| Author |
Message |
    
Francis Otto
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 02:11 pm: | 
|
Apologies if this is not the forum, but I have come to appreciate the depth and breadth of knowledge here! On Sunday, I bought an SLR (for £5) which says simply 'REFLEXA' on the front of the prism-housing, but which has a Canon 'OM' (yes) 50/1.9 lens on it. The mount looks a bit like an Exacta mount - interior bayonet with front body mounted latch (at 2 o-clock) - but with body-lens linkage (stop-down?) at 10 o-clock.Is it a Canon, or just a body with a Canon lens on it. I can't find any reference to a 'Reflexa' in the usual places and am puzzled by this oddity. Any clues? |
Glenn Middleton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 03:53 pm: |
|
You cannot have looked very hard.The camera is a Mamiya Prismat NP. Marketed in UK as the Reflexa in 1963.Mount is Exacta and camera comes from the well documented collaboration between Canon and Mamiya etc in 1950s/1960s. Plenty of words on the internet about this. |
Alex
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 04:58 pm: |
|
Curiously enough, Ivor Matanle had an article on this very camera (Mamiya, as Glenn correctly identifies) within the last fortnight, in his occasional series on Classic Cameras, in the UK's Amateur Photographer weekly magazine. |
Glenn Middleton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 05:22 pm: |
|
Another curious thing, I have just found 3/4 references to 'Reflexa Japanese Canon slr', for eBay items on Google. If you follow the links you will find that eBay has pulled the adds/items. In 3 refs the item numbers were different. I wonder if eBay has got it's knickers in a twist, thinks these are some kind of fakes and thus contravene their selling codes?
I suspect the items were put up for sale by people hoping to cash in on Ivor Matanle's article in AP. |
Francis Otto
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 02:39 am: |
|
Thank you, Glenn: I just looked in the Canon Camera Museum site, and in McKeown's and Hove - also in 'The Lens Vademecum'.
Thank you, Alex: it's quite a while since I last bought 'AP'.
I hang my head in shame! |
Glenn Middleton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2005 - 10:22 am: |
|
Francis,
Google 'Reflexa slr' and you get a Mamiya Prismat homepage. Do same for 'Reflexa Japanese Canon slr' and you will find another Prismat site - very good this one, see Herron.50megs.com/prismat.
Also plenty of eBay inserts, but all have been withdrawn - well all links I followed. As I said above, strange.
Not surprised about Canon Museum site. There are some early FD lenses with have the name of the American distributor engraved on the front ring.This is an official factory job,font and colour match. No mention in Canon literature.I forget the distributors name, but there was one on eBay the other week.
Glenn |
