Kinsi

Template:127 Japan The Kinsi was a 3×4 strut folding camera, sold by Riken around 1941. According to Ricoh's corporate site, it was made by another company. They also say it was a copy of the Zeh Goldi, that is obviously not true, the Goldi being of the folding bed type. At the Asacame site, they say it was a copy of a Certo camera, indeed it looks very much like the Dolly 3×4.

The Kinsi had a folding optical finder, a Kinsi Anastigmat 50/4.5 triplet lens with front cell focusing and a Licht T, B, 25-50-100 shutter made by Seikosha. A funny characteristic of the Licht shutter is explained on this page by nekosan.

A 1942 ad (see here, from the 18 Nov. 1942 issue of Asahi Graph) offered the Kinsi, called Kinsi I, for ¥56.80.

A Semi Kinsi, name variant of the Semi Olympic, has been observed at a Yahoo Japan auction, and is covered in the Olympic page.

Note: The name Kinsi (pronounced kinshi) can be written 金鵄, then meaning "golden eagle". It the ad, it was written キンシ in katakana writing .

Links

In Japanese:

• Kinsi in the film camera list at Ricoh's corporate site
• Ricoh 127 cameras and A-Z 127 film cameras at Asacame, with the Kinsi on this page
• Prewar Japanese 127 camera page including the Kinsi, and a page about a funny characteristic of the Licht shutter at Nekosan's site
• Old Japanese ads, including the Kinsi