The New Vest (ニューベスト) is a camera taking 4×6.5cm pictures on 127 film, briefly advertised in Japan in 1925. It is only known from an advertisement extract reproduced in an article in Camera Collectors' News.
Origin[]
The New Vest was advertised in 1925 by the company Tōkyō Niimiyakan, which is otherwise unknown.[1] It was offered the same year as the Pearlette, and was perhaps the first or second Japanese camera taking 127 film. It was perhaps never commercially available, or was only distributed in limited quantities, and it seems that no surviving camera has ever surfaced.
Description[]
From the only picture known so far, the New Vest appears to be a strut-folding camera, copied on the German Piccolette by Contessa-Nettel, itself inspired by the Vest Pocket Kodak.
The front standard is mounted on a pair of scissor struts and extends towards the bottom to act as a standing leg. There is a brilliant finder at the top of the front plate, and there is no wireframe finder.
The winding key is situated at the top left, as seen by the photographer holding the camera vertically. The back is fixed and the film is loaded through the side plate, on the advance side. It looks like the side plate is locked by a circular disc.
The camera has an unidentified dial-set shutter. It seems that the camera name is inscribed at the bottom of the front plate, but nothing is clearly legible.
Notes[]
- ↑ Kameari, p.5 of Camera Collectors' News no.11.
Bibliography[]
- Kameari Hisao (亀有久雄). "Pāretto kamera no hensen" (パーレットカメラの変遷, Evolution of the Pearlette camera). In Camera Collectors' News no.11 (May 1978). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha.
The New Vest is not listed in Sugiyama.