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on Nov 17, 2019 17:04:31 GMT
Posted: Nov 17, 2019 17:04:31 GMT
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on Nov 17, 2019 19:32:06 GMT
Posted: Nov 17, 2019 19:32:06 GMT
It's not anything I've seen before. The 'boxy' look and all-plastic film door seem to date it to the late 80's-90's. From the layout, it looks like it would be used like a Contax CGCM or a M35/M35W film back for attachments to Oscilloscopes or Microscopes, or some kind of Lab machine.
The 2 things that might lead to who the manufacturer might be, is the inner graphic used to illustrate the film load line, and the roller guide assembly on the back door. I think it's likely that both might have been off-the-shelf parts/stickers and common to a whole line of cameras.
At first glance it reminds me of Minolta Maxxum 7000/9000 from the thumb 'grip' design on the back and the 'slide lock' door latch, but they are not really close when compared.
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on Nov 17, 2019 19:53:24 GMT
Posted: Nov 17, 2019 19:53:24 GMT
The quality suggests that it is not home-made, and given that there is no lens mount and no viewfinder, that it was meant to be attached to an instrument of some kind. But it is odd that there is no name, rank, or serial #. My guess? It was either made for military/espionage use or some home-made wonder by someone who knew what they are doing.
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on Nov 18, 2019 13:21:41 GMT
Posted: Nov 18, 2019 13:21:41 GMT
It's a very interesting item.
The removable back is probably the biggest clue - I've certainly seen that external pattern somewhere before though that internal lattice structure is unfamiliar. The shutter assembly is certainly not one used by Contax/Yashica/Kyocera and the unit appears to have preceded the use of DX-encoded film. The fact that 11 separate data signals need to be accessed by the electronics is interesting in itself - as no manual settings appear possible, it would seem that command of the camera is governed by whatever it is attached to unless all its parameters are pre-set. I have also never seen that baffle plate before behind which the film must pass when being loaded - and there is an assumption that whoever will be using the camera is not a photographer from the look of the internal signs.
Quite a mystery; I wonder what its maximum shutter speed is...?
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on Nov 18, 2019 19:39:38 GMT
Posted: Nov 18, 2019 19:39:38 GMT
Here's a thought. Minolta made ax XD-11 MEDICAL model -- late 70's. It was designed to be used ONLY with a flash, so lots of things were dropped -- like the shutter speed selection, ISO selection (determined by the flash), etc. It came in a few, slightly different versions, but all had vertical, metal shutters. But all of these looked like and were marked Minolta XD-11.
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on Nov 19, 2019 7:17:04 GMT
Last Edit: Nov 19, 2019 7:31:51 GMT by matthiasausk
My personal all-knowing, all-seeing Trash Heap (aka another German forum of photo-enthusiasts) tells me that the film back looks very much like the film back of a ricoh KR10:
vs Someone assumes it to be a film compartment for a microscope or another instrument. Now we need a specialist for RICOH's scientific instruments ...
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on Nov 19, 2019 11:17:39 GMT
Last Edit: Nov 19, 2019 11:19:48 GMT by biggles3
Good catch matthiasausk,
It is in fact the back and full shutter assembly from the Rico KR-10M/XR-10M (not a KR-10/XR-10) with its Motorised film wind/re-wind; that tell-tale baffle plate for the top of the film is found on the KR-10M which was produced in 1990.
The sign recommending not to touch the shutter acts as a blanking plate to cover the data back contacts, which explains the removable back. For whatever reason, the DX-code registration pins have been removed from the film chamber and two white 'guide projections' added to help define the position of the base of the film.
So we have at least part of the answer; it's a specialised application of the KR-10M camera from the early 1990s.
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on Nov 19, 2019 20:03:18 GMT
Posted: Nov 19, 2019 20:03:18 GMT
You guys and gals are amazing.
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on Nov 20, 2019 3:29:50 GMT
Posted: Nov 20, 2019 3:29:50 GMT
After a quick read of the KR-10M manual, it seems that it's heavily bound to electronics for everything. There's no manual shutter, and that model only had an aperture priority exposure mode... and, it requires an on-switch to 'ready' all of it's functions. All of that could have been modified, but there are absolutely no control surfaces anywhere on the body. I'd assume that all of the contacts exposed on the slide-in connector would provide that capability to whatever it plugs into. From the looks of it, I suspect that the receiving device wasn't exactly small. The more I look at it, the less it seems to be for anything small like a microscope, per-se... unless it might be an electron microscope. The downside of that is there doesn't seem to be any EM film in 35mm format.
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on Nov 20, 2019 11:42:02 GMT
Posted: Nov 20, 2019 11:42:02 GMT
Interesting to note that the listing has now been changed to include the reference to the Ricoh KR-10M/XR-10M...
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on Nov 20, 2019 13:16:15 GMT
Posted: Nov 20, 2019 13:16:15 GMT
I wonder if it could have been made for Astronomical use?
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on Nov 21, 2019 0:56:14 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 0:56:14 GMT
I suppose it wouldn't hurt to mention that Ricoh is more than a camera company. They have a large presence in copiers and larger document management hardware... including MicroFiche machines. It's possible that this was similar to a printer cartridge, with film as the output medium and not paper. This screams it's a reloadable 'module' - one that easily clips into place at the 3 attachment points, where all the functionality it uses is automatically controlled by the parent device it plugs into.
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on Nov 21, 2019 13:27:24 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 13:27:24 GMT
the less it seems to be for anything small like a microscope, per-se... Just an example: This is of course not made by RICOH, but the black box is a camera-box.
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on Nov 21, 2019 20:29:33 GMT
Posted: Nov 21, 2019 20:29:33 GMT
Thanks matthiasausk ... That definitely looks like it fits into the 'per-se' area. The Zeiss M35 (Contax 137) and M35w (Yashica FR-I) are usually seen attached to the main vertical tube of a more standard monocular or stereo microscope and lock into place via their bayonet collar. This photo shows a super-sized version with - I assume - multiple beam splitters to redirect the magnified view, and it's obviously far larger in size than those from high school biology classes. There's no locking collar on the Ricoh back, but it seems logical that the back shown in this photo attaches in the same way the Ricoh seems to. I don't know the medical and scientific landscape and how their 'hardware' might be modular like a PC is, where hard drives or memory sticks are interchangeable. I wonder if there's a possibility that could be the case here, and if it is, it's unsurprising that there's no nameplate on the Ricoh back.
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