Hi all,

Yesterday I picked up a really nice Tachihara field camera for a ridiculously cheap price from a local Craigslist listing. I spent a couple of hours last night cleaning it all up, tightening screws, etc., and I'm really pleased with it.

I know it's not very important, but I was trying to find out a little about the history of Tachihara. I realise they are not made any more, but I wondered if anyone has any more information on when they started building cameras, and possibly any details on determining the age of a '45 Feil Stand'? I found some references to a serial number, but the examples I have seen given were a date-type code, wheras mine is simply two digits. Also, photos I've seen of the same model camera appear to have a few minor differences to mine (it has a clasp type fitting to lock the camera closed, as opposed to a pin and hook type that I see on most others). I am guessing mine could be an earlier model. I also noticed that the fresnel is marked 'Wista', not Tahcihara.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, I would be grateful to hear them!

Cheers,

Dave