Rare and vintage film cameras on show in Tokyo

A double-sport camera mounted on a pigeon provided by the JCII Camera Museum Rare and vintage film cameras, from ones inside a soda pop can to a cigarette lighter as seen in the Hollywood classic Roman Holiday, are on display at a special exhibition at a Tokyo camera museum.

The show, which brings together approximately 380 unique cameras, is currently running at the JCII Camera Museum in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, which tracks the rapidly changing history of the camera.

After the first one became publicly available about 180 years ago, a large variety of cameras have been developed.

Some of the equipment was equipped with innovative technology while others became huge sellers.

There are also uniquely shaped cameras and ones that didn't gain widespread use.

It is a testament to how efforts have been made to improve cameras, said museum director Hiroshi Yano.

The exhibits include a British-made Ticka, which is the same shape and size as a pocket watch, with a lens mounted in the watch's crown.

A French camera called Le Multi-Photo could capture up to nine frames on a single plate or take stereoscopic photos by attaching lenses on different mounts.

A Japan-made Echo 8, a cigarette lighter with a built-in camera, was featured in a scene from Roman Holiday, in which the gadget is used to take sneak shots of a princess played by Audrey Hepburn.

A Coca-Cola can camera, made for promotional purposes, is strikingly similar to a real Coke can in size and shape.

A camera with a selfie stick commercialized by Minolta Co. in 1983 didn't become widely used in Japan, while the Utsurun-desu QuickSnap single-use camera took Japan by storm.

The museum houses about 20,000 cameras and other photography related equipment from Japan and abroad.

A Giroux Daguerreotype camera, the world's first commercially available camera, and other rare items are on display in the permanent exhibition, in 1839 by a Giroux Daguerreotype camera.

The special exhibition runs until October 16. The museum is closed on Mondays except national holidays, in which case it is closed on the following day.

Admission is free for junior high school students and younger children and is 300 yen $2 for adults.