Lens shown here on a Seike Kogaku Imperial Japanese Navy Canon S Camera. Produced in 1942 for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. The camera features Imperial Japanese Navy markings, Japanese characters in place of the normal English characters, and two small Naval stamps on the bottom plate. The Navy cameras had an independent serial number from the standard S line, and no known record exists of how many cameras were produced. It has been rumored that this camera was issued for use on submarines, and this is the reason that so few exist today. The majority of the submarine fleet was sunk or destroyed during WWII. The leather case is original, denoted by the Naval stamps, which match the bottom plate stamping. The supplied Nippon-Kogaku 5cm f/2 lens, rare in its own right, rounds out the system.
