Some cameras (and camera companies) fall through the cracks of history, rarely turning up and when they do any research into them provides scant information.  The Atom-Six II, as well as its predecessor the Atom-Six, seems to be one of those cameras. 

Produced by Atom Kōki Seisakusho in Japan from about 1951-1952, the Atom-Six II is a fairly basic, medium format, folding camera. Whereas the original Atom-Six was designed initially just for 6x6cm exposures on 120 film, the Atom-Six II is capable of both 6x6 and 6x4.5cm formats.  The camera came with a removable mask that could be inserted or removed prior to loading film to affect the desired format. Most Atom-Six II cameras have dual viewfinders in their top plate, one each for the two formats.  These two viewfinders are joined by a third, round viewfinder window that was paired to a right angle viewfinder located on top of the camera and allowing for waist level viewing.

By pressing a release button atop the camera, the Atom-Six II would fold open for quick use. Focusing was done by rotating the front lens scale and distance was gauged by eye and matched with a distance scale on the lens. The shutter was manually armed on the lens but the camera body had a shutter release button. There is no double exposure prevention with the Atom-Six II.

We went looking far and wide for info on either model of this camera, or even the company that produced it.  In particular we were curious about the origins of the company or camera name.  The camera was produced a mere six years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so the use of "Atom" struck us.  But alas, we could barely find much information at all, with most sites circularly referencing the same set of details. So the backstory of Atom Kōki Seisakusho and its Atom-Six cameras will have to wait until such a day that fortune or persistence unearth the story.

We can tell you a bit more though.  It seems that there were several variants of the Atom-Six II produced.  Most of these differ in lens and shutter combinations, usually with an Atom or Atomar 75mm f3.5 lens and either a NKS, KOC or OKK shutter. We did come across one other variant that Sugiyama's "Collectible Japanese Cameras" refers to as an Atom-Six IIb and was produced in 1951.  This version has only a single direct viewfinder with that is fitted with an internal transparent green mask in a way that both 6x6 and 6x4.5 formats can be composed. In addition to the direct viewfinder, the IIb also has the top-down, right-angle finder. The Six IIb also differs from other Atom-Six II cameras in that it has an 80mm f3.5 Atomar instead of the 75mm usually found on these cameras.  Why this variation we can only guess.  We read that with the release of the Atom-Six II model the original Atom-Six was updated to dual format and remained in production, with both cameras sharing many standardized parts.  It is possible the Six IIb was an early bridge, or even conglomeration between these models as Atom Kōki Seisakusho experimented with various production methods.  But that is only a guess on our part.

In summary, despites its rarity the Atom-Six II will feel quite familiar to users of 120 folding cameras. It is easy and fast to use.  While it lacks a rangefinder for focusing, it folds up nice and compactly and is that rare medium format camera that can be described as a "pocket" camera.