existed or if this is a retouched picture of a camera with Laurel shutter. It is said that the Laurel name was dropped because it was already registered by another company,[6] and the Daured name appearing in this advertisement was certainly the result of a hasty move. The shutter has speeds of 1–150, B, T, and the lens number is legible as 1448 or 1446. The lens number 144x certainly means that less than 500 examples of the Semi Olympus and Semi Olympus II were made up to May 1938. (The pictured camera was certainly finished a short time before the advertisement was published. The company would not have published pictures of the older version in the previous advertisements if the new model was ready to be photographed.)

The advertisement in the June 1938 issue of Asahi Camera[7] shows the new shutter name Koho (コーホー), both in the text and on the pictured camera. The advertisement shows a mountain and a country road, with the catch-phrase "[Let's go] gallantly to the green mountains and fields" (緑の山野に颯爽と!), an allusion to the season and perhaps to the camera name Olympus and shutter name Kōhō (meaning "high peak" or "high mountain"). The company Honjō Shōkai was added to the list of authorized dealers and the price was still given as ¥95.

In advertisements dated July and September 1938, February and October 1939,[8] the price was raised to ¥105 and the company Hinode Kōgyō K.K. (日之出興業㈱) gradually replaced the three authorized dealers and became the sole distributor. The February 1939 advertisement says that the price of ¥105 comprised a lens hood and a cable release. The top speed is given as 1/150 in all these advertisements. Incidentally, in all the advertisements for the Semi Olympus II, the lens is called 瑞光 ("Zuikō" in kanji script) while the shutter is called コーホー ("Kōhō" in katakana script).

The Semi Olympus II was advertised in Asahi Camera until the March 1940 issue.[9] It was still mentioned in the official list of set prices compiled in October 1940 and published in January 1941, for ¥121.[10] It was also in a similar price list dated November 1941, for an unknown price.[11] The Olympus Six was already available for sale at that time, the observed serial numbers seem to indicate that there was no overlap in the production of the the two models. It is thus presumed that these prices applied to the remaining stocks of the Semi Olympus II, held by the company or by the retailers.

Surviving examples

All the examples observed of the Semi Olympus II have the viewfinder centred above the top plate and a Koho shutter. The early examples have 1–150, B, T speeds. The earliest lens number observed so far is no. 2001.[12] This camera was necessarily made after the May 1938 "Daured" episode (see above): if the camera was available before, the company would not have used a picture (original or retouched) showing the name Daured in the May 1938 advertisement, and would have used a photograph of a camera with Koho shutter instead. This is a hint that very few Olympus cameras were made before that date.

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Koho shutter to 1/200, no T setting. (Image rights)

An example is known with a folding optical finder centred above the top plate, instead of the tubular finder.[13] It has lens no. 2048 and a Koho shutter, and the folding finder is probably not original.

On all the examples observed of the Semi Olympus II, the lens engraving differs from the early engraving found on the previous Semi Olympus. It is Zuikô 1:4,5 f=7.5cm Takatiho Tokyo No.xxxx (circunflex accent) up to lens no. 3797 and Zuiko 1:4,5 f=7.5cm Takatiho Tokyo No.xxxx (no accent) from lens no. 5253.[14]

Later examples have 1–200, B, T speeds, with no other change. Lens no. 5253 is associated with 1/150 top speed and lens no. 5389 with 1/200 top speed, and the transition probably occurred around that time.[15] However the different parts constituting the camera (body, shutter and lens) were not used in strict sequence: for example, lens no. 5253 goes with body no. 5368 and lens no. 5389 goes with the earlier body no. 5362.

One isolated example is known with 1–200, B speeds and no T setting.[16] It has body no. 6641 and lens no. 6168, the latest numbers observed so far on a Semi Olympus II.

Notes

  1. ↑ Sakurai Eiichi, p. 64 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 20.
  2. ↑ Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 335.
  3. ↑ Brochure available in pdf format in this page of the Zuiko Club website. It has a sticker indicating a price of ¥105.
  4. ↑ Advertisement (on p. A59 of the magazine) reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 62, and in Hibi, p. 62 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 8.
  5. ↑ Advertisement reproduced in Hibi, p. 62 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 8.
  6. ↑ Francesch, p. 24. Hibi, p. 63 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 8, says that it was registered by Tōkyō Kōgaku but this is perhaps a confusion with the postwar Laurelflex made by that company.
  7. ↑ Advertisement (on p. A50 of the magazine) reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 62, and in Hibi, p. 62 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 8.
  8. ↑ July 1938: advertisement published in Ars Camera reproduced in Hagiya, p. 10 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 20. — September 1938: advertisement published in Asahi Camera reproduced in the Gochamaze website and in Hibi, p. 63 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 8. — February 1939: advertisement published in Asahi Graph (8 February 1939), reproduced in the Gochamaze website. — October 1939: advertisement published in Asahi Camera, reproduced in this page of the Heiki Seikatsu website.
  9. ↑ Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 335.
  10. ↑ Template:Kakaku1940 short, type 3, section 6B.
  11. ↑ "Kamera no kōtei kakaku kanpō happyō", November 1941, type 3, section 6B.
  12. ↑ Example pictured in Francesch (cover page) and in McKeown, p. 747.
  13. ↑ Example picture in Hibi, p. 63 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 8, in Shunkan o torae-tsuzukeru shattā-ten, p. 21 and in Omoide no supuringu-kamera-ten, p. 23.
  14. ↑ Lens no. 3797: example pictured in Francesch, p. 58, in Sugiyama, item 1215, in Hagiya, p. 14 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 20 and in this page of the Olympus Photo Club. Lens no. 5253 (body no. 5368): example pictured in Hagiya, p. 14 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no. 20.
  15. ↑ Lens no. 5389: example observed in online auctions: body no. 5362, lens no. 5389; lens no. 5454.
  16. ↑ Example observed in an online auction.

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