Camerapedia
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Earth Kōgaku K.K. (アース光学㈱) was a Japanese company based in Tokyo in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[1] Before getting into camera production, the company was making a pocket monocular.[2] In 1938, it released the Guzzi subminiature camera distributed by Sanwa Shōkai. It also made the Loren 3×4 folder from about 1940. On the cameras, the company name was displayed as EARTH KOHGAKU or EARTH K.K.

After 1945, the Guzzi was revived as the Top, ostensibly made by Top Camera Works; it is not known if this was the name of an actual company, maybe a successor to Earth, or a mere dummy name for Earth Kōgaku.

Notes[]

  1. Its address in 1938 was in Nihonbashi-ku (日本橋区); source: column in Asahi Camera June 1938 reproduced in Awano, p.7 of Camera Collectors' News no.277. In 1943 it was Tōkyō-to Mukōjima-ku Azuma-chō Higashi 3123 (東京都向島区吾嬬東3123); source: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras").
  2. Column in Asahi Camera June 1938 reproduced in Awano, p.7 of Camera Collectors' News no.277.

Bibliography[]

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