Kalimar Six Sixty Camera

My posts start in a very similar way. I purchased this camera from an auction site that had a grouping of very common and not-so-interesting items. In the corner of the grouping was the Kalimar Six Sixty camera in its case, along with an eye-level prism finder, which really caught my eye. Looking at the other photos, the camera looked very clean, but there was no information on whether it was working or not. I put in a low price for the lot and actually won. 

My Kalimar Six Sixty w/ case & lens cap

 When the camera items were shipped to me, the camera was in great working condition and cosmetically in great shape, too. The item I was most thrilled to see was the pentaprism for the camera in its original fitted case, which was very clean and in fantastic condition. Being a collector of cameras in different colors, one of the things that drew me to this particular camera was the blue-grey color of the camera and its cases.

 Having been a collector of cameras and photo items for over 50 years, I remember when I first started collecting, and all the different cameras fascinated me. I buy almost any camera initially, then I become more selective as time passes. It's now where I'm very selective about the cameras I purchase. I sold off some of the items in the lot, got my money back, and donated the other items to Goodwill Industries, which is something I do when the items aren't appealing or too familiar for my collection.

Here's where it starts to get fun as well as very incestuous. From all the information I've read, Fujita introduced the Fujita 66ST camera in 1956. The original Fujita had script lettering as a nameplate. Fujita also manufactured the same camera as the Kalimar Reflex, Soligor 66, Haco 66, and the Dutch Fodor 66 camera. Over the years, Fujita has done minor upgrades on different cameras and for other distributors. Most of the enhancements were additions of slower shutter speeds. For example, the Fujita 66SL was released in 1958, and the 1/5 shutter speed was added. The original Fujita shutter speed stopped at 1/25. 

 My camera, the Kalimar Six Sixty, was released in 1963. It is an upgrade to the original Kalimar Reflex, which is an upgraded version of the Fujita 66SL due to the Kalimar having an auto-returning mirror. Fujita added a split-image focusing screen and an interchangeable viewfinder to the Kalimar Six Sixty.

My Kalimar Six Sixty w/Prism finder & cases

The Company:

There are two Fujita companies in Japan with very similar names. Fujita Kōgaku Kikai and Fujita Kōgaku Kōgyō were both photo companies in Japan after WWII. My friend Mike Eckman did a review of the Fujita 66SL ( https://mikeeckman.com/2024/02/fujita-66sl-1958/) and in his article, he wrote about the camera history, which I believe sums it up very well. He said, "Camera-wiki suggests that Fujita Kōgaku Kikai was listed in an 1943 listing of Japanese lens makers, which seems plausible to me as there were a great deal of small companies in Japan making lenses at the time.  We also know that at some time between 1953 and 1954, Fujita Kōgaku Kōgyō began work on a prototype medium format 6×6 SLR.  The difference in the two names Fujita Kōgaku Kikai and Fujita Kōgaku Kōgyō is "Fujita Optical Machinery" versus "Fujita Optical Industry".  I am going to go on a limb here and suggest that either the two companies are exactly the same, and just changed their name, or the original Fujita Kōgaku Kikai was reorganized into a new entity called Fujita Kōgaku Kōgyō.  I think that is going to be the most plausible explanation anyone will be able to find with the resources we have today.

One of the best things about the Fujita/Kalimar/Soligor/Haco/Fodor relation was the lenses used. Fujita must have had a relationship with Heinz Kilfitt, the designer of the Behring Robot Camera and a fantastic lens designer for Alpa and other companies. There are photos of a prototype Kilfitt camera, which is similar to the Fujita cameras back in 1952, so there must have been some relationship, but that's unknown. I know that Kilfitt made lenses with a 42mm thread, which is the mount on these cameras. Kalimar made three lenses for this camera. The standard 80mm f3.5 was later upgraded to an 80mm f2.8, which I have, a wide-angle 52mm f3.5, and short telephoto 150mm f4.

