Samoca-35 Super
The Samoca-35 Super, also sometimes seen as the Samoca-35 Super Rangefinder, is a 35mm rangefinder camera with a distinct appearance. It was introduced in 1956 and was the first rangefinder camera in the Samoca family of cameras produced by Sanei Sangyō K.K. in Japan. The camera is simple and cheap. It uses a behind-the-lens leaf shutter with speeds of 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 and 1/200 plus Bulb. Changes are made via a knob on the face of the camera just below and to the side of the lens. Likewise apertures were also set manually via a kind-of-hard-to-reach ring on the lens barrel. The Samoca-35 Super gets the "35" in its name not from its 35mm film format but rather the max f3.5 aperture of its Ezumar 50mm Anastigmat lens. There was purportedly a Samoca 28 Super that featured a 50mm f2.8 lens. Focusing was done in rather typical fashion. An arm off the barrel of the lens allowed easy rotation of the lens itself, which was coupled to a gear above the lens barrel that adjusted the camera's rangefinder and also provided a depth-of-field scale. In a nice touch, the scale is printed upside down so that when holding the camera and looking at the lens over the top of the camera body, the scale reads right-side up. The only other time we can remember seeing something like this is with Nikonos owners who mount their lenses upside down in order for the aperture and focusing scales to read right-side up in the same situation.
The Samoca-35 Super has a fully removable back/baseplate for film loading. There is a hinged pressure plate attached to bottom of the negative mask that swings out of the way. The automatic frame counter atop the camera had to be manually reset when loading film. But other than that the camera cannot be much more straightforward.
In regard to cheapness, the Samoca-35 Super retailed for $29.95 in 1958, which equates to about $313 in 2023 currency. This was not an expensive camera at all. The body is a combination of aluminum and Bakelite, with the latter pretty well protected by metal edges and corners. In truth the Samoca-35 Super doesn't feel particularly cheap at all. It has a nice heft and feels fairly solid in hand.
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