The name's the same

by Dr Burton Rubin, New York

I was rather flattered when Dave Woodford and Mahendra Modi, who run MW Cameras, asked me to write something for their new catalogue, but also a bit discomfited.

Over what seems like most of the last millennium I've written for any number of publications and, to tell the truth, the thought of diligently reporting that the shutter of the 1948 SimianFlex was speeded from 1 to 1/500 second plus B filled me with profound ennui. But then the light dawned.

I have a fondness for some photographic collectables disproportionate to the importance of their value or beauty. I spent more than I would have liked to acquire my birthday Nikon (M6091941, 1941 being the year of my birth, in the early Pleistocene period) and I cherish a number of other cameras simply because of the name they bear, which is similar to mine.

I don't have the Clinicamera, made by the Burton Manufacturing Company, and I’m pretty certain that I don’t want one, but I have a pretty complete series of the Rubix and Rubina subminiatures. These were similar cameras made by different companies.

The Rubina 16 Model II (I don’t believe I've ever seen a Model I. Has anyone?) is a heavy, well made subminiature produced by Tokyo Koki Co to use unperforated 16mm film. The lens was a 25mm f/3.5 Ruby, and often they can be found with the coveted Made in Occupied Japan marking.

The Rubixes were, to confuse the issue, made a few years later, and by a different company, namely Sugaya Koki - later Sugaya Optical Company - also of Tokyo. What the connection between the two companies was, is unclear.

The Rubix came in several differing versions. Oddly, there are right handed and left handed variations, or, more precisely, versions with the wind knob on the right side and on the left. They all feature 25mm Hope lenses, though some are of f/3.5 and some of f/2.8 maximum aperture. The crown jewel of the series is the almost unknown Rubix 16 Model III, considerably larger and heavier, and a camera which arouses a fair amount of lust among subminiature collectors.

I have a fondness for all of these simply because they bear close approximations of my name, and though I’m not at all a subminiature collector, I enjoy them for other reasons than simply photographic.

Which is how I came about the latest object of my affection, a 37-80mm f/2.8 Rubin-1. It's a Russian zoom lens copy of the seminal Voigtlander Zoomar, and originally made to fit a Zenit-6. I had to have it for the simple reason that it's my namesake, or, out of deference to its Russian origins, my patronymic.

We have a lot in common, the lens and I. It's large, ungainly, and, I thought, of limited usefulness. The Zenit 4, Zenit 5, Zenit 6 and the almost unknown Zenit 11 were Contaflex inspired leaf shuttered 35mm SLRs. They were well made, if a bit agricultural, and of no particular interest to me. Rather foolishly, I had simply wanted the lens, and now that I had it, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

It was Dave Woodford who caused the light to dawn. 'You know,' he said, 'with a little bit of surgery, you can use that thing on one of your Retina Reflexes.'

The surgery, on the lens mount was minimal, and I can now use the Rubin-1 on one of my Retina Reflexes and enjoy it a little more.

That, in a roundabout way is what this article is all about. There are as many reasons for collecting cameras as there are cameras to collect. I’ve learned that I don’t have to march in lockstep with everybody else, looking for a mint IIIg, or a 64 series black Nikon F. It can be more rewarding to follow your own drummer and pick up those items that appeal on a more personal basis.

And you never can be certain which way the path will lead.

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