Hello, everybody! Have you heard of the legendary “Barrel Man“? It is a wooden statuette carved by the talented Igorot people. He is basically a little wooden man with a big barrel covering his body. When you pull the barrel off from the statuette you will be surprised by his huge wooden spring-loaded penis. It’s a novelty gift and it has become somewhat of a folk culture icon after it was introduced to the rest of the world by travelers. I had one a long time ago at my office which I used as a paperweight and to entertain my guests with. I am reminded of that little naughty figurine by today’s subject. It has a spring-loaded gimmick, but it is not as vulgar as what the Barrel Man has nor is it as big. Anyway, it’s just as entertaining if you ask me.
Introduction:
The Seiki Kogaku S has a pop-up viewfinder instead of the Leica’s simpler window. It is one of its defining gimmicks to circumvent the original German parents. I find it pathetic and useless as you will soon know why later in this article when I talk about how it handles when shooting. Despite that, I find it charming as it gives this camera a special character and silhouette. The funny thing is, it costs a lot more to produce a tiny enclosed viewfinder compared to a simpler flip-type one and the latter would be much more useful. It’s just a waste of space and an unnecessary complexity to solve a simple problem. I guess the Japanese really did idolize the Germans too much, to the extent of learning the bad habit of over-engineering. It’s probably one of the first, if not the first Leica copycat and a primitive one, too.
It is now much cleaner compared to how you first saw it in part 1. Some parts of the plating are corroded and beyond conventional cleaning, there’s nothing much we can do about it. I have replaced some screws and a few small parts from a donor Canon S2 which fits perfectly. I’m lucky to have a few screws that I can repurpose for my spares box, some of them are cross-type screws and are placed in parts that you won’t see externally. Some of the small set screws were replaced with new stainless ones just in case.
Hello, everybody! It’s spring now and it’s time to do some cleaning. While I do not clean my workshop as much as I should, I do a very thorough job of cleaning the cameras that I repair. I will show you the result of what I did to the camera that I am featuring in this series. I hope that you will appreciate the effort.
Introduction:
It is amazing how a joint effort between two Japanese companies can result in a good machine, at a time when the Germans were the ones who dominated the whole camera industry. I say “good” because this is still nothing compared to what the Germans were making at that time in terms of engineering or quality. I have had the opportunity to service Zeiss and Leica cameras that were made even earlier than this, they’re just superior in every way. It doesn’t mean that this camera is bad, it’s just not there yet.
This is where we left last time. I’ve took the time to clean everything very well and this is the result. This is definitely a huge Improvement compared to how you guys last saw it. It’s now time to reinstall the shutter and the rangefinder mechanism, but before we do that I would like to show you some other things.
Hello, everybody! I sometimes wonder why Nippon Kogaku manufactured the bayonet mount and maybe even the rangefinder mechanism of the very early Seiki Kogaku cameras. Is it because Nippon Kogaku is a specialist and the best optics company in Japan at that time? Or perhaps Seiki Kogaku did not know how to do them properly because they lack experience in optics? If it’s just optics then why didn’t they make the helicoid and the rest of the bayonet mount themselves? These are the questions that we’ll never know the answers to, but we will definitely examine every part of the Seiki KogakuS here in this series.
Introduction:
Why is this camera called the Seiki Kogaku S? That S used to mean “最新” or latest model, it was changed to stand for the name “Standard“. Some people even believe that it stood for “Slow” because it has a slow speeds compared to the previous model (Seiki Kogaku Hansa) which has none. I do not think the name is that important in this context because we’re more interested in restoring this camera. I only mentioned it because some people may be curious about what the name means.
It is interesting to note that there’s a hole at the center of the pressure plate and in the shell underneath this. That hole is plugged with a disc that you can unscrew so you will have direct vision through the hole for peeping. This is used for adjusting the flange distance of the camera. You insert a frosted paper inside the camera as you would do with a sheet of film and then you begin adjusting. I’m very sure that they use something made of glass instead of frosted paper for the adjustment at the factory.
Hello, everybody! Do you remember when Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior teamed up in 1990 for the Survivor Series? I think that is one of the most important events in sports entertainment history. There will be a falling-out between these two not too long after which is very sad because we would have seen the best tag team ever beating everyone else for more years to come. It’s unfortunate, but it gave us this vision of what an ultimate wrestling duo should be. Many great partnerships do not last very long, such as Hall & Oates, Wham! and Modern Talking. The same can be said for this partnership in Japan at a time we now call the prewar years. It was a time when Nikon and Canon joined forces to compete with the world.
Introduction:
The Seiki Kogaku S or S1 as many people call it was made from around 1938 for up to a few years. It has a limited production run so you won’t find many of these. Seiki Kogaku is the company that would become Canon, as Nippon Kogaku would become Nikon. This is the 2nd production model of Seiki Kogaku, the old one is the famous Seiki KogakuHansa. Anything before these 2 designs are considered prototypes so the collectors community don’t even consider them to be commercial models. This is a historically important camera because it’s the first model from Seiki Kogaku that has slow speeds. It also has a few features that make it innovative compared to the older Seiki KogakuHansa.
It has retained the unusual bayonet made by Nippon Kogaku but it now has to film counter dial under the winding mechanism instead of the front. The unique pop-up viewfinder is still there but the top-plate has been replaced with a more familiar shell like what you’ll find on the Leica IIIa. These are the most obvious changes that you will see externally. In this photo, you’ll see that it’s paired with the Nikkor 5cm f/2.8, it is a remarkable lens for its time, even rivaling the original Zeiss Ikon Tessar 5cm f/2.8 that it copied from.
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Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review 