JCII sticker

AgX · Oct 20, 2014

When getting another old japanese camera in house with that sticker still on:
do you leave it on or take it off?

I usually take it off. As it spoils the visual impression of the camera as intended by the designer. Removing the Latex glue residue can sometimes be troublesome and there might remain a change of tone at the surface, but less distracting as that sticker.

With cameras I otherwise cannot relate to Japan I leave it on. And if I would like to present it in its original box. (I have no such sample though.)
Look-alike stickers I sometimes leave on to indicate that attempt of deception.

Theo Sulphate · Oct 20, 2014

Occasionally I'll buy an old lens with this sticker still on. I'm very tempted to remove it, but then I realize it's been on the lens for over 40 years and somehow it seems wrong to remove it now.

Sometimes they're placed in an ugly, awkward, position though - such as on the aperture ring.

snapguy · Oct 20, 2014

leave

I leave it on. The designer or design team or the dudes that threw it together can fend for themselves. I don't buy the auteur theroy of film directors being the whole enchilada or this Barnack Worship, either. A lot of thumbs have been in the pies.

bdial · Oct 20, 2014

I've done both. I've typically left them on the equipment I bought new. On many of the lenses and cameras that have come to me used, the sticker was so worn that it seemed pointless to leave it. (not that there is any point in keeping it anyway).
Mostly I ignore them.

Poisson Du Jour · Oct 20, 2014

My Olympus XA (bought mint/uncirculated two years ago) has one on the flash and one on the body. It harks back to an era now past but I see no reason to whip these little oval stickers off. Pedantic purist photographers might want to remove them forthwith, and no harm in doing so. In second hand windows I have seen these stickers on lens focusing rings, worn so much from handling over the years they have taken on the pattern of the ring knurls. That is one of few instances where I would remove the sticker. Somewhere on the web there is an interesting piece on the history of the Japan Camera Inspection Institute and the standards it set and achieved in order to benchmark Japanese photographic equipment for export to the world.

AgX · Oct 20, 2014

The JCII stopped their testing long ago and switched over to what once only was side-track for them: building their japanese camera collection and from then on showing it also. As well being devoted to the history of the japanese photographic culture in general.

BrianShaw · Oct 20, 2014

I don't remove tags from matresses either... Under penalty of law.

BradS · Oct 21, 2014

I have never removed a JCII sticker from a camera body but often remove them from lens bodies....why? I do not know. ;-/

trythis · Oct 21, 2014

I just can't bear to remove the YN84 Quality passed sticker from my Optiflex NF-1 with color optical glass lens.

Steve Smith · Oct 21, 2014

I always take them off. They are ugly. The designer didn't design the camera to have them fitted.

It also annoys me when I see people using modern equipment with stickers on... and the protective film on LCDs.

Steve.

John_Nikon_F · Oct 21, 2014

If the sticker is firmly attached, I tend not to bother with it. If it's beginning to peel off, then it gets removed, and the goo gets removed as well. Yes, the JMDC PASSED sticker on my main F2AS is barely visible, but it's still firmly attached. So, it remains.

-J

AgX · Oct 26, 2014

JCII stands for

Japan Camera and optical Instruments Inspection and testing Institute

but what does JMDC stand for?

(Japanese Manufacturers something Control/Council ?)

benjiboy · Oct 27, 2014

Products were not individually or even batch tested, it was from a time when Japanese photographic equipment was in fierce competition with German manufactured equipment and the general perception was that Japanese products were inferior and it was in reality a marketing ploy
Read this
http://www.savazzi.net/photography/jcii.html.

Xmas · Oct 27, 2014

Alas Ben lots of people knew that the Ge patents were a war reparation - so concept of a knock off strange - and that Nikon and Canon lenses were just as good and 1/3 the price...

