The early Japanese Samoca cameras are quite good quality, the design is a bit odd in places, in some ways resembling the US made Bolsey cameras. The body is plastic, but the top and front are metal, the overall size is small.
The E Zumar lenses were made by Samoca, usually a F4.5/F3.5 three element design, and are well made. The shutter is very simple, and to it's advantage, as it is simple to service. The whole front comes off to reveal the innards.
The 35V lost the curious double cocking of the early versions.
The lens often has a problem, there is a screw stop on the close focusing position that can come out, and the lens then un-screws from the multistart helical thread. Owners try to put it back, fail and put the camera away as broken, when all it takes is a few attempts to get it back, and test the focus.
The lens quality is good, but a little bit soft at the edge at full aperture. The saturation of colour is quite good. Samoca made a quality set of filters to match the lenses, and using a skylight filter and hood helps.
The cameras were aimed at the mass market, not the specialist amateur, but it was a lot better than the many rival makes from Japan in the early 1950's. Samoca managed to modernise the brand by the 1960's but could not rival the likes of Canon, and stopped making cameras. They were never marketed in the UK in the 1950's, the later ones may have been.
Samoca also produced their own brand light meters.
The Agfa Silette in comparison, would be sharper and more contrasty.
Stephen
My Samocas
Mickey
I have just bought Samoca 35 V from ebay in a lot together with an Agfa Silette, a Yashica Movie camera, a Watameter rangefinder and flashgun.
