This little gadget is a Mamiya Pistol Camera. Research on pistol-shaped cameras started in Japan in the late 1940s, certainly instigated by the police forces. The intended use was to catch photographic evidence of criminal behaviour in the act and the demand from the police forces was made more pressing after the “bloody May Day incident”, a clash between Tokyo protesters and policemen on May Day 1952. Policemen were injured while taking photographs of the protesters as with their eye on the viewfinder they could not see their opponents. The Japanese police wanted a camera which would be easy to aim without raising it to the eye, and a pistol-shaped camera was considered ideal because the policemen are supposedly good at gun handling.
Only 250 of these cameras were ever produced and were never deployed widely in the Japanese police force, although they were used in training. There is one currently on sale on Ebay, it’s price is currently at $16,200 US but it’s expected to go for $25,000. A mere bagatelle mon ami!
