Neoca

Neoca was a Japanese company that made the Mizuho Six 6×6 folders from 1951, and later Neoca cameras.

The company's full name at first was Mizuho Kōki Seisakusho (ミヅホ光機製作所), this name was translated as Mizuho Optical on some body engravings, and the logo was MKS in a stylized lens scheme. In July 1952 the company became Mizuho Camera Kōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha (ミヅホカメラ工業株式会社), translated as Mizuho Camera Ind. Co, Ltd (observed on a box for a Mizuho Six, for sale at a Yahoo Japan auction). While Mizuho seems to have consistently been written in advertisements as ミヅホ (never ミズホ), the company is, rightly or wrongly, sometimes referred to as 瑞穂 (which too would be read "Mizuho").

In November 1954 the company became Neoca, more fully Neoca Kabushiki Kaisha (ネオカ株式会社).

Neoca went bankrupt in January 1960.

6×6 folder

• Mizuho Six I
• Mizuho Six II
• Mizuho Six III
• Mizuho Six IIB
• Mizuho Six IIIB
• Mizuho Six V
• Mizuho Six VI (maybe advertised only)
• Mizuho Six Super
• Mizuho Six Super N
• Mizuho Six Super T

35mm rangefinder

• Neoca 1s
• Neoca 2s
• Neoca 35a
• Neoca 35 III S
• Neoca 35 IV S
• Neoca 35 K
• Neoca SV (aka Brumberger 35)
• Robin

Sources / further reading

• Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10〜40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7 Pp. 190–93, 367. (Source for company renaming.)
• Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper) ISBN 0-935398-16-3 (hard) (Source for bankruptcy.)

Links

In English:

• Neoca 2s at the Guide to classic cameras

In Japanese:

• Neoca 35 IS, Neoca 35 IIS, Neoca 35 IVS, Neoca 35K and Neoca S at K.Fukushi's Rangefinder website
• Neoca 35A at Otowa no ni-kan refu
• AJCC page that says something about company nomenclature