Collecting Japanese Folding Cameras
- Kamera Ostalgie
- 7 days ago
- 9 min read
When I first started collecting cameras as a teenager in the late 1970's collecting folding Japanese Cameras was not really an option then for many reasons. Firstly was the lack of knowledge, remember there was no internet, no eBay, no specialist shops on line, and I did not really know that there were such things as Japanese folding cameras. You just did not see them in England at that time. Most of the Japanese cameras available then were fairly new SLR's, loads and loads of them, so no collector interest, some TLR Rollie copies, simple point and shoots and if you looked in the window of Prestons of Harrogate ( the best camera shop in Yorkshire at the time and also the snobbiest) you could see the odd Canon and Nikon rangefinder cameras, mixed in with rows of screw thread Leica's, but old Japanese folders of the 1940's and 1950's just were not seen. There was not much chance of finding one in a charity shop or jumble sale either.
Even when I started going to camera fairs years later, Japanese folders were not very common, you might if you were lucky see the odd Olympus Chrome Six or a couple of Mamiya sixes but that was about it. Even if you wanted a Japanese folder to use, the Zeiss Ikontas and Nettars were a safer option, more choice, better condition and usually cheaper.
Of course not that many Japanese folders actually seemed to be imported to Great Britain in the 1950's, most seemed to end up in America, in fact many of the Japanese folders were aimed particularly at the American market and of course selling to the American troops who were stationed in or occupying Japan at the time. So in America they are much more common than in Great Britain. Many cameras were imported their directly or came home with the servicemen. Probably the only Japanese folding camera that could be thought of as fairly common in Great Britain was the Welmy Six in its various forms and variations and even that was relatively a rarity.
Lets move forward to today, where Japanese folding cameras are much more readily available but still not exactly common. They crop up in small numbers on e-Bay and similar sites and also in the stocks of some specialist dealers. However finding a good one in nice cosmetic condition which is also in full working order and capable of being used is another matter altogether!
I have noticed that a lot of dealers from Japan seem to use eBay and similar sites in the west to get rid of their tatty stock and cameras with faults, the cameras that no serious Japanese collector would entertain! Most of the Japanese folders they are trying to sell have cloudy lenses, full of fungus, leatherette coverings that are torn, missing or virtually non existent, holed bellows and sticky shutters or just downright irreparable. The chrome is usually dull or down to the brass and often they have more than their fair share of corrosion. I once did a rough count up on eBay and it worked out that for me, only one in about twenty Japanese folders were in a condition good enough to consider purchasing.
Don't be fooled by the silly condition thing they tend to use in the header, like excellent +++ and when you read the description further down the page, and start studying any pictures, they are in a condition most of us would call rough or at best just fair. Be warned.
Even when you have filtered out the visually poor ones remember you may have many hidden faults on these Japanese folding cameras that you can't see until you try out the camera once it is in your hands! Then on top of that once a film has been run through it, there may be even more hidden problems. If you work on the ratio one in 20 look to be okay, then filter in this ratio, of the ones that look to be okay, two out of three of them will have hidden problems the buyer has not disclosed or was unaware of. Shocking, but that is the reality of it. If you are buying to use your Japanese folder, the odds are stacked against you, just be aware of the potential risk.
The safest way is of course to purchase your Japanese folding camera from a good dealer who has a shop where you can physically go and look at the camera before you buy it, verify with the dealer that it is in full working order and have some come back if it turns out to be faulty after trying it with film. But of course you will have to pay much more for this than buying blind on line, which is bluntly what you are doing using any online auction site.
However, let us now look at the plus side of Japanese folders ! Most of them are unusual, not common, or down right rare in Great Britain. Some are not common even in Japan. Their designs are quite different, even if some copied one German folder or another initially, most soon developed and improved that design. They are the exact opposite to say Zeiss Ikon cameras where every camera is known, the lens and shutter options well recorded and the model code stamped at the back, so you know exactly what camera you have in front of you. With Japanese cameras often the makers are quite obscure, with very little information available. The changes, the little differences, can be numerous on the same model of camera. Even the camera name can be different. This to me is very interesting. Another thing with them is that you don't know the quality of the maker, so if you buy a Zeiss Ikon camera you know what sort of quality maker they are and this gives you a pretty fair idea that the camera will be well made and you already know what to expect. I mean you already know how a Zeiss Tessar or Novar lens is going to perform, but how about a Nitto Kogaku Kominar or a C-Master Anastigmat for example? How do they perform. What sort of quality is a Okako Waltax, a Zenobia, or a Walcon Six ? No you don't have a clue. I quite like that! It makes you look at a camera study the pictures, look at the design, and if you are buying it on line you can still be fooled. But usually if you can get your hands on it and look and try its functions out first hand, you can be a better judge of its quality, or indeed lack of it. If you can't get your hands on it before you buy, then lets call a spade a spade, it is just a gamble.
