No scale focus 120 folder forum?

R

retro

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I found this little gem at a recent camera show for $20. It's a
Zenobia by Daiichi. Nearly mint condition except for a dirty lens
which cleaned up nicely. Shutter speeds to 1/500 working well.
75mm/3.5 lens, hefty construction, 645 format.

But, it has no RF and I see no forum here for non-RF folders so
I will show it off here. Hope you don't mind. 😱

zen3lt6.jpg
 
But, it has no RF and I see no forum here for non-RF folders so
I will show it off here. Hope you don't mind
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most people do--i wouldn worry about it. besides it can take an aux rangefinder in the shoe.

interesting looking camera. japanese no doubt...a ziess type camera by the looks..early post war but late enough for a coated lens by the looks.
 
$20 is a bargin hey..

i dont suppose it has MIOJ Made In Occupied Japan...i think thats all the letters, i forget atm.

though from memory they stopped putting that on around 48-49 (maybe wrong there tho)
 
Nope, no MIOJ. It doesn't even say "Japan" on it anywhere.
Maybe they put it on the case which I don't have.
 
I have the same camera bought for the same price. I use it with a add on RF scaled in meters, my Zenobia is scaled in feet. I have a meters/feet table taped on the back of the camera. Problem is that the focus is a bit stiff and the distance numbers are hardly seen on the chrome focusring.
I had to clean the inner back lens with toothpaste to get a picture out of it.
The cleanliness of the lenses is the weak point of the Zenobia.
 
chippy said:
Toothpaste CRIKEY ! 😱 hehe
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I've heard about using that for brightening the viewfinder lenses on folders and box cameras, and I have done that myself, but I would never dare to do that to a taking lens. The aforementioned viewfinder lenses are not precision lenses and a taking lens is.
 
FallisPhoto said:
I've heard about using that for brightening the viewfinder lenses on folders and box cameras, and I have done that myself, but I would never dare to do that to a taking lens. The aforementioned viewfinder lenses are not precision lenses and a taking lens is.
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The first I learned to use toothpaste was while in the US Army, to remove scratches from watch crystals. The chalk in toothpaste would do that surprisingly well. But I would agree I would be reluctant to use it on a precision ground lens. How did it work Borghesia?
 
FallisPhoto said:
Could they have put it on a sticker, which was subsequently peeled off?
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i dont beleive they ever uses stickers Charles. about the most temporary application was a paint stamp (allthough they seem to last) but that was more on cameras from occupied germany. in occupied Japan they often engraved it, even on very small items comming from there. I'm not sure where i kept my notes on this so i cant look it up for the finer details of the name of the American commander in charge and the dates to be precise. but when he recinded the order that everything exported from Japan be marked MIOJ some camera makers removed the mark if it was engraved on a small inexspensive part on the camera. in most cases it would remain no doubt because of cost but my impression was the Japanese companies didnt like the label.

looking up Retro's camera it appears to be a c1949-56 model so odds are the camera was just after the MIOJ
 
Chippy, are you talking about a commander of a local part of the Japanese economy, or the commander of all occupation forces? If the latter, it would have been Douglas MacArthur who was sort of the shadow emperor. 😀
 
oftheherd said:
Chippy, are you talking about a commander of a local part of the Japanese economy, or the commander of all occupation forces? If the latter, it would have been Douglas MacArthur who was sort of the shadow emperor. 😀
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Hi oftheherd, no i am sure if it was MacArthur i would of remembered his name!...i thought he was a shadow god :angel: haha ..at least it seems his reputation and ego was lol

i'll see if i can can dig up what i had on it


EDIT; indeed oftheherd it looks as if my memory was a bit off as it was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers that signed off on the decree 1535 (whom could only of been the mighty Douglas MacArthur-i just didnt have his name written down it seems) that said all items exported from Japan after 9 september 1947 be marked MIOJ and he would have been still in charge in 1949 Decmber 5 when decree 2061 was issued recinding the previous requirement of decree 1535. some people say that it went on until 1951, probably because for some reason there were still some cameras (and other items) realeased with the mark MIOJ up until early 1951 but my notes say that decree 2061 was issued in Dec 1949
 
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oftheherd said:
The first I learned to use toothpaste was while in the US Army, to remove scratches from watch crystals. The chalk in toothpaste would do that surprisingly well. But I would agree I would be reluctant to use it on a precision ground lens. How did it work Borghesia?
Click to expand...

U.S. Coast Guard here. Toothpaste for polishing plastic and Brasso for glass. The viewfinder lenses on old box cameras are not precision ground and they pretty much just tell you what the camera is pointed at. Same thing with the small pyramidal viewfinders on folding cameras. They tend to yellow and to get cloudy. Polishing them with toothpaste (or Brasso, if they are glass), will brighten them up a LOT. You never realize how dull those things are until you do that. This camera has received (among other things) the toothpaste treatment:



All the visible lenses were polished with toothpaste, are crystal clear and look like new. They are so bright and clear that they practially glow in the dark. The meniscus taking lens in the center (behind that hole) just got a lot of naptha, some vinegar, and some cotton swabs though. It wasn't hugely sharp even new and literally grinding the surface off of the lens wouldn't improve things. I had thought the viewfinder lenses were clean before doing this to it, and I guess that, technically, they were. I hadn't realized how dull 60+ year old plastic can get though, until I did this. The viewfinder lens on top had a scratch in it and I remembered the old watch crystal trick.
 
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