Hi Guys, Do you know this camera?

[jljcrump]

Hey there, I'm Joel from New Zealand I inherited my grandfathers camera and did have the chance to ask him about it. I was wondering if anyone here could help me by shedding some light on where it's from etc I have searched around and I'm guessing it's not that popular.

What I think I know is it's a Lord from around the mid 50's. I'm still figuring out how to use it I've got it all sussed apart from the iso settings.

Attached are some pictures of it maybe you guys have seen one or own one any help would be greatly appreciated
Attachment Deleted_Attachment DeletedAttachment Deleted
Thanks,
Joel

[Stephen]

Yes it's a Lord, by Okaya, who made a series of 35mm compact camerss in the 1950's. They dropped out of camera making, but remained making electronic components. They are surprisingly well made internally, and Lord had ambitions of making a Leica style camera, but the collapse of the Japanese home market in the late 50's stopped it.
The lenses appear to be in house productions, and work well given condition. Shutters were bought in, the rest of the camera was made by Lord.
They are not that uncommon, but being a small maker there are not many around. The most common is the rangefinder 4a, and the rarest the later model. More usually seen in the States, they were not officially imported to the UK.
The ISO setting dial is merely a reminder of the film being used, the rest of the camera is manually set.

For a Google search Okaya Lord gives Image results for most models.
Stephen

[Stephen]

K.K. Hattori Tokei-ten, (Hatton), was the company that distributed the Lord brand, they are the company that became Seiko over the years and made Seiko shutters and watches, the original business.
There is information in Camerapedia etc., on Lord and Hatton.
Also more on other models, yours, without the rangefinder, would appear to be a Lord 35 early 1950's model, all later having a rangefinder, and later models meters.
Stephen.

[jljcrump]

Awesome! thanks for the quick reply guys! There is a dial on top that has 50, 100, and a series of letters on it would this be the iso? and does it mean i shouldn't use a 400 iso film in it?
Cheers I'm enjoying reading this forum, it makes me want to get back into film!

[Stephen]

The dial is just a reminder, it makes no difference to the actual film in use. The films were slower in speed in the 1950's, 100SA was fast, and black and white, colour could be as low as 16 ASA.
These days 200 ASA/ISO is common for colour negative. Any film speed can be used with the camera.
The scale may have the old DIN(German) markings for speed as well as ASA/ISO, and perhaps the letters referring to a scale in the instructions about the film type, Daylight, Artificial light(indoor), B/W or Colour film, again purely to remind you what film is in the camera.
Artificial light film is not used much these days, flash is used with ordinary film, or a conversion filter, as the film speed is so much higher.
Stephen.

[jljcrump]

Oh awesome thank you so much for your help!, I'll have a few shoots with it she how they come out cheers!

[daveh]

Interestingly (or otherwise), the original Lord cameras were made by Tōkyō Kōgaku (later Topcon) in the late 1930s. I've never quite got to grips with which company owned which nor who was actually making what. Mind you, the Lord name doesn't seem to be as ubiquitous as cameras/lenses made by Cosina. Have a look at the The Cosina Files on this site!

Welcome, by the way, jj.