Hello Forum,
I ask myself this question every now and then, why do I collect these old cameras. A few reasons:
1) The beauty of the design and the physical feeling of holding the camera.
2) Fascination of the quality and the quirkiness of these machines produced by Asahi Opt. Co.
3) The admiration of the innovation behind these early models.
4) The sheer number of variants within the same model range in the early days.
A good example of variants is with the S2 model. Introduced in May 1959 and some variants in production until August 1968, a long-lived model name. According to van Oosten, about 180 000 were made. From various source, I have found that these variants were available:
Common for Model I and II: Shutter speed range: 1sec – 1/500sec B and T, and back door opens by pulling the level on the side of the door down.
Model I:
Manufactured May 1959 – April 1961
Manual reset of exposure counter. Both black and chrome bodies available. There are even some variants on the bottom plate and the recess holding the rewind button.
Names: Asahi Pentax S2, Asahi Pentax H2, Asahiflex H2, Penta Asahiflex H2, Asahi Pentax SB, Honeywell Heiland Pentax H2 and Honeywell Heiland Pentax H2 engraved “Store Demonstrator”.
The Asahi Pentax S2 was for the most parts sold in Japan and Europe, but you will also find Asahi Pentax H2 sold in Europe, a bit odd since the H is associated with the Heiland brand.
The Asahiflex name, as you all know, was the name engraved on the early non-pentaprism SLRs. Due to some disagreements with Pentacon in some markets, the camera S2 was sold as Asahiflex H2 or Penta Asahiflex H2. See the enclosed photos to illustrate the manuals for these cameras.
In Japanese defense stores, the S2 was sold designated as Asahi Pentax SB. If I recall correctly, there are even some models sold in US overseas military stores that made it over to the US with some manual changes to the name, or they were engraved with No-Tax.
For sale in the US, Asahi Opt Co cooperated with Honeywell, thus the cameras for sale there was marked Honeywell Heiland Pentax H2. Around 1000 cameras were engraved “store demonstrators”, for resellers to demonstrate the camera to potential customers. Fun fact, only S2 (H2) and S3 (H3) used the Heiland name, H1, H3v and H1a used just Honeywell Pentax.
Model II:
Manufactured April 1961 – December 1963
Identical to model 1 except for the now automatic reset of the exposure counter and a notch in the speed dial to accommodate the clip-on exposure meter that came to market in 1961, called model I, with the oval dial.
Model IIIa:
Manufactured from July 1962 – August 1968
Not really called model III, but rather S2 Super. This camera was only sold in the Japanese market. Like the S1a/H1a sold in other markets. Shutter speed was now 1/1000 sec. The exposure counter needs manual resetting.
The camera body did not have the word Super engraved, just Asahi Pentax S2. For the Japanese defense, a Asahi Pentax SB2 was available.
Modell IIIb:
Identical to the IIIa model, expect for the now automatic reset of the exposure counter. There is even a variant without the two screws on each side of the viewfinder window.
Rare?
The Asahi Pentax S2 is not rare, but some of the name variants are hard to find, maybe even impossible. I would put them in this order, with the rarest first: Penta Asahiflex H2, Asahi Pentax SB/SB2, Honeywell Heiland Pentax H2 engraved “Store Demonstrator”, Asahiflex H2 and Asahi Pentax S2 Super. The most common are Asahi Pentax S2/H2 and Honeywell Heiland Pentax H2. Black is more rare than chrome, about 10% were made black.
With all of these variants, you never run out of new cameras to add to the collection.
Why do you collect?
Cheers,
Baard-Einar.
PS: the two first photos of the Asahiflex manual is borrowed from eBay.
Last edited by Baard-Einar; 08-10-2018 at 03:58 PM.
Reason: added the PS.