Minolta Miniflex Camera

In the 1950s, the Japanese camera industry was seeing an influx of the 35mm cameras with a smaller, more portable, and affordable camera. Camera companies like Nikon, Canon, and Minolta making headway into the camera market. Not only in the 35mm marketplace but the Japanese were also making Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras giving companies like Rolleiflex and Zeiss some real competition. Companies like Yashica, Mamiya, Kuribayashi, and Tougodo Optical Co. were making TLR cameras in the after war market.

The camera I’m focusing on this week is the rare Minolta Miniflex which was introduced by Minolta in 1959 and was made by Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō, predecessor of Minolta

Minolta, like Rolleiflex, was manufacturing TLR cameras. Rollei started making TLR cameras as early as 1929, and Minolta as early as 1936-1937 when they introduced the Minoltaflex I camera which was the first Japanese TRL making a 6x6 image (2 1/4” x 2 1/4”) image on 120 film. Even in the 1930s, Minolta was giving Franke & Heideke a run for their money as they were producing some high-quality TLR Cameras.

In 1957, Rolleiflex introduced their "Baby Rolleiflex” camera which was a camera introducing their "4x4” format camera. The 4x4 format was using 127 film and the camera was producing 12-1 5/8” x 1 5/8” negative size. 127 film was also known as the “Superslide” and was short-lived during the late 1950s to early 1960s. The cameras were smaller and more compact. Yashica introduced their 4x4 camera in 1958, and Minolta introduced the Miniflex in 1959 which was their competition of the smaller format Yashica and Rolleiflex. Unfortunately, the TLR started to decline in sales around the same time and Minolta only produced about 5000 of the Miniflex cameras.

The camera is a very appealing two-toned camera with a blue body and silver grey-green leatherette on the camera body and the same color around the lens and hood. The camera has a Minolta Rokkor 60mm f3.5 lens taking lens, but a 60mm f2.8 View-Rokkor viewing lens for brighter focusing. The shutter is an Optiper Citizen MVL shutter with speeds B, 1 sec. to 1/500. It’s cocked by a small lever at the bottom under the lens and the self-timer lever is on the same side as the release button. The opposite side has a red painted M/X selector and a PC sync socket.

On either side of the camera are accessory shoes for either a flash attachment or the accessory sports finder. On the left of the body os a very large focus knob with the depth of field scale, and on the right is the frame counter as well as the advance wheel with an arrow showing the direction to turn the know. The viewfinder is not removable and is built into the camera body which was less expensive to make. There is a pop-up magnifying lens in the hood as most TLR cameras have.

The camera’s serial number is on the top of the camera, in front of the camera and just above the gold “minolta miniflex” hame which appears three dimensional with the clear plastic covering it on the front.

I hope you enjoy these camera blogs and would love to hear your comments. Please email me with questions or concerns.

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Panon 120 Panoramic Camera

Today’s blog is on one of my favorite types of cameras, the panoramic camera. In this weeks post, I’m going to be discussing the Panon Wide Angle 120 camera.

The camera was made by the Showa Company which was started by Nakayama Shozo in 1952 in Tokyo Japan. The Panon camera went through several different revisions starting with the 50A in 1952, then there were the AIII, AII and in 1954 the AI. In 1964, they started making the Panophic, and in 1990 they made the Widelux 1500.

Showa’s best known camera is the Widelux cameras which they started in 1958 and in my opinion, the standard in 35mm panoramic cameras.

The Panon is kind of a beast to use. It weighs in at 4 lbs, 14oz. with the case on and measures 6.5” wide x 5.5” tall x 4.5” deep. On the top of the camera are the main controls which are the shutter speed dial, the shutter release, pop-up viewfinder, bubble level, and winding knob. There is also a diagram of the angle of view you see printed on the top. Below are some views of the camera.

The camera comes with a 50mm f2.8 Konishiruku Hexon lens that rotates from the left side to the right when the lens is cocked and ready to go. To operate the camera, you manually pull the lens to the left, set your shutter speed, pull up the pop-up viewfinder to get the approximate view. I alway check the angle on the top, and press the shutter button. You have 3 needs to choose from when shooting, 1/200, 1/50, and 1/2 sec. The aperture settings are inside the lens area and you manually set that by rotating the dial from f2.8~11. There’s no meter so you’ll need to use and external meter for exposure.

