Koilos

Early Koilos

The Koilos is a German three-leaf shutter. It was the first leaf shutter developed by Gauthier, introduced in 1904. It needed cocking and used a leather brake to regulate speeds.

Cameras equipped

• Murer's Express
• Pocket Idea A1 (1911)
• Lily (1909–11)
• Noble
• Pearl No.4 (1911)

Later Koilos

Koilos shutter on a Lomax. Picture courtesy of eBayer hbpartner. (Image rights)

Various Japanese cameras of the early 1930s are equipped with a different Koilos shutter. This Koilos shutter is everset, and tripped by a lever attached to the front plate. The speeds (25, 50, 100, B, T) are selected by a wheel at the top. There is a thread for a cable release on the side, and a thread and needle release under the lens. This Koilos shutter was perhaps made by Gauthier, but this is unclear.

The Koilos shutter mounted on the Nifca-Dox by Nichidoku (predecessor of Minolta) has a peculiar octagonal casing and slightly different controls. It was perhaps not a genuine imported shutter, and at least one source says that it was "clearly made by the company itself".

Cameras equipped

The fact that a camera is listed here does not imply that all its versions were equipped with a Koilos shutter:

• Idea (isolated example)
• Nifcarette and Sirius Bebe
• Nifca-Dox
• Sirius and Lomax
• Super and Special Super
• Tokiwa
• Weha

Bibliography

• Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Senzen no Minoruta kamera" (戦前のミノルタカメラ, "Prewar Minolta cameras"). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.12, October 1988. No ISBN number. Minoruta kamera no subete (ミノルタカメラのすべて, special issue on Minolta). Pp.13–17.

Links

In English:

• Shutters - History and Use, an article by Ernest Purdum at largeformatphotography.info with erroneous mentioning of Kenngott as the shutter's maker

In Japanese:

• Unknown plate folder with a Koilos shutter and a Heliostar lens, at the Monomono blog