Legend of SLR cameras-A 50-year brilliant way to a canon SLR (15-year-old)

15 days in a row: transformation-from the side axis to the SLR

Author of Legend of SLR cameras: Mu

Introduction: In the early 1950 s, there were two mainstream cameras: The side axis and the double reverse. However, there is also a type of camera that has developed rapidly since this time. This is a single-lens reflective camera, or SLR for short. Xuguangxue seized this opportunity and won the top prize in the SLR field ......

In the early 1950 s, there were two mainstream types of cameras in the International camera market: A 35mm focal plane shutter 35mm camera, typically represented by Leica IIIC/iiif, japanese manufacturers mainly include Canon (the main imitation Leica) and Japanese optics (the main imitation of coathtime; the other type is a dual-lens reflex camera (LR), represented by the lulai rolleiflex 2.8 series. Japanese manufacturers mainly include qiandada and mamia. The 6x6 of the shutter between mirrors represents a wide range of mid-frame cameras and 35mm cameras, but it does not represent the highest level of the camera. Of course, there was another kind of camera, which began to take root in this period and rapidly grew into a towering tree. In just 20 or 30 years, it made all other types of cameras a secondary role. Undoubtedly, this is a single-lens reflective camera (SLR ).

The dual-lens reflective camera, represented by the lulai rolleiflex 2.8 series, was also a romantic character.

In fact, the history of SLR cameras is also very long. We mentioned earlier that the first SLR camera was created in Japan in when the first SLR camera was created in. The first SLR camera with a large image already appeared in the 19th century, the first 35mm SLR cameras were listed as kine exakta in 1936, and the early kine exakta was a waist-Level camera without a prism. In 1939, Germany's KW Company (praktica after the war, which is generally translated into baijia) launched praktiflex, the first SLR camera with a rebound mirror, with a lens of 40mm screw ports.

The most widely recognized 35mm SLR cameras were listed as kine exakta in 1936.

Praktiflex, launched by kW in Germany in 1939, is the first SLR camera with a rebound mirror.

In the true sense, the first 35mm-inch SLR camera with a five-prism scene was the former German (East German) Zeiss Yikang's coathon, which was launched in May 1949. After World War II, Germany was split into two countries: Federal Germany (namely, West Germany) and democratic Germany (I .e. East Germany). Zeiss Yikang also split into two parts, the East German Zeiss inherited the original factory in Dresden. It is worth mentioning that kine exakta, praktica and contec were both born in the city of Dresden. The difference between the two companies is that dongcai is committed to producing unfinished SLR cameras in the past, and xicai is focused on the subsequent development of the original x side camera. Later, on the basis of the kangtaishi S, dongcai continuously improved and launched a series of models including kangtaishi D.

It is generally regarded as the first 35mm SLR camera with a five-prism scene in the real sense.

The advertisement in the American publication of Conway's highlighted the structural characteristics of the prism and declared that it would generate a revolutionary change to photography 35mm. Later, the development of SLR also proved this, but the walls are fragrant, and the glory of slrs is mostly Japanese.

The time series and pentaprism have defined a brand new model, and the M42 screw port has become a standard for the camera industry for a long time. Early SLR cameras were used for waist and plane scenes without a prism. The scenes seen by waist and plane scenes were reversed. In addition, the aperture was not fully open. If a small aperture was used, the viewfinder was very dark, after exposure, You need to manually put the reflector down, which is inconvenient. However, the advantage of no parallax has always attracted people to continuously improve it. The first German commercialization does not mean that no one in Japan has similar ideas.

Song bensanlang, president of xuguangxue, who was brave enough to enter the 35mm SLR Field

In 1949, Song bensanlang, then President of xuguangxue, was determined to start entering the camera market. However, Canon and Japanese optics have a strong position on the 35mm side camera, and Qian daitian and mamia have advantages in Image-based cameras, let the ambitious Xuguang xuxue and songben sanlang only choose to develop towards 35mm SLR cameras, and songben sanlang believes that 35mm SLR cameras will become the development trend of cameras in the future. Taking into account the capital and technical strength of Xuguang at that time (the capital is only 2.5 million yen, but has bought an automatic lathe and other equipment worth 7.5 million yen from France ), matsumoto chose praktiflex, which was just 10 years ago.

In 1952, Japan's first 35mm-inch SLR camera-asahiflex I was born

Asahiflex I (left) compared with praktiflex, it is obvious that asahiflex I is more compact and exquisite

In 1952, Japan's first 35mm-inch SLR camera asahiflex I was born. After all, it is the first product, and asahiflex I is not perfect in all aspects. It adopts a 37mm screw port design and comes standard with kogaku takumar 50mm f3.5 lens. The shutter range is 1/20 ~ In 1/500 seconds, you can only view the right and right scenes in the waist-level framing mode. In order to obtain the scene horizontally, you can also design a framing window. Asahiflex I is not only small in size, but also very cheap, with the camera price only 23,000 yen.

Asahiflex I and other follow-up models without a prism can only get the glasses close to the viewfinder like this, and the picture is still right and right A year later, the improved asahiflex IA was launched, adding a 1/25 second shutter and FP flash synchronous access holes at a price of 26,700 yen. Before June 1954, Xuguang also released takumar lenses of 100mm f/3.5, 135mm f/3.5, 500mm f/5, and 83mm f/1.9. Both asahiflex I and asahiflex IA have been produced for more than a year, with an output of more than 7,000 and more than 11,000.

