Norita
Norita (ノリタ光学 Norita kōgaku) was a Japanese optical manufacturer. Founded in 1951 by Toshio Norita (車田利夫), it originally made lenses for binoculars but moved on to prisms and thence pentaprisms for SLR cameras.[1]
Musashino Kōki (武蔵野光幾) had been making a 6×6 SLR called the Rittreck 6×6 from 1968;[2] for which Norita had been making the pentaprism finder and the three lenses (wide, standard, and tele).[1] When Musashino decided to terminate production of this camera, Norita decided to expand from being merely an optical designer/manufacturer to manufacturing cameras, and took over machine tools, assembly, and some staff from Musashino.[1]
For its new "Norita 66", Norita expanded the range of lenses: the 55/80/160mm selection for the Rittreck became 40/55/80/160/240/400. Additionally it produced a 75mm f/3.5 lens with built-in shutter (bypassing the focal-plane shutter for high-speed synchronization with electronic flash); but most remarkably the speed of the 80mm standard lens was increased to f/2, fast for a medium-format lens.[1]
Norita tied up with Singer, owner of Graflex, and exported cameras to the US, where they were sold as, and inscribed, "Graflex Norita".[3] Norita also exported cameras to France, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia.[3]
Norita no longer exists.
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 Hagiya Takeshi (萩谷剛), "Norita 66: Yūshutsu o mein toshita 6×6 cm-ban ichiganrefu" (ノリタ66 輸出をメインとした6×6 cm判一眼レフ, Norita 66: A 6×6 SLR mainly for export); chap. 4 (pp. 79–90) of Hagiya's Zunō kamera tanjō: Sengo kokusan kamera jū monogatari (ズノーカメラ誕生：戦後国産カメラ10物語, The birth of the Zunow camera: Ten stories of postwar Japanese camera makers; Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1999; ISBN 4-257-12023-1), p.82.
- ↑ Hagiya, "Norita 66", p.80.
- 1 2 Hagiya, "Norita 66", pp. 85–87.