Loading the film is a bit tricky. There’s a film insert which you take out once you take the bottom of the camera off which is held on with locking knobs. On the side of the insert is a diagram with arrows showing the direction of the film. Once you load the film onto the insert, you pop it back into the camera and put back on the bottom cover. If the insert is in upside down, the plate won’t go back on the camera. I’ve done this several times.

The camera produces 6 approx. 2” x 4 3/8” images on a 120 roll of film. The back of the camera lets you know under the film viewing window which number to look for when winding the film. You go to each other number, so 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, & 11.

My wife and I went to Peru a few years ago and the Panon 120 camera was one of the cameras I shot with when we went to Manchu Picchu. It was a bit awkward toating it around and I received several stares and people asking what I was using when we were there, but the camera does produce some great images.

I’m always interested in hearing your comments or if you have questions about this or any of the other cameras in my blog.

Below is one of the images I took on Manchu Picchu. If you want to see more from this camera, you can see them here.

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Wonder Photo Cannon

This is of the more unusual cameras in my camera collection. At least it’s the most unusual in shape, and size as this is one beautiful chrome and nickel cameras in the collection.

This odd camera was produced by The Chicago Ferrotype Company which was started by two brothers, Louis and Manuel Mandel in 1904. They produced the Wonder Photo Cannon between 1910, and 1928 as well as other “street” style cameras. The “street” camera was made so the photographer to produce a large number of images in a short time. It’s said the photographer could produce up to 360 images in an hour.

Emblem on the front of camera

The name of the camera comes from the shape of a ship’s cannon and was also known as a magazine camera due to its ability to hold many ferrotype plates into the back of the camera at one time. This conical-shaped camera measures about 9 1/2″ tall from the base to the top of the viewing site and is about 13 1/2″ long.

One of the reasons I like this camera is it resembles the original Voigtlander daguerreotype camera. You can see a replica image of the camera here.

The photographer would load the 1” diameter ferrotype plates into the rear of the camera through the backs opening. They were held into place by a spring-tensioned rod that threaded into the back.

The photographer would photograph the subjects, and the ferrotype plate would then drop into the film processing chambers under the camera. There is a rotating arm that allowed the photographer to drop them into 2 different chambers.

On the right of the camera is a rod, and on my version, it appears this sets the shutter to either “T” or “B” for exposure. On the lower left side of the lens is where the photographer could put in the bulb release to expose the images.

The Wonder Photo Cannon in my collection

I purchased this from a person in the Seattle area that said this was his father’s camera and he had had it for many, many years, and used in when the father was younger and had it put away for years. Here are some images of the camera in my collection. It’s missing the rear finder, but overall a great addition to the collection.

If you have comments, concerns, or questions, I look forward to hearing from you. If you have items you’re looking to move, please email me on my contact page, as I’m always looking. Thank you for your time.

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Bell & Howell Foton Camera

A tremendous post-war 35mm rangefinder camera with the capability of a 6 FPS motor drive. This beautiful brown and chrome camera is a bit larger than the usual Leica, Nikon, and Canon rangefinders of the days, measuring 5.75” wide, x 4” tall and 3.25” deep with the normal Cooke Amotal 2” f2.2 lens made by Taylor, Taylor & Hobbs Ltd of England. The camera weighs in at a little over 2 lbs. (2 lbs. 2 oz.), but it fits into your hand nicely. The price tag at release was around $700.00 which was very high for that time period.

The camera was Bell & Howell foray into 35mm cameras and was introduced in 1948. The camera had some really advanced features. The ringsider focus was on the front of the camera and rolled up and down next to the shutter release making the ability to focus and shoot very easy. Nikon, Leica, and Canon had similar features, but they were on the top of the camera as opposed to the front.

