Japanese 6x4.5 folder with C.Reginon lens - any info?

Some days ago I received a japanese 6x4.5 (semi) camera. The leatherette was almost completely removed by previous owners (I found that the body covering has poor quality on many japanese folders) so there is no embossed manufacturers or model name. The engraving on the lens says "C.Reginon 3,5/75mm". It is mounted in a Wester1 shutter (very similar to the german Prontor II shutters) with speeds from 1 to 1/200 sec plus self timer. On the fold out viewfinder there is an engraving "Made in occupied Japan". The lens is coated.

 

I bought this camera because I thought I could swap the shutter against a broken one on a Petri Auto-Semi First but the thread for the front lens cell has a different size. So I going to refurbish this camera which arrived in hideous condition (as described by the seller), and I am wondering who actually made this camera and when?

PS. I have found that some of the 6x4.5 Leotax folders come with an S-Reginon lens in Wester shutters. But the strut mechanism of my camera looks different from that of the Leotax cameras (the latter imitate the Zeiss Nettar folding mechanism), and I did not find any Leotax with a pop-up viewfinder.

Are you looking at Sugiyama/Naoi #1318? This one maybe closest... a 1949 Semi-Leotax by Showa Optical Works, with C. Reginon Anastigmat 7.5cm/f3.5 lens and Wester N.K.K. shutter at B, 1-1/200 both bright-faced, and with that pop-up folding viewfinder in chrome. It has low-profile pull-out winding knobs, straight struts and shutter release on body. No handle. Think with the guild industry in reconstruction in Occupied Japan, any combination of elements was possible for a camera.

Yes, this might be the one I have... actually mine has a Wester NKK shutter, not the Wester1. What does the reference number you mentioned mean? Is there a catalogue of early japanese cameras available somewhere on the web?

Glad that's closest to yours. This Semi-Leotax with the older pop-up viewfinder is a kind of continuation of Showa's pre-war semi format cameras. Before WWII they made up to 6 generations of Semi-Leotax's, and yours was the final older kind before they went to built-in viewfinder in 1951 DL and rangefinder in 1952 R. The missing leatherette is the 'goose-flesh' kind that disintegrates if wetted (this is from looking at photo of example in book and having similar cameras with similar damage). Your camera's missing embossed "Leotax" is italic similar that embossment on the later DL and R models, its location also matches laters'.

 

The Sugiyama/Naoi number is a catalog number in a book called "The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras" compiled by Koichi Sugiyama and Hiroaki Naoi. This cataloging is their system and doesn't relate to any other reference source. This book was published in late 1980's and unfortunately is out of print. The book gives photos and brief info on about 2200 Japanese cameras in all formats from 1845 to the late 1980's, with rarity ratings and comparative values (not shown monetarily) in the Japanese home camera collecting market of the late 1980's.

had to come back and it took a while to find this info; if you want to try to find a copy of this book the ISBN is 0-87011-743-2, published in 1985 by The Quarter Planning Co, Ltd., in cooperation with Kodansha International, Ltd., and printed in Japan. About 313 pages with English and Japanese text.