WHAT DOES THE "JCII PASSED" LABEL MEAN ON JAPANESE SUPER-8 CAMERAS?

 Japanese film camera users are very familiar with the little elliptical "JCII". But, what does it mean? In this blog post, we will clarify the meaning.

The JCII (acronym for Japan Camera Industry Institute) is a foundation, established in 1954,  to combat the bad reputation engendered abroad by rubbishy equipment from some (usually small) Japanese camera manufacturers in early 50´s. It´s task is to maintain and improve the quality of cameras and projectors exported from Japan. In the past, it handles still and ciné equipment, including S8 cameras, lenses, projectors and editors, as well as 16 mm projectors and exposure meters. 

The best motion picture camera ever made with the JCII label

Under the Export Inspection Law, none of these products can be exported unless they have passed JCII inspection, to sandards prepared for each product in accordance with the law. Only after they have passed this inspection are customs clearance documents issued, and the familiar labels PASSES JCII affixed.

Two forms of testing were involved: The Type Test were conducted an three products sampled at random by a JCII inspector at least twice a year, checking the accuracy of things like lens focal length a f/number, viewfinder field, picture size exposure meter, durability life-test, enviromental test, shock and vibration test (in packing), and so on.

As example, one of the tests, was the checking the accuracy of built-in exposure mechanisms in movie cameras: for this, a photo-cell fitted to a dummy cartridge is loaded into the camera, which was positioned in front of a standards lightsource whose brightness can be varied over a wide range by a larger motor iris diaphragm. The cell out was fed to an X-Y plotter which draws a graph of "scene brightness" Vs. light intensity in film plane for both 25 and 100 ASA settings (the latter should, of course, remain constant within the contral range of the camera´s meter and "stop" mechanism).

The environmental test includes placing cameras in a cold chamber at -5º C for two hours, and then filming a resolution chart plus metronome to see whether lens register or running speed drift out of tolerance.  The test was done again at +40º Celsius, and there are also separate humidity tests.

In the shock drop-tests, the cameras had to survive accelerations of 70g on all six sides of the case, and vibration tests of 0.8 mm amplitude at frequencies between 20 and 55 Hz aplied for 20 minutes on each of the three axes. These high stress rates have seen adopted since tests made with accelerometers includad in actual equipment shipments to the Western World measured shock-loads in transit up to 110g!!!

Once the product had passed the Type Test, it was subject to Lot Inspection. With large shipments, individual inspection is nearly impossible, so radom sample checks are undertaken. Typically, from a shipment of, say, 300 units, 40 were selected at random according to a sampling table, and checks made of 16 properties, such as outer appearance, light leakage, resolving power and running speed. 

The best compact camera, with full rewind facilies, sharp 1.2 lens, EE lock and even servo motor for the iris, with the label 

For Super-8 and 16 mm projectors, checks include running speeds, steadiness, lens performance, evenness of light output measured at 9 points across a 50 cm wide screen (but not absolute  screen brightness), freedom from scratching, durability (10 hours running),  "free drop" tests (in packing) from a 50 cm height onto a solid metal baseplate, signal-to noise ratio and wow and flutter, using fully-coated magnetic film. 

Little P2 camera with the label

When I was in Japan, I visited the JCII´s Museum, where they have a sample of every camera and projector model made in Japan -shelf upon shelf of them. There were even a few models that I did not recognise, since they were apparently not exported.