 

My Camera:

My Kalimar Six Sixty is 5.5" tall by 4.5" wide, including the film advance knob, and 6" deep, including the 80mm f2.8 lens. The camera weighs 2lbs 10.1 oz without the fitted case. The accessory viewfinder is 3.25" tall x 4" wide x2.75" deep and weighs 11.4 oz. The Kalimar Six Sixty camera was great fun to use, and as other people have mentioned in their reviews of the camera that you can see online, it's somewhat advanced for its time. I like the auto returning mirror, which you get used to shooting with a 35mm SLR but are not accustomed to when shooting a medium format camera from this era or even on a Hasselblad. Some people call this the poor man Hasselblad. 

You open the back of the camera similarly to how you'd change the film on a TLR camera like Rolleiflex. On the bottom of the camera is a lever you slide over, and the back of the camera lifts up to reveal a large focal plane shutter system and the film loading and take-up areas. Once you load the camera, on the back of the camera, just below the film advance lever, which also has the shutter speed dial inside, is a lever with the word "SET." This resets the frame counter to "0", then you close up the back and wind the film advance knob until it stops and you're at the first frame.

To set the camera's shutter speeds, on the outside of the film advance lever is a black ring that you pull out, and the dial turns to set the shutter speed desired. The shutter speeds go from 1/500, 1/200, 1/100,m1/50, and 1/25 on the main settings. Next to 1/25 is a red dot, similar to cameras like Leica and Nikon rangefinders; you can set the lower shutter speed on a separate dial just under the film advance lever. There, you'll find the shutter speeds of 1/25, which are in red, so both 1/25th speeds need to be set there if you want to use the 1/25 speed. Also on the dial are 1/10 and 1/5. A "B" setting is on the larger shutter speed dial. To the right of the slow shutter speed settings is a tiny window that has the frame number you are on and advances when you wind to the next frame.

Shutter speed setting inside the winding knob. Secondary shutter speeds below and small window for frame counter.

The viewfinder lifts from the sides, exposing the nice split image focusing screen on my camera. To pop up the magnifying glass for critical focusing, slide the chrome switch on the back, which pops it into place and is spring-loaded. Pressing it down and clicking it into position when not in use allows the photographer to view the entire screen for composition.  There is also the ability to use the light hood as a sports finder by sliding the front panel to the right, swinging it up, and flicking the chrome switch to bring up the magnifying glass, which allows the photographer to frame their images similar to a sports finder on other TLR cameras. To take the light hood off and change it to the pentaprism finder, you open the light hood, and it slides off towards the front to remove it. To put on the prism finder, slide the rails on the side of the hood and prism finder into the slot on the camera body and slide it on. Straightforward.

The lenses do not have an automatic aperture, so you need to manually open and close the aperture to focus, then stop the lens down to take the photos. To do so, there is a secondary ring just behind the aperture settings with a big red square. You set your aperture, then slide the rig to the left to open the aperture for focus, then slide the ring back to the right to take the photos. This doesn't bother me, as one of the advantages of this method is that the photographer sees the depth of the field before taking the photo. This, to me, is an advantage when taking my time and setting up shots. Some people may think of it as a hindrance, as the majority of people like taking snapshots and are not too worried about the depth of field or seeing what's actually in or out of focus in their photos.

Now that I have the camera loaded with 125 iso film, I walked through my backyard, taking photos of our plants, animals, and scenes to see how the camera performed. It was a sunny afternoon, and I took out my trusty light meter to get the readings, so I didn't use any speed slower than 1/100, but here are my thoughts as I did so. The camera functioned very well. I liked that the mirror instantly returned, and the shutter was quiet. Sometimes, I questioned if the camera shot as all I felt was the mirror, and I didn't hear the shutter, but it worked on all shots. The focus was difficult and not the brightest to focus. I spent too much time on the split image instead of just looking at the frame and concentrating as usual.

I didn't use the prism finder when shooting the film; instead, I put it on afterward to see how it looked and performed. I have always preferred to shoot from the waist using a medium format, but it worked well, especially in the sunlight. The open/close aperture was fine, as I used to do it with many other older cameras. At least I remembered to open/close it. I remember when I first tried cameras with manual aperture, I'd get frustrated because I'd forget to open to focus and get upset thinking, "Why is it so dark?" Then, remember to open/close the aperture manually.

