Asahiflex Ia

The Asahiflex was an innovative 35 mm SLR camera built by the Asahi Optical Corporation in 1952.

It is widely regarded as the first SLR camera built in Japan and brought up quite a few innovations

Unlike the majority of Japanese camera manufacturers of the time, Asahi decided not to produce a Leica copy but to inspire itself from another German camera, the Praktiflex, one of the earliest SLR ever built. Asahi’s designers were convinced of the inherent superiority of the SLR approach over classic rangefinders like Leica. Nonetheless the cameras included both waist-level and horizontal viewfinders.

Like the Praktiflex, the Asahiflex did not have an instant-return mirror (the mirror only came back down when the shutter button was released) which made it impractical to use. The Asahiflex II, released in 1954, corrected this by introducing the first practical quick-return mirror, a vital innovation which was quickly adopted by other manufacturers.

Following this innovation, the Asahiflex II will give way to the Pentax in 1957 which will become one of the most popular cameras ever.

This camera was donated to the museum by Hadrien Simeray, founder of Pelloche-moi

This camera was upgraded

Before displaying the Asahiflex IA, the museum was exposing a later version, the Asahiflex II sold under the name Tower 22 in the USA.