Originally posted by ByTheLilyPad In the late 60's... We know that one feature he loved was that the mirror did not flip up blocking the viewfinder when the shutter was released. The date is 1968 or earlier. Thank you for any help in the right direction.
Note that it never says no mirror is involved. Something lost to many is that SLRs originally didn't return the mirror down. But it also says the mirror didn't flip up which we know can't be correct.
Quote: from the wiki...
The Asahiflex I had a non-interchangeable waist-level viewfinder, with a direct optical viewfinder for eye-level use. The Asahiflex I had a non-returning mirror and shutter speeds from 1/25 to 1/500. The camera used the M37 screw mount. It went through some minor modifications for flash use, resulting in the IA. With the IIB a key advance was made: the quick-return mirror. The problem of mirror black-out was one of the main problems with prior SLR designs, greatly reducing usability and a major reason for the greater popularity of the rangefinder. With the IIB there emerged the first practical quick-return mirror, a vital innovation and one which was quickly adopted by other manufacturers. With the final model in the series, the IIA, the Asahiflex gained slow speeds from 1/25th of a second to 1/2 of a second.
Asahiflex I (1952–1953)
Asahiflex IA (1953–1954)
Asahiflex IIB (1954–1956)
Asahiflex IIA (1955–1957)
Note the IIA followed the IIB... a Pentax tradition of weird naming begins, lol.
In all honesty, it isn't clear if the camera was one of these our a layer model, we don't have enough context. We need more info. The later models vs something older he had used may have been his first exposure to the feature...