Motoshima Zeitax

Zeitax current value:
Folding viewer
Tube viewer
Optical viewer

Just a handful of sources are available on the Zeitax camera. Camera-wiki page mentions some references, but most end with a dead link. It mentions that the Zeitax is related to the Condor Semi cameras, which judging by the image it is. A step further down the heritage line meets the Doris cameras, but there is even less information, online or otherwise, at least in English. It also indicates that the Zitax is a Baldax copy. It does resemble the Baldax, but ‘copy’ is a stretch

Three models were made under this banner, the Zeitax, the Zeitax II, and III. The first Zeitax came in three viewer flavours. Folding, tubular and optical.

The camera is typical of the camera boom of post-war Japan, where a cottage industry bloomed to put together cameras sold to the GI contingent there. It is a no-frills camera, with the bare minimum to take pictures.

The camera uses a lens/shutter assembly by Kokusaku, an obscure, short-lived camera maker. Other than that, the body is crude. The model I have kind of came apart and took plenty of TLC to be presentable again. Oddly, all speeds and aperture are agile, and the glass is clear. It seems that marrying the shutter assembly with the body was under duress, as the remote trigger port cannot be accessed.

I have the model with the optical viewer. It takes much imagination to compile the image the eye sees to what the brain perceives. The eye-level viewer is tiny, and the waist viewer is useless. An exposure table at the back is easy to use if you can read Japanese. Which, considering the target market, makes me wonder.