1954 Mamiya Pistol Camera
The demand from the Japanese police force to handle demonstrations was pressing after the "bloody May Day incident, a clash between Tokyo protesters and policemen on May Day 1952, where two people were killed and more than 740 were injured. It is said that various policemen were injured while taking photographs of the protesters: with their eye on the viewfinder they could not see their opponents. As a result, the Japanese police wanted a camera which would be easy to aim without raising it to the eye, and a pistol-shaped camera was considered ideal because the policemen are trained in handgun usage. The camera's actual development took place at the Mamiya company, whose chief designer at the time was Miyabe Hajimu. The device was officially named "Fast-action camera" or "Fast-action camera (pistol shaped)" Some sources say that a total of 250 or 300 units were made, but this is unconfirmed. Actual examples are known with serial numbers in the 10x, 10xx and 11xx range, consistent with the production reports. The camera is shaped as a pistol, with a handgrip and a trigger. The lens is placed at the front end, at the gun nozzle. Most of the camera is black, except for the two side plates, the trigger and usually the lens barrel. Although, Ron Herron's website, is known to show a black barrel, certainly on an early prototype. There is a single strap lug at the bottom, under the handgrip. The camera has Mamiya's SM logo on the left side plate, and a five-pointed logo on the rear, immediately above the serial number.The left-hand side plate is removable for film loading, and is locked by a latch at the rear. The camera takes 35mm perforated film in standard cassettes. The exposure size is 18×24mm, the first time on a Japanese camera. The right-hand side plate is fixed and has the advance and rewind controls. The film is advanced by a lever on the rear, running vertically along the edge of the side plate. The shutter is cocked in the same movement. The user can actuate this lever with the thumb, so that successive pictures can be taken with a single hand. An exposure counter is visible in a crescent-shaped window next to the take-up spool axis. The rewind unlock button is on the axis centre, concealed in a slot to prevent unwanted activation. The rewind knob itself is on the same side, on the supply spool axis. Closer to the lens, there is a small window showing a red or white dot, indicating if the camera is ready to shoot or not. The shutter, from 1/50 to 1/150, is released by the trigger. The lens is a no-name 50/5.6, giving a slight telephoto effect. The fixed focus is set so that subjects are sharp from 3 to 20m at minimum aperture. The diaphragm has only two blades, forming a square hole. The aperture and shutter settings are controlled by a single ring around the lens barrel, graduated from 1 to 6. This is an early form of programmed exposure, where the light level is input by hand, instead of by an exposure meter. In actual use by the police, the exposure number was decided before the mission, according to the predicted weather or other factors.) They fetch quite a handsome sum, one fell for $16,500 at Christies in 1993. On eBay recently the asking price was USD25,000.
