Help in ID'ing Japanese 5X7 Wood Camera

**Tin Can** · 25-Aug-2020, 04:12

Mine is identical but 1/2 plate with black bellows

**tlloydau** · 25-Aug-2020, 04:30

Like Tin Can, I also have a 1/2 plate camera which looks very similar as far as the included holder/hardware/tripod mount/etc though there are definitely some differences as well. Mine is marked as a Tachihara Hope A which you can find photos online of. I'm not sure if what you have represents an earlier version or perhaps they are different manufacturers sharing some hardware / design.

**griffenn** · 25-Aug-2020, 09:57

Originally Posted by tlloydau

Like Tin Can, I also have a 1/2 plate camera which looks very similar as far as the included holder/hardware/tripod mount/etc though there are definitely some differences as well. Mine is marked as a Tachihara Hope A which you can find photos online of. I'm not sure if what you have represents an earlier version or perhaps they are different manufacturers sharing some hardware / design.

Thanks guys! It appears to be at least similar to the Tachihara camera. Based upon what I saw of the estate, my guess is that the former owner was possibly stationed in Japan after WWII. This may have been an earlier model as you mentioned that may have dated back to Occupied Japan. The woodworking on it is quite impressive as is the metalwork and finish. It has certainly seen better days, but with a bit of repair, it looks restoreable.

**griffenn** · 25-Aug-2020, 13:22

Originally Posted by tlloydau

Like Tin Can, I also have a 1/2 plate camera which looks very similar as far as the included holder/hardware/tripod mount/etc though there are definitely some differences as well. Mine is marked as a Tachihara Hope A which you can find photos online of. I'm not sure if what you have represents an earlier version or perhaps they are different manufacturers sharing some hardware / design.

Thanks guys! It appears to be at least similar to the Tachihara camera. Based upon what I saw of the estate, my guess is that the former owner was possibly stationed in Japan after WWII. This may have been an earlier model as you mentioned that may have dated back to Occupied Japan. The woodworking on it is quite impressive as is the metalwork and finish. It has certainly seen better days, but with a bit of repair, it looks restoreable.

**Ron (Netherlands)** · 25-Aug-2020, 15:36

Probably you already had a look at different models of the M.S.K. Osaka camera.

**r_a_feldman** · 26-Aug-2020, 11:48

Several points:
1. Are you sure it is 5x7, not half plate? As Oren Grad said in Post #7 in https://www.largeformatphotography.i...ate-exact-size, <quote>4.75 x 6.5 is the traditional Japanese "kyabine" ("cabinet") size</quote>. I have a similar Okuhara half plate field camera, for which I made a 4x5 reducing back. There are a number of similar branded (and unbranded) Japanese half plate field cameras. There were pictures here in my earlier posts, but I can no longer see them.

A number of years ago, I speculated in a thread here that there might have been suppliers of metal parts that were used by small-time Japanese camera makers, who built wooden field cameras using the common metal parts. I now find that my speculation had become "true fact" (see statements in the thread https://www.largeformatphotography.i...apanese-camera, for example). I might have been right, but what I wrote was speculation and needs confirmation.

2. Your camera is missing the tripod "spider" adapter (Pictures 1 and 2). The part you have will still mate to a tripod, but each leg will be separate (as in Picture 3, which shows one tripod leg laid in place, but folded against the camera). With the adapter, you can mount the camera on a standard screw-post tripod head.

Bob