Miyagawa Boltax I

The Boltax I is one of the earliest Japanese subminiature cameras, made in 1938 by Miyagawa Seisakusho of Tokyo. Directly inspired by the German Boltavit of 1936, it was redesigned and refined for the Japanese market, compact, cylindrical, and dressed in fine leather covering. A pre-war survivor, and a fascinating example of German optical ingenuity filtered through Japanese craftsmanship.

The camera shoots 25×25mm square frames on Bolta film, using a collapsible helical that doubles as the focus mechanism. It is fitted with a Picner Anastigmat 40mm f/4.5 lens and a Picny-D shutter offering speeds up to 1/100s. Simple, elegant engineering at its best.

The Boltax line continued after the war with the Boltax II & III but later versions are relatively findable today. The original Model I is a different story entirely. Its production run was cut short by the war, and vanishingly few complete examples with their original ever-ready case have survived in collector-grade condition. This is the one serious collectors are actually after.