Aram
Aram Kōgaku Kenkyūjo (アラム光学研究所) was a Japanese company. It was founded in 1953 or early 1954 by Nakagawa Kenzō (中川幹三), who had created the Leotax rangefinder camera and founded Shōwa Kōgaku in 1938.[1]
In the summer of 1954, the company announced the Aram Automat, a 6×6 folder with many advanced features. It was produced in a simpler form as the Aram Six, but only about 100 examples were made.
Aram Kōgaku also worked as a subcontractor of Konishiroku: the auto-stop advance mechanism of the Pearl III was designed by Nakagawa Kenzō and supplied at a pace of about 2,000 per month.[2] The company disappeared after the failure of the Aram Six.
Notes
- ↑ Date 1953 and first name Kenzō: Sugiyama, pp.47 and 76, based on an interview of Mr Nakagawa himself. The first name Kennosuke (謙之助) is given in Lewis, p.86, and in Japanese magazines of the 1950s (according to Kuno, pp.96–7 of Kurashikku Kamera Senka no.8), but this is surely a mistake. Lewis, p.86, says that Aram was founded in April 1954.
- ↑ Sugiyama, p.76; Yazawa, p.13 of Camera Collectors' News no.254.
Bibliography
- Kuno Mikio (久野幹雄). "Aramu shikkusu no nazo" (アラムシックスの謎, Aram Six mystery). 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.8, September 1986. No ISBN number. Supuringu kamera (スプリングカメラ, special issue on spring cameras). Pp.96–7.
- Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard). P.86.
- Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. P.76.
- Yazawa Seiichirō (矢沢征一郎). "Renzu no hanashi (164) Konitā" (レンズの話[164]コニター, Lens story [164] Konitor). In Camera Collectors' News no.254 (August 1998). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp.13–6.
