introduction | tone | tone MIOJ
The Tone, along with the Beauty, Corona, Epochs, Hope, Midget Model III, Mighty, Micro, Mycro IIIA, Myracle Model II, Rocket, Tacker, Vesta and Vestkam are better made than the typical HIT style cameras.
The Tone was sold in 1948, is at the pinnacle of "HIT" style cameras, feature packed but also expensive compared to other cameras using 17.5mm roll film. It is one of the few Hit style cameras with a 25mm Ansastigmat f3.5 focusing lens, with a close focus of 2 feet. It is of similar dimensions to a Hit camera with only the focusing part of the lens increasing the depth. Aperture settings at f3.5, 4.5, 5.6, 8 and 11 and shutter speeds of B, 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100. Even the lock on the film chamber door is different and more positive than found on the typical Hit camera. It also has two viewing systems built in a regular direct line of sight eye-level viewfinder and a waist level finder. The red window to show the current frame number has a sliding door. Not surprisingly the case is also of better quality and has metal 360 degree rotating fasteners for the strap.
The film advance winder and the back of the case are stamped "Made in Occupied Japan" and the top engraved TOKO Pat. Pending and the Tone logo. A second version is also seen where the film winder is without engraving. In the comparison photographs below the camera on the left has Made in Occupied Japan engraved onto the film winder. The same camera has the focusing lever broken (i.e. not a variation).
To see what can be achieved with a Tone camera see Joe McGloin's The Tone is a Hit.
Last Updated on 10th August 2003