This is a Walcon Six on an on line selling site, what do you know about it? What is its spec? Is the lens a good one ? Does it have a rangefinder? Is it dual format? What year was it made? I bet most of us can't answer most of those questions, but if this was a Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta we would know fairly exactly what we were getting. But this is a Walcon Six, I have not a clue, apart from it looks like it has a rangefinder, that is about it. Oddly I quite like this situation! I call it seat of the pants collecting, where you have to rely on your eye, your gut feeling, not look it up on the internet or read a post about it or study a book. It's just you and the camera! Ace! But you can get caught out and you can be totally wrong in your evaluation!
The above is a Zenobia! Do I know anything about it? No very little. Do I like the look of it, yes! Would I buy it blind? If I had the money, yes, I like the look of this design.
Camera condition is another worry when buying Japanese folding cameras, as most examples will be bought on line from the UK, America or Japan, it is a bit of a lottery. The obvious start is to look at the pictures on line very carefully to try and get what the cosmetic condition is of that camera. Look at all the pictures provided at every angle, enlarge them if possible to get a good idea of what it is like. Cosmetic condition is very important, shutters can usually be repaired or serviced, lenses can be professionally cleaned, but poor chrome, plating rubbed through to the brass, dents or scratches are all a different matter. So go for cosmetic condition, then get the shutter serviced and the optics cleaned, lens re lubricated etc, then your Japanese folder in in a different league and can be confidently put to use and enjoyed.
However hard you try, you will be caught out buying 70 year old Japanese folding cameras on line. This lovely Crystar Six with its C -Master lens looks good, but the front cell focusing is seized after 10 feet, so will need a professional clean and re lubricating. Always budget for three or four times the cameras cost, for getting it serviceable again! So lets say you bought a nice Japanese folder on-line for £25 to £30, then have in the back of your mind it will cost say £75 to £100 to get it put right. The trouble is you might have bought it for around a hundred pounds and still have to spend £100 on it to sort it out.
Then we have to factor in postage costs. Things are not too bad if you manage to buy in the U.K., but choice is very limited, so you might look towards Japan or America where the choice of Japanese folding cameras is much greater. However don't forget to look at customs charges and tax on top of just the postage. It can add up so that it is in the least expensive and often just plain uneconomical.
Economics ! So getting an old Japanese folding camera repaired and serviced might not make economic sense, depending of course what make or model the camera actually is, If you have a Welmy or a Crystar for example or similar lower cost Japanese folder then spending £100 pounds on it to get it back working is fine, if your sole purpose is to use it and enjoy taking pictures with it. Just don't expect to get that money back if you have to re-sell it, because you won't. If its a high end Japanese folder, lets say a Mamiya Six or an Olympus Six or a Konica Pearl, then chances are you just might.
My personal take on it is this, if you like the look and feel of the camera, and you think you will enjoy taking pictures with it, then do it, get the camera serviced and sorted. Once done, used regularly and looked after it should get you a further 70 years service out of it! What more can you ask for?
Now is a great time to get any folding roll film camera serviced and put back into use. Okay good repairers are few and far between, but they are out there and they make a great difference to your cameras feel, performance and use and of course the final results. Roll film, especially 120 is readily available again, even 620 and 127 can be obtained again today, though the cost is typically higher than 120. There are good processing firms who will develop your film, scan it and or make prints from it. There are nice developers on the market, some good papers, if you fancy having ago yourself, yes now is the best time since the mid 1950's to start using your folding roll film camera! Go on, get one, sort one out and get it put back into use! But be careful when buying, remember most are not fit to use without some degree of service and repair work and that will cost, don't be put off just be aware and prepared !
Most folders are either 6x6 or 6x4.5. I like the 6x6 format personally, you have all that negative to fill and can produce a cracking photograph. Modern trends seem to go for taking a picture then cropping it, taking the top and bottom off your image is to my mind a total waste of time and film, shoot 6x4.5 if you want rectangular images. Think square, compose your picture in a square format, fill the frame, get in all that detail. You never know, you may be so impressed you never use 35mm again!
I will leave you with what my Dad always used to say when discussing 6x6 over 35mm.
' A good big un allus beats a good little un !'
And I think he was right!
Take care,
Phil