The world's first 35mm SLR camera asahiflex IIB with a real-time reset mirror

In November 1954, asahiflex IIB, the world's first 35mm SLR camera with a real-time reset mirror, was born. This camera is a milestone model in the history of the SLR camera. Real-time reset mirror design allows users to focus on scenes and shooting, without having to manually put the mirror down as before (previously mentioned praktica has a rebound mirror, but it is raised by pressing the shutter and putting down by gravity, not by the mechanical device "automatic "). In the same period, there were still 58mm f/2.4 lenses, and the unit price was 31,900 yen.

Xuguang learning asahiflex IIA with standard 58mm f/2.4 lenses

Three months later, the improved asahiflex IIA was launched (with the upgraded IIB introduced in the same period), with a slow shutter knob and 1/25 ~ 1/2 S and T-door, with 58mm f/2.4 lens for 39,500 yen. Both models were produced until April 1957, with IIA producing about 20,000 and IIB producing about 16,000.

In order to open the U.S. market, xuguangxue once sold his camera to another brand.

It is worth mentioning that the three cameras, including IA, have been exported to the United States and sold with all the brands of the dealers in tower. It can be seen that sanlang songben is not as persistent as Yu Shouyi, however, we also need to consider that xuguangxue was a minor player in camera production after all. IIA and IIB in later production both gave up the 37mm loose and switched to the M42 loose.

As a latecomer to the camera market, Xuguang chose the 35mm SLR camera of the cold-door model in that year as the only breakthrough. In the first half of the 1950 s, Xuguang created its own world, it has also aroused widespread attention in the industry. The Asahi Pentax, which was launched in 1957, is a real hit among other Japanese counterparts.

Don't worry about it. It's worth talking about the origins of this bind. As mentioned above, Zeiss Yikang was split because of the end of World War II. dongcai later lost the right to use trademarks including Zeiss Ikon and contax, so in 1952, we registered Pentax and pentacon (which were combined with the first three letters of pentaprism and the first three and the last three letters of contax, later, I gave up the Pentax trademark and resold it to xuguangxue. In 1953, I launched a model using the pentacon trademark (that is, I changed the logo of Kang taishi D ), later, we have been producing contex D and pentacon and improved models.

Asahi Pentax, which was introduced in 1957, was later called AP. It was Pentax's first fixed-prism 35mm SLR camera. Its appearance allowed Japanese cameras to enter the development period of SLR.

Asahi Pentax, also known as AP, is the first mass-produced model in the history of 35mm SLR cameras with a prism, a rapid rebound mirror, an upper dial and a inverted wrench, and uses the M42 screw port. In 1955, Japan's Orion company launched Japan's first mslr camera, Miranda T, which uses a prism, and can be replaced by a focal screen and a viewfinder. This design was later developed by Nikon F, and we will talk about it later. AP is the first 35mm SLR camera to use a fixed five-prism eye-plane viewfinder, and adopted the best optical processing technology at that time. The viewfinder was the brightest and the highest magnification at that time. Compared with the replaceable viewfinder, the fixed prism is undoubtedly easier in the process and is more conducive to volume control. The 37mm loose was abandoned because the M42 loose lens was popular at that time. Shutter speed range of AP: 1 ~ 1/500 seconds, standard 58mm f/2 lens at that time for 49,500 yen.

Bind AP was sold as a tower trademark.

At that time, there were only three or four brand SLR cameras in the world, including AP and contex F/pentacon F. Because AP has distinctive Japanese characteristics, it is exquisite, small, and easy to use, in particular, the use of the M42 screw has many reasons such as the use of the lens, AP was welcomed as soon as it was launched, in order to open up the United States and other markets, it was also sold with the tower trademark, in that year, sales of nearly 20,000 units were in short supply, and Pentax's position in the Japanese camera industry was established.

Bind K, the next AP model, is the first SLR camera with a shutter and a lens aperture.

In May 1958, bind K, another classic model and a successor to AP, came out. In addition to increasing the shutter speed to 1/1000 seconds, bind K is also the first SLR camera with shutter and lens aperture linkage, you can take the scene and focus under the full open aperture, press the shutter time circle automatically reduced to the default size. For this reason, the lens has a pin used to shrink the aperture, and the lens name has become auto takumar. Xuguang also launched the brightest SLR lens auto takumar 55mm f/1.8 As a pullover. The camera is black and white and has characteristics. The unit price is 51,500 yen. Bind K only produces 21,500 units in a year.

Starting from May 1959, bind began to manufacture bind S2 in bulk, with amazing output.

Bind H2 is S2 sold with trademarks such as heiland and Honeywell.

After several years of exploration, Xuguang has become more mature in R & D and manufacturing. In May 1959, bind's large-scale production model bind S2/H2 was put into production after the transformation of the production process and technology. This model is a simplified version of bind k. It removes the 1/1000 second shutter and integrates the shutter selection disk. The standard camera is also changed to auto takumar 55mm f/2, the price is only 32,600 yen. In addition, the product was sold with trademarks such as heiland and Honeywell. It was discontinued in 1961 and 130,000 units were produced in about two years. At that time, this was an astonishing number.

Bind's story tells us that he is back to Canon and Nikon, the two companies that specialized in producing 35mm advanced side-axis cameras. The emergence of Leica m3 made the two companies realize that there is still a lot to be improved in camera development. Of course, they chose to continue developing new models on advanced off-axis cameras they are good, at the same time, Xuguang's hot scene on the SLR model cannot make other veteran camera manufacturers indifferent. They all turn their eyes more or less to the SLR.

End of serialization section 15th