There were comparative mag reviews of the Nikon 5cm 1.4 v Contax 1.5 & the difference with solid tripod and slow film the contax just detectably better - but the US war pjs never used a tripod or slow film and the Nikon was cheap and a much better camera eg fewer parts

When in the Korean war your officer called down for effect bombardment on own position even less difference.

The Ge camera industry all but dissappeard by '65 and it was not the little stickers that did it.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contarex

AgX · Oct 27, 2014

Thank you Ben for that liink, I somehow missed before.

I knew that cameras were not induvidually tested. But now I learned about that JMDC abbreviation: Japan Machinery Design Center

AgX · Dec 1, 2015

APPROVED sticker

These days I got a Canon Super-8 camera manufactured abroad that got a JCII sticker where the term PASSED is substituted by APPROVED and the term JMDC is missing.
For the rest the sticker is identical.

AgX · Dec 2, 2015

PASSED and APPROVED Mark:

THE MARK CERTIFIES THAT CAMERAS AND OTHER PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENTS BEARING THE SAID MARK HAVE BEEN TESTED BY APPLICANT AND HAVE SATISFACTORILY PASSED INSPECTION STANDARDS PREPARED FOR EACH PRODUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE JAPANESE EXPORT INSPECTION LAW-NAMELY, THE QUALITY OF THE GOODS AS TO AVOIDANCE OF SIMULATION OF DESIGNS OF OTHERS, ELECTRICAL SAFETY, AND PERFORMANCE.

There may have been used a third and fourth sticker with different meaning:

JCII APPROVED

PASSED JCII C/D JMDC

THE CERTIFICATION MARK, AS USED BY PERSONS AUTHORIZED BY CERTIFIER, CERTIFIES THAT CAMERAS AND OTHER PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT BEARING THE MARK HAVE BEEN TESTED BY CERTIFIER AND HAVE SATISFACTORILY PASSED INSPECTION STANDARDS PREPARED FOR EACH PRODUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE JAPANESE EXPORT INSPECTION LAW.

This means that sample models of products with the common stickers not even had been tested by JCII themselves.

ic-racer · Dec 2, 2015

I was a German camera snob back in the 1980s so no stickers for me. Of course now I use any camera that holds film and the pictures are all pretty much the same, with or without the sticker .

John_Nikon_F · Dec 3, 2015

Some JMDC stickers were also "INSPECTED". Some of the Nikon bodies I've owned have come with that sticker on them. More modern Nikon bodies frequently have the "CE" stamp on them.

-J

Sirius Glass · Dec 3, 2015

I have not found JCII stickers on the Hasselblads nor on the Zeiss lenses. Am I missing anything here? <<wink>> <<wink>>

AgX · Dec 3, 2015

John_Nikon_F said:
More modern Nikon bodies frequently have the "CE" stamp on them.

The "CE" mark is quite different from those JCII marks. It only means that the manufacturer states his product to be conform to EU regulations concerning "safety and health".

More in line with the idea behind the JCII marks (and even less ambiguous) are those quality-marks to be found on GDR products.

John_Nikon_F · Dec 3, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
I have not found JCII stickers on the Hasselblads nor on the Zeiss lenses. Am I missing anything here? <<wink>> <<wink>>

I'll just leave this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY_Yf4zz-yo

;-)

-J

AgX · Dec 3, 2015

Soviet photomechanical products came with stamped and signed papers from quality control by the manufacturer.

Sirius Glass · Dec 3, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
I have not found JCII stickers on the Hasselblads nor on the Zeiss lenses. Am I missing anything here? <<wink>> <<wink>>

John_Nikon_F said:
I'll just leave this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY_Yf4zz-yo

;-)

-J

I can spend money faster buying Hasselblads, Rolleis and Leicas than I can buying Canons and Nikons.

Theo Sulphate · Dec 3, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
I have not found JCII stickers on the Hasselblads nor on the Zeiss lenses. Am I missing anything here?

They don't meet specs. Send them to me. $100 for the lot.

JCII sticker

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