The shutter release area had a few different functions. On the top of the shutter release, you could pick between single frame with the top knob in the lower position, and sequence shooting with it in the upper position. Below the shutter release was another switch that allowed the user to lock the shutter so you couldn’t fire the camera when it’s locked position. On the other side of the lens on the front of the camera is the shutter speed dial, which goes from “B” to 1/1000. The shutter speeds under 1/250 drops to 1/100, then 50, 25, 10, 5, 2, 1 as opposed to what’s normal now. The camera has an odd vertically traveling shutter with a secondary guard in front of it which you can see when the lens is off.

The two small openings on the back are the rangefinder focus and 50mm viewfinder which doesn’t have parallax correction. On the bottom of the camera is the motor drive winding mechanism. You can get up to a total of 17 exposures on a full wind, which is impressive.

The camera normal lens is a screw mount lens and employs a T-stop system which is mainly used in the commercial cinematography world. This makes sense for a company known for manufacturing motion picture cameras. The telephoto lenses use the outer bayonet which is around the lens.

The back of the camera opens from the right to the left, which is unusual for the majority of the 35mm cameras made, but the camera loads like any other 35mm camera.

For the camera collectors, this is a fairly difficult and pricy camera to find. They stopped production in the early 1950’s because sales for the camera were very slow. Sources say there were less than 17,000 made, but they are extremely well built and when found, they are generally in working condition which is a testament to how well they were made. I’ve had the pleasure of owning 2 so far. One was purchased in a “lot” of items purchased. I noticed the Foton in the photos but the camera was on its side and had to ask the seller if that was a Bell & Howell camera which they confirmed. Luckily I bought the entire lot for under $100.00.

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Kodak Super Six-20

This is my fist of what I’m hoping to be weekly posts on cameras in my collection as well as what my interests are in collecting, which are pretty much anything photographic with a few exceptions.

In my posting, I’d rather let you know how I came across certain cameras and the story behind it as opposed to physical facts on the camera which are pretty easy to find on the web. If you have questions, concerns or comments about my collection, as specific camera, or just want to discuss your collection, I’m always open to comments here.

In this post, I wanted to discuss what is one of the rarer cameras to have in my collection, the Kodak Super Six-20 camera. It’s estimated this camera was produced for 6 years, from 1938-1944, and due to the expense of the camera ($225.00) during these days, there were only about 720 made. It was also the camera that started “Auto Exposure” in production cameras. I think one of the neatest thing about this and other Kodaks, was it was designed by Joseph Mihalyi and Walter Dorwin Teague. Walter Teague designed the Kodak Beau Brownies, and one of my all time designs in a camera, the Bantam Special along with many other cameras, radios and other products.

How I got this beauty, or at least the first one as this is the second. When I was in Los Angeles, I read on Craigslist there was someone selling one which peaked my interest. I called and talked to the owner a few times after emailing back and forth. We finally determined a good place to meet where I could finally see this camera they were touting as in “great condition”. We met and the pewrson had the camera in a case and when they pulled it out, I was slightly disappointed as the camera was in pretty rough shape. The camera was missing a few screws and wouldn’t stay open and the stand on the front door was missing. After discussing with the owner what was wrong with the camera, they knoew it was fairly valuable, so we agreed on a price for it which was OK, not great, but I now own one which made me happy.

I put it on my shelf and had it for about a year or so when my wife and I moved to a new location. After getting settled in, I saw the local camera collectors were having a swap meet. Something I love doing. I signed up for the swap meet which was a couple hours away from where we live. I packed up the night before and added the Super Six-20 in the camera tubs to bring with me. At the show was kept circling back at least 3-4 times and looking at the camera. We started up a conversation and he said he’s always wanted to own one and he even had a copy (photocopy) of the instructions. He said he didn’t mind the imperfections with the missing screws and foot on the camera. He said he’d even send me a copy of the instructions if I’d sell him ths model.

Soon after I sold this version, I saw another for sale on eBay which had the box, foot and was in better physical shape with the exception of some minor leatherette missing on the front door which you can see in the photos below. The price I sold the first one allowed me to purchase the newer one with the box and now a photocopy of the instructions as well.

If you have comments, concerns, or questions, I look forward to hearing from you. If you have items you’re looking to move, please email me on my contact page, as I’m always looking.

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