This camera was launched in 1954 by Shinano Optical Co., Ltd. Japan and was equipped with Shinanokoki Lacor f3.5 four-element 45mm lens. In the same year the Lacon C (top cover's shape was different) were introduced plus in the next year, Lacon R was introduced which employed a rangefinder. The Lacon is a 35mm with a Shinano leaf-shutter with speeds of 1 second to 1/200 second. The Lacon Camera Co. was likely only a marketing name applied to cameras made for the Lacon name by Shinano. The Lacon line of cameras were a fairly obscure cheaper cameras made by the Shinano Camera Company, who also made the somewhat better known and slightly better quality Shinano Pigeon. The Lacon is a straightforward viewfinder camera without many thrills, but in terms of looks clearly inspired by the Leica screw mount cameras, especially when viewed from above. The single viewfinder window looks oddly out of place in a top housing large enough to accommodate a rangefinder. The functionally of the Lacon was not that different from the Pigeon, both were simple