CLASSIC FILM CAMERAS
FILM STARS
When is a Mamiya not a Mamiya? When it’s a Nikon, or a Ricoh, etc. John Wade investigates
Let’s begin with Nippon Kogaku. In 1959 the Japanese company introduced the Nikon F, a 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) that became so popular so quickly that the manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand. The Nikon F, however, only really appealed to professionals. What was required next was a camera aimed at advanced amateurs. The eventual answer was the Nikkormat, but that wouldn’t be introduced for another six years. An interim model was needed and, with little time or opportunity for the development of such a camera, the company turned to Mamiya for help. The result was a slightly odd, and these days largely unknown, SLR.
Nikkorex 35
In 1960, with design input from Nikon and Mamiya, and with assembly undertaken at the Mamiya factory, the Nikkorex 35 made its debut. The camera has a fixed 5cm f/2.5 lens and a shutter made by Citizen, best known then as a manufacturer of watches and business machines. A large selenium cell mounted above the lens feeds a meter to control a needle in a tiny window in the top plate, moved by juggling shutter speeds and apertures by rings around the lens to align the needle with an even tinier index mark.
In place of a pentaprism, reflex viewing is supplied by mirrors in a porro prism design. The result is a dimmer than usual image but whose focus is aided by a split-image rangefinder. There is no instant return mirror, so the viewfinder blanks out after exposure until the film is wound. Add-on supplementary lenses turn the fixed lens into a 35mm wideangle or 90mm telephoto, but reduce the maximum aperture to f/5.6. Shutter speeds run 1-1/500sec.
Attempts to improve on the Nikkorex 35 with a new model that used a shutter made by Seikosha and, some time later, the Nikkorex Zoom 35 with a fixed 43-86mm zoom, failed to make the cameras any great success. It was clear that a different approach was needed, and luckily Mamiya had just the thing up its sleeve.
Guide price for collectors: £25-40.
User tips: The cameras are heavy, unwieldy and prone to shutter failure.
Mamiya Prismat NP
Mamiya Koki Seisakusho was launched in 1940 by Tsunejiro Sugawara and Seichi Mamiya, the former a businessman and the latter an engineer.
The company’s first products were folding medium for
