Fuji Kogaku Lyrax

Most early Japanese cameras on this site are post-war, where manufacturers took available technology and ran with copies of it. Fuji Kogaku, literally Fuji Optical Works, preceded this period and is recorded from the early 1930s. Several models were offered till 1955 when the company went dark. Several online articles about this brand mostly chew upon the same information. No worthwhile data is available on the early years or the demise other than that in 1950, the company was renamed Katsuma Optical. The Katsuma brand was later associated with other optical equipment, such as binoculars. The Katsuma name is also associated with Hattori, a distributor, as one of the headwaters later merged into Topcon, although there are no assurances that it is the same Katsuma. There is no connection between this company and the prominent Fuji / Fujita.

The recorded company lineup began with three popup models, introduced in 1935: Bakyna, Dianette and Pionette. It was followed by a list of Klapp cameras inspired by Zeiss Ikonta models under Lyra / Semi Lyra or Lyra Six, synonyms of the same cameras, using different naming conventions.

The Lyrax, the only monobloc rangefinder, was introduced in 1938, with a sub-model, Lyrax F, in 1940. The only difference I can see from the little information available is the speeds, B, 1/5-250 and B, 1-200, respectively, and, the Lyrax F (?) described in Harrisson Photographica, shows a leg extending underneath the lens to prop the camera from falling on its nose. There is none on my camera, nor provision for it.

In 1941, three TLR variants were introduced: the Lyraflex, Lyraflex F, and Lyraflex J. The Hit-type Comex joined the offering for good measure or to comply with a trend.

Pre-war Japanese industrial products, optical et al, were poorly made and considered as such. It was far from today’s made-in-Japan quality, now taken as given. There was a pecking order where German products were at the top, followed by other Europeans, such as France and the UK, and the US-made optics were crude in design, technology and functionality. Legend has it that the Japanese built a city named Usa, so export products were marked as made in the USA. Once Japanese products gained trust, the newly introduced Hong Kong-made goods were considered the bottom, but not for long. Hong Kong = China now leads the world with high-end/high-tech consumer goods, leaving the rest in the dust.

The camera on my desk is no exception. Made in 1938, it is a pale copy of the German industrial ability. The finishes are poor, and the mechanical parts wiggle like a guppy in the aquarium. It needs a thorough rebuild to bring it back to a usable state.

The Lyrax is Bulky and disproportional compared to the later models. It looks as if the top and the lens assemblies were forced into a shotgun wedding.

• Top
  • Knob winder is at the left, with a red dot in a window next to it, indicating that a shot was taken and the film needs winding.
  • Winder does not cock the trigger.
• Fold down sport viewer.
• On the opposite side of the winder, a rangefinder distance dial, marked metric.
• A tiny viewer window is at the back of the superstructure. The round pin-driven nut next to it covers the mirror adjustment assembly. At the front are two windows, the viewer and the patch. The distance finder is not linked to the camera’s lens. In my camera, no patch is visible. It is either faulty or a mock rangefinder, popular at the time as with the Baldina, Franka and the Dignette.
•  Bottom
  • Well-made bottom cover, two supporting disks at the ends, one threaded for mounting.
  • A fold-down thumb nut market O / L releases the drop-out bottom plate.
• Inside
  • It is an old-style, fully enclosed body, taking a loaded spool and a take-up, both drop-in.
  • Two guide rollers and a spring-loaded pressure plate. Film to be loaded under the plate.
• Back
  • Two red lens windows. I do not see a way to change a mask for frames of different sizes.
  • It takes a pointy object to slide the curtain under the red lenses.
• Front
  • Pull-out lens barrel. Pull the knurled ring till it clicks in place. Push back to collapse.
  • Trigger cocking lever on the bottom.
  • At 3 o’clock is a trigger actuation lever, activated via a mechanism from the trigger button.
  • The aperture selector scale and the lever are on top of the lens barrel, marked in tiny figures, set against a chevron.
  • The speed selector ring is marked in equally tiny figures against a barely visible mark line.
  • At the front is the distance setting dial, marked meters. It is to be set to match the value at the rangefinder dial at the top.
  • The camera falls on its nose. As noted above, the Lyrax F model seems to have an added leg to support it.
  • The lens is 3.5/75, common with the era klapp models,

My camera lens assembly is falling apart, and the shutter works at will. I don’t know if this represents the entire line or if only this unit is miserable. There is hardly any information or opinions on this model, so it is anyone’s guess. For the collector, it is an interesting exemplar of the Japanese optical industry before it took over the world.