Talk:Fujica P2
Comment by JP:
The golden "Quality-Test"-label on my silver P2 says "JCII 82 PASSED JMDC". And I always thought that the two digits behind JCII represent the year. If this is correct, the "year of production" has to be changed from "Year: 1978 - 1979" to "Year: 1978 - 1982".
Any ideas, comments, hints, ... ?
Comment by Muddy Orihara (summarized by JP, comments send by eMail):
- In 1980 Fuji still printed some Japanese brochures for the P2.
- Due to large number of P2s on the Japanese second hand market it's to expect that the P2 got produced for more than two years.
=> Result: Changed "Year:" to the same value as for the "P2 Zoom".
Comment by Lincoln R.
I don't think the 2 digits after JCII are the year of production, because I have an Asahi SMC Pentax-A Zoom 1:4 70~210mm lens I use with my K1000 that has a similar sticker that says "JCII 41 PASSED JMDC" and I know Asahi made no such lens in 1941. It's probably an inspector number, either that or a code that's unique to the product/manufacturer.
Comment by Marc R.
Recall that the Japanese calendar is offset from the Western calendar - for instance the Zero fighter was called that because it was introduced in 1940, which was the year 2600 according to the Japanese koki calendar. I believe that calendar was discontinued under the American occupation post-WWII, though.
There's also the reign calendar based on the rule of the current emperor. For instance, Hirohito took the throne in 1926 and ruled until 1989, so the Showa calendar for his reign ran 1-64. Showa 41 would have been 1967 if my math is correct. And really, as Lincoln said, who knows if it has anything to do with the date?
Comment by JP:
It looks very much like the numbers on that stickers are some "identification codes" (or something like that) rather than stating a year between 1900 and 1999. My main reason for changing the production years have been Muddy's comments about the brochures and about the number of cameras.
BTW: As Muddy Orihara is Japanese, he most likely would have noticed if these digits represent a date/year in any Japanese calendar. ;-)
Update: I've found a similar text (for telescopes) that claims that the number is the manufacturer's identifier: jbcode.txt. E.g. in case of telescopes "82" would be "Sanwa Kogaku Co. Ltd., Tokyo". Even though Sanwa also made some still-cameras, I guess that the JCII was using a different list.
Another update: I've found another explanation on Flickr. If that explanation is correct, my camera was manufactured in February 1978.
