Olympus Chrome Six II

1946. War is just ended in Japan and in the Olympus factory in Suwa the production of cameras, interrupted three years before, slowly resumed. Among these cameras there was a folder model that already experimented some success before the war: the Olympus Six. It was a camer inspire to the models built by the german manifacturer Balda, with a dual format frame: 6x6 and 6x4.5, switchable through an internal mask.
Two years later the model were renewed with a die-cast body, from which the adjective "chrome" added to the original name.
The camera I own is equipped with a Compur shutter and a Zuiko 75/2.8, a lens made by 5 elements in 4 groups that allowed a wide maximum aperture.

But how does this camera behave "on the road"?



I tested it with a Fuji Reala 100 film and the results show how much the japanes optical industry has been developed from these days. The poor Zuiko lens was for sure a pretty fast lens for medium format cameras in 1948, but it's also pretty soft and not well defined. Wide open the image borders are completely distorted by optical aberrations, that create spiral like patterns that could surely make happy the photographer who's seeking a "vintage" feeling as the images seem to come from a well older era than the years when this camera was built.

Link Esterni/External Links:

Olympus Chrome Six at Camerapedia
Olympus historical cameras/Fotocamere storiche della Olympus