High End “HIT” camera, Tone, Mycro, Jilona Midget, MYRACLE...

[Ambro51]

Ohhhh Yes. “Comic Book” Cameras...the Toy Cameras in the vending machine.....There are close to 500 variations of the basic cheap tin and plastic HIT camera. These toys are all very cheaply made copies of a group of quite capable miniature cameras originated in the late 1930’s in wartime Japan. Invented by Jilo Nakamura, the Midget used a format also designed by Nakamura, 17.5 mm roll film. Made by slitting unperforated 35 mm Cine stock to 200mm lengths, wrapped onto tiny spools with paper backing, frame numbers 1 to 10. The cameras are quite complicated, with f 4.5 Anastigmat three and four element lenses. Aperature settings are 4.5 to 11, with shutter speeds B 25, 50 and 100. Most are fixed focus, with the Tone camera alone having adjustable range settings of 2, 10 feet and infinity. Most have curved film planes, the Tone has a flatfocal plane. The shutter design is very similar on all, deriving from the Midget. Viewfinders are simple windows, not very accurately portraying the field. Weights range from about 80 grams to 140 ( Jilona midget). •••••••••. Are they “Real Cameras”? Oh YES! They all are very real and very useable today. With the cost of film now, consider properly slit, a roll of 120 film gives you Nine rolls of 17.5, That’s 90 exposures! Do the math, that’s Cheap film shooting. Small format, well, 110 is 13x17, these negatives are 14x14. So, if you can enjoy 110, here’s its Father.••••••• SPOOLS are the issue. An eBay seller had NOS rolls cheap, I bought three dozen. The film inside is removed, and in the dark bag a fresh cut strip of film is inserted, refilled and taped at the head. Ready to Shoot! The neat thing is you have unlimited film choices, currently I’m enjoying 1988 expired Verichrome, in 17.5 and getting Great results! Images are fully detailed and crisp, the lenses are really very good and you’d be surprised the degree of enlargement possible. The key is small aperature and a solidly braced camera, sun at your back. The Red film number windows are troublesome, I’ve closed mine and rely on “turns”. ~~~~~~~. So think about these high quality HIT type cameras, try and ignore all the cheap toy copies. They are FUN!

 

[Retro-Grouch]

I think my future in photography was sealed when I wheedled my folks into purchasing one of those cheapies for me when I was about seven. It was that or the "X-Ray specs". I don't remember the pictures, or whether the camera even worked, but I think it may have been my first GAS attack. Not the last, of course; once the virus gets into your system, outbreaks continue for the rest of your life.

 

[neal3k]

Thanks for the interesting history. I spent a lot of money at the county fair trying to win one of the crummy ones, back in the 1950s. You tried to pick up items using a crank connected to a steam-shovel toy. I never had any luck so I bought one online a few years ago. It is a cheap one that doesn't work but it was nice to add to my collection.

 

[zuiko85]

It is a real shame that unperforated 35mm film is not available. Punching the perfs is the last operation before film is spooled as I recall. So why not just skip that step on special request and supply 50 or 100 foot bulk of both B&W and color emulsions. Ilford and or Kodak could collect requests, perhaps prepaid, over a 3 month period then run the number of rolls requested. They would have no aging stock on hand since all rolls would already paid for.
then with my slitters I could get two 16mm wide rolls from 35mm for my 16mm still cameras and slit directly down the middle would feed the 17.5mm cameras.

 

[neal3k]

I am happy to update my previous post on these cameras. In an amazing coincidence to this thread, we went out to eat with another couple yesterday. They had been cleaning out old boxes and brought me a gift, a Globe Camera which is another brand of these Hit type cameras. It is in the box with instructions and a nice leather case. The shutter seems to work OK but the lens looks somewhat dirty or foggy. Perhaps I will take it apart, clean it, and try a roll of 16mm film since I have a splitter for that size. I'm used to improvising since I have shot a few rolls in my Coronet Midget and put the results on Flickr.

 

[Ambro51]

The 17.5 roll film can certainly be 16mm Cine film, new stock. It works just fine, but the perfs overlap into the larger 14x14. There is no need for any perfs at all......There IS a fantastic unperforated film easily available from Germany, 35mm bulk roll Agfa ASP400S. This is a traffic survailance film which has increased red sensitivity (to cut haze and fog). It has NO edge markings which is very nice. I’ve been developing it 12 min in 68F. D-76 and the results are great. Very happy with it as a go to film. ••••••••••••I just got my TONE camera in and have put six rolls through already! Having focusing ability is a real plus. Overall image sharpness exceeds my others, comparable to “proper” big camera. it Really is the absolute top end in Quality and Useability, as I’m learning. BTW these cameras, the high end ones.... are a totally different product than the cheap “ HIT” cameras that followed. The TONE, and others at that level were a serious answer to shooting film for the war revenged Japanese people of the late 1940s. They wanted to make decent size (4x4 cm was suggested) prints from small low cost negatives. The TONE negatives I’m certain could go 5x7 easily.••••••••• I built a slitter to cut my film in a dark room. Only 8” strips are needed, so I made a flat cutting guide on a piece of wood. I cut three strips of 1/4” clear plexiglass exactly 17.5 mm wide. Two strips (bottom) have five countersunk holes for five #4 screws. The third piece is top left. It is held tight to the bottom strip and both are masking tape “hinged” together on the left side. This “book opening” left side butts against the right side piece. The bottom two are held together and both screwed to the wood. So now you smooth any roughness from the edges or top of the countersunk holes. The “cutter” is a single edge razor blade. ~~~. The wide film strip is set into the hinged half, held down as you run the blade along the top left, cutting smoothly into the joined bottom pieces, slitting the film. ••••. It’s Very Easy, plus the same slitter makes replacement backing paper from 120.(. Here’s a link to the film https://www.macodirect.de/en/film/bl...rated-on-spoolthat bulk roll will make 4,500 exposures!!!!

 

[Ambro51]

From the TONE. It really likes closeups!