 My results.

Here are a few of the wonderful results from my Kalimar Six Sixty camera as I walked my backyard. There are some excellent images.

Conclusion.

I liked using this camera. It was easy to handle, and the camera was smaller than a Hasselblad or other medium-format cameras. The optics are excellent, and other than the manual aperture or very bright viewfinder, the camera handled well and produced nice images. I also like the look of the camera and its styling. I did have some familiarity with this as I've owned a few in the past, mostly the Kalimar Reflex, and I also have a Soligor on my eBay site for sale if you're interested.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes to read my blog post. It means a lot to me, and I hope you'll do so again next week when I pull out another oddity from my collection to write about. 

 Until next week, please be safe.

Super Flex Baby II Camera

When I first got this camera, I initially thought it was from somewhere in Europe, possibly Germany or Eastern Europe, due to its design and feel placement and shutter release, which resembles the Karma-Flex camera from Germany. 

 After doing some research on the camera, I found out that it was made in Japan. It was the first medium-format single-lens reflex (SLR) camera with a leaf shutter.

 The Super Flex II camera is odd and relatively small, too. When I took the camera out of the case, my hands are average size, but the camera seemed lost, and it was only a minute before I held it. It's not a miniature camera, but everything seems much smaller than I'm used to. The light tube or waist level finder, the lens and focus control, and even the winding knob appear to be smaller than what I'm used to. In the back of my mind, this will be a fun camera to test and write a blog post on.

History:

Umemoto Seisakusho manufactured the Super Flex camera between 1938 and 1942. It was started by Umemoto Kinzaburō, who started a small manufacturing plant in Yokokawa in 1931. In 1932, he was asked to open a new camera manufacturing plant in Toyko, which was completed in 1935. Their first cameras were the Super Makinet Six in 1936 and Neure Six in 1937, both 6x6 strut-folding cameras.

 As mentioned above, they took inspiration from the Karma-Flex camera in 1938. They developed the first Japanese medium-format, single-reflex camera, the Super Flex camera, built around the popular 127 film 4x4cm format camera.

In 1939, they modified the camera's design to what's known as the Super Flex Baby II. The modifications included a fully chrome shutter speed dial as opposed to the chrome and black of the original design. They also came out with a new lens with a full chrome barrel and a focal length of 70mm instead of 7cm on the original lens. They also lost the black and chrome on the viewfinder logo and went all chrome, like the shutter speed dial and lens.

Advertisement of the Super Flex Baby camera from 1942.

 During the tumultuous years of WWII, the company shifted its focus from camera manufacturing to supporting the war effort. Despite the challenges, they produced the Semi-Makinet camera, a 6x4.5 folding camera, between 1941 and 1943. The factory was tragically destroyed during the Allied bombing of Tokyo in 1945. However, the company's spirit remained unbroken. They relocated the plant to Yamagata in 1945 and rebuilt the plant in Tokyo in 1948, which was a remarkable display of resilience.

 After the war, the company briefly took the name Umemoto Kōki Seisakusho and produced the Rocky Semi in 1953. This camera didn't do well, and in 1962, it became Y.K. Umemoto Seisakusho, which still produces photo-related parts for Kenko today.

 Here is a wonderful Japanese website with a lot of insight on the company Umemoto . I used Google Translate so I hope it comes through properly.

My Camera:

My camera, with its serial number 3401, is a fascinating blend of the original Super Flex Baby and the model II version. It features the original chrome and black viewfinder, a Model II shutter speed dial and lens, both in chrome, and a lens measured in 'mm' rather than 'cm.' This unique combination, a result of the transition period, added an element of surprise and excitement to my discovery of the camera.

 The serial number on my camera is 3401, which you can find on the inside of the latch that holds the back of the camera. My camera measures 4" from the back to the front of the lens and 2.75" from the back to the lens mount on the camera. It measures 4.25" wide and 3.25" tall if the viewfinder is closed and 4.75" tall with the light hood opened. My camera weighs 1 lb. 3.2oz without the case.

Using the camera is pretty straightforward. There is a latch on the camera's right side, and you slide up to open the back door. You take the empty spool from the right of the camera and put it on the left side where the winding knob is. To take out the spool and put in the roll of film, you'll need to pull out the knob that holds the film into place. Once you have loaded the empty spool and film, pull the leader to the empty reel and thread the leader into the spool and wind. Once it's securely on the take-up reel, close the back.

 Here's where it gets exciting, something I learned and did when I looked at the company's website. I have the link to the above in the "history" section. Here's an excerpt from the company history explaining the film numbering sequence and the camera's winding instructions.

 "There are three red windows on the back cover for taking 12 4x4 cm shots. ( It seems that 4x6 cm numbers were used because 127 film did not have numbers for 4x4 cm. ) The left and right windows only accept odd numbers, and the center window only accepts even numbers and is read as follows (ignore the ○ parts). 1st photo) 1○○ 2nd photo) ○○1 3rd photo) ○ 2○ 4th photo) 3○○ 5th photo) ○○3 6th photo) ○4○ ... 11th photo) ○○7 12th photo) ○8○ I think this operation was quite difficult."

 

Looking at the numbers by the window openings, the text above now makes sense.

I didn't use this method and only got eight photos on my roll.

 The mirror in my camera was so bad that I couldn't use it and didn't notice before putting in the roll of film, so I was forced to use the sports finder to frame the photos I took. It worked out OK, so I wasn't too upset.

 I used my trusty light meter to get the needed exposures. I also needed to find a roll of 100 ISO film, as anything faster would have run into issues since the fastest shutter speed on the camera is 1/100, and the lens stopped down to f22. Luckily, I noticed that the lens focusing was in meters instead of feet, which I'm used to with most cameras I use. I needed to keep that in mind when composing my photos.

 

The camera case I have is in moderately good condition. The strap is intact, and it covers the camera well. The only thing missing is the snap that holds the front and back together but stays closed and protects the camera well.

 The film was used up quickly; now it was time to process it. 

 

Results:

The film I had was some pretty old and out-of-date 127 film, so I had yet to learn what I would get. It was not as good as I anticipated after I pulled the film from the processing tank. While I'll call the "art" prints, the negatives were very mottled, and I'm unsure what caused it, but the images are somewhat sharp.

 Here are some of the results from the camera.

Conclusion:

The camera was interesting, but the mirror and the focusing, or lack thereof, could have sat better with me. I decided to remove the finder and clean up the mirror to bring the camera back to life and make it more usable.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes to look over this camera blog. I'll have another exciting camera for next week's post, so please be safe until then.

Camera Update:

There were only four screws to hold the light hood on, so I proceeded to take them out. The hood came off quickly enough. Under the hood was a mask on top of the focus screen. I turned the camera upside down slowly, and the focus screen came right out, exposing the dingy mirror.

 They always say to test a small part when cleaning first to see if it's OK to proceed. I didn't hear that little voice say that this time, so I cleaned the mirror, thinking the silver paint was on the backside of the glass, which is normal. I took two swipes with my Q-Tip, and the finish came right off. YIKES!!!!

 

So, I ordered some silver markers to see if that would suffice to bring back the mirror effect to my new piece of glass. The mirror, or glass, now was easy enough to get out as it was held in the bracket with corner clips, which I slowly bent back to take out the mirror.

I received the silver or what’s called Chrome markers late last night. Early the next morning, I applied a generous amount to the glass I removed and let it dry. The markers produced more of a ripple effect as opposed to a clean glass mirror. It was certainly shiny enough, so I reassembled the focus screen and light hood back onto the camera, and the camera actually did a good job of focusing on a subject when viewing through the camera. It’s considerably better than before I disassembled it and when I took photos so I’m happy with how it turned out.

Here are the results.

Thank you again for reading about this interesting camera. Until next time, please be well and safe.