Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001
From: Taketeru Yoshitake [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: How did the cameras get the name Bronica? Zenza or Zenzanon
Gentlemen:
So far as I know, most of camera books published here in Japan claim that
Bronica means "The (or A) camera that depends on brownie-sized film." I am
not sure if this claim is true, but it sounds to me most logical. "Bro-"
rhymes with "ZenzaBURO" in Japanese.
"Zenza" is a part of his name, ZENZAburo Yoshino. "Bro-" is also a part
of
the designer's given name "ZenzaBURO", but at the same time it represents
"Brownie film", because Bronica's earlier models were exclusively designed
to use brownie-sized film. The word "Brownie" is pronounced as like
"braw-knee"in Japanese. The ending part "-ca" is, of course, a part of the
word "camera". "Konica" and "Fujica" follow the same way.
"Zenzaburo no nica" mentioned in your explanation sounds very strange to
me. "-nica" does not mean anything to Japanese. (I am a native Japanese.)
We could define "Zenza Bronica" in two different ways. One is "Cameras of
Zenzaburo", other is "Zenzaburo's cameras that uses brownie-sized film".
"Zen-zabu-ro" is written in three different kanjis (Chinese characters).
"Yoshi-no" is in two different kanjis.
"Zenzanon" associates me of [with] "Canon", "Fujinon", "Cosinon", etc.
This ending is often used to name photographic lenses.
T. Yoshitake (Mr.)
Amagasaki, Japan
[email protected]
How did the cameras get the name Bronica? Zenza or Zenzanon?
Mr. Michael McBroom, author of a highly recommended McBroom's Bluebook
Camera Pricing Guide, a grad student of linguistics with an interest in
Japanese, and a long-time Bronica EC owner and user (which explains his
extensive and detailed information on classic Bronica cameras and
accessories in his latest 1995-6 guidebook) sends us this explanation:
I modified my explanation of the name Bronica substantially for the '95-96
edition. Zenzaburo no nica means 'Zenzaburo's camera' in Japanese. By
altering the word boundaries, one can easily come up with Zenza burononica
w hich is most likely what led to Zenza Bronica. To account for the
dropping of the no, a number of explanations present themselves, all of
which have varying degrees of merit. As a student of linguistics, however,
I'm most intrigued by the split in Zenzaburo's name. I don't know the
kanji, but I would not be surprised if Zenzaburo was a two-kanji name with
the first one reading zenza and the second one reading buro....
[P.S. Get a 30% discount by ordering Mr. McBroom's Camera Bluebook online]
The Zenza corporate name is obviously derived from the company's founder,
Zenzaburo Yoshino.
Mr. Tim Schooler adds:
According to Mr. Michael Beard, author of the Hove book Complete Bronica
User's Guide (see below, the name Zenza Bronica in Japanese means "Camera
of Zenzaburo", in acknowledgement of it's creator.
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 From: Edward Meyers [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Rollei] Nikon, Ikon, and Nippon Kogaku While we're off subject I'd like to add my three cents. Right after the introduction of the first Bronica camera, from the firm of Zenza, Mr. Zenza came to America and had lunch with Burt Keppler and myself of Modern Photography magazine. This was, perhaps 1959 or 1960 or so. Mr. Zenza was the big maker of women's compacts...you know-- the round thing with a mirrrw and powder. He also made cigarette lighters. He told us that he admired Victor Hasselblad and decided to make a 6x6 camera system. He also told us that he was driven in a Rolls Royce. I asked him how he decided on the name Bronica. He told me that in Japan Brownie film is 120 size. So he added ca (for camera) and came up with Brownie camera, or BRONICA. I thanked him. Ed
From Rollei Mailing List: Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 From: Bob Shell [email protected] Subject: Re: [Rollei] Nikon, Ikon, and Nippon Kogaku Edward Meyers at [email protected] wrote: > While we're off subject I'd like to add my three cents. > Right after the introduction of the first Bronica camera, > from the firm of Zenza, Mr. Zenza came to America and had > lunch with Burt Keppler and myself of Modern Photography > magazine. This was, perhaps 1959 or 1960 or so. > Mr. Zenza was the big maker of women's compacts...you know-- > the round thing with a mirrrw and powder. He also made > cigarette lighters. He told us that he admired Victor > Hasselblad and decided to make a 6x6 camera system. > He also told us that he was driven in a Rolls Royce. > I asked him how he decided on the name Bronica. He told me > that in Japan Brownie film is 120 size. So he added ca (for > camera) and came up with Brownie camera, or BRONICA. > I thanked him. Ed Ed, Your memory is slipping. His name was Zenzaburo, which he shortened to Zenza on the camera name. I knew him, too, and was saddened when he died. A real enthusiast. The only man I know today with that spark is Mr. Kobayashi at Cosina. Bob
From Rollei Mailing List: Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 From: Bob Shell [email protected] Subject: Re: [Rollei] Bronica (was Nikon, Ikon, and Nippon Kogaku) Jason Schneider tells the story of when the box maker had a misprint on some of the boxes and they said "Zenza Broica". Apparently this sounds just like the Japanes phrase which means "it does not work"! Truth in packaging, maybe? Bob
From: "David J. Littleboy" [email protected] Newsgroups: rec.photo.equipment.medium-format Subject: Re: Brownie film, reprise Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 "Ralf R. Radermacher" [email protected] wrote: > As a follow-up to a recent discussion in this group: > > Just discovered in the description of Epson Japan's successor to the > 2450 scanner that it comes with a film holder for what Babelfish > translates as: > > | blow Ni format Guess I'm not out of a job yet... (And, as I've said before "buroni-" is correct, normal, natural, unremarkable, standard, formal, technical Japanese for 120. "Chu-ban" (written in Kanji, i.e. Chinese, and literally meaning "medium format") is another term, although that is used for the cameras, not the film.) David J. Littleboy Tokyo, Japan
From: [email protected] (Razondetre) Newsgroups: rec.photo.equipment.medium-format Date: 02 Oct 2002 Subject: Re: Brownie film, reprise In Japan, 120 fim was usually used in Brownie cameras so it became known as "Brownie Film". When Zenza made its first medium format slr using 120 film it was name Bronica (BROwNIe CAmera). At least, that's what the engineers said. RDE.