Samoca 35 II

The Second Samoca Attempt

Visually unique and in a style all its own, the Samoca 35 series really forges its own way in design and function. The camera is wonderfully compact but has considerable weight in the hand. Consisting of a matte metal finish, a slight polish to the controls, and a textured black wrapping, the 35 II has that classic 50s camera styling. Visually similar to the original 35, the 35 II has a slight change to the design of controls, a standardized aperture scale, and the addition of a cold shoe. I assume that the first model was short lived, given I’ve seen few for sale and considerably more model II and III cameras.

Looking through the centered viewfinder, you are treated with nothing. Typical of early scale focus cameras, the viewfinder is mainly a basic optical framing device. No frame lines or parallax correction marks to be had. Moving to the top of the camera, there is a winding knob on the right, with an arrow signifying the winding direction. This is key to this camera’s unconventional operation. At the center is a standard cold shoe with a rewind knob and frame counter to the left. There is an arrow on the frame counter as well, signifying the direction you can turn to reset the frame number. Looking in front of the top cover you can see two controls on the squared off part of the camera’s body. On the right is a threaded cable release, and to the left is a priming plunger. This plunger has a handful of roles and I will divulge more in context with the cameras operation.

On the front of the camera, we see the bulk of the controls. Left of the lens is an older Kodak style bayonet flash connector, along with a distance scale for the lens. The camera can focus from infinity and 24 feet down to 3.5 feet. You focus the lens with the metal ring closest to the body, keeping an eye on the metal tab attached as it points to the distance on the scale. To the right of the lens is the shutter speed dial going from bulb, 1/100, 1/50, and 1/25th of a second speeds. Finally on the end of the lens is another metal ring that can be rotated to adjust the aperture. This has a range of f/3.5 down to f/22.

To load film into the Samoca 35 II, you need to look to the bottom of the camera and move the swinging latch from L (locked) to O (open). The back cover slides down and can be completely removed. Inside you have a removable take up spool along with a polished pressure plate hinged to the camera. Make sure you place the film under that plate and be sure to line up the sprockets when loading. The take up spool can be substituted with another empty spool of film to wind back into a canister if desired. Close and lock the back cover, and reset the frame counter to two or so frames before zero. Press the priming plunger and proceed to turn the winding knob in the direction of the arrow a few times until the winding locks. Shoot a picture with shutter release and make sure to press the plunger before winding on again.

A bit fiddly, but this was still in the early days of 35mm film cameras. The camera also features a few red dots on the aperture and focus scales. I believe this is used for an all purpose shooting mode. Moving the lens and aperture to these marks will make almost everything in focus for the camera, without you having to change any settings. All in all a beautifully simple and uniquely designed camera.

THE SPECS AND FEATURES

Shutter Speeds - bulb, 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100th

Aperture - f/3.5 to f/22

Meter Type - none

Shutter - 2 leaf metal shutter

ASA - dependent on film

Lens - 50mm C. Ezumar

Flash Option - older style Kodak bayonet and cold shoe

Batteries - none

Film Type - 35mm

Other Features - two tripod sockets on the bottom

The Experience

This camera is around 70 years old, coming out of the early 1950s, and was probably deemed as a lower end alternative to other Japanese made cameras at the time. I could not find a concrete date for when the 35 or 35 II as realeased, but some intermediate sources said that it was 1952 and 1953 respectively. There is not much information found online about the Samoca brand either, but I found an ad in the January 1957 edition of Popular Photography stating that the Samoca 35 Super (rangefinder) camera was ‘new to America but not Americans’. The ad boasts that over one hundred thousand American G.I.’s bought the camera in Japan and has finally made its way to the states. I’m not so sure about that claim, but it goes to show that Samoca had little to no market share in America at the time.

I consider myself to be a moderate fan of Samoca cameras. Of the few I’ve worked with, they seem to have a different feel to them; in the same vein as Petri cameras in my opinion. The EE 28 was the first camera to spark this interest, but the 35 series really intrigued me the most. Multiple variations, some with meters, rangefinders, but above all a unique design I've not seen before. Compact and a different type of geometry for a camera. I resolved to buy the first Samoca 35 listed at a reasonable price.

It took around six months before a Samoca 35 II showed up online for a decent price, and I jumped on the chance to give the 35 series a try. The camera was listed AS-IS and arrived in mediocre condition. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the camera, but the aperture was difficult to maneuver and a few large dents were here and there. A slight bit of re-greasing on the threads inside the lens, seemed to work out the problems with the aperture. A quick test of the shutter showed everything was working and I was ready to test out the camera.

While initially loading the 35 II, I realized the camera’s quirk; I’m still not very clear on if it’s just my example or not. The winding mechanism is free spinning until the sprocket mechanism reaches the end of its cycle. It then latches, you take a picture, press the plunger again, and the knob is free to spin any direction to wind. This was the main problem I encountered on my first walk. I really struggled with the spool unwinding, it jamming, and not catching the sprocket mechanism. After every picture, all of the tension on the spool was lost and the winding knob would spin back. Then you would have to wind the film back to fully tensioned, and a bit more for the next picture. Not the best experience and I expected the worst when I went to develop the roll. 

My results seemed fine, only a few minor overlapping frames, but I was determined to fix this problem. I opened up the camera’s top cover and tried to see if something was wrong. Everything looked to be in order and was functioning as intended. I looked into another person’s repair notes and found no mention of this issue. I guess it may have been a quirk with this camera or possibly something not worth mentioning. A month or so went by and on the first sticking snowfall of the year I took the 35 II out again with some black and white film. It worked better with this particular roll of film, but once again I struggled with the unwinding. I ended up holding the winding knob after firing the shutter to prevent this from happening, but that was less than ideal. I even had to stand develop the roll because I was not able to have a shutter speed fast enough or aperture low enough for the snowy conditions. Once again, not the best experience.

The pictures were passable, but I wanted another color and black and white test to really give the camera and lens a chance. Once again the camera sat for a couple of weeks as I shot with other cameras and tried to figure out a solution to the winding problem. I did notice that the metal canister side was quite a tight fit and that may have something to do with it. As Friday came around, inspiration hit me while at work. The take up spool was removable, and I possibly had the wrong one for the camera. I was incorrect on that theory, it was in fact the correct spool, but I added a bit of paper tape to the holding post for a tighter fit, hoping that would remedy the problem.

I went out again in the early morning snow and tested out this fix, and to my surprise it worked beautifully! This rigged method is not my favorite fix, but as a temporary solution, I can live with it. Now with this somewhat functional camera, I was confidently taking pictures. Ready for some great results, my second attempt at color shots came out reasonable, but nothing really stood out to me. It seems the lens lacks contrast and when shot wide open has some strange focus on the corners. Unfortunately I was becoming disillusioned with the camera, but I would do one more black and white test to conclude my results.

On an incredibly cold morning, I waded through the snow and took pictures in various lighting conditions to really give the camera a chance to wow me. Once home I developed, dried, and scanned the negatives… once again with nothing to catch my eye. The camera produces soft images wide open and the depth of field effect does not look great. Plenty of vignetting, light leaks, and my particular example really enjoys scratching my film. Would I consider this a bad camera? I would say it’s fine, but don’t expect anything amazing to come from a Samoca 35 II. Possibly the model III or Super has a better lens and a better design of controls. I’m really on the fence about this camera. It’s very interesting visually but the lens produces such mediocre results that I cannot fully recommend it. An unfortunate conclusion, but future testing may change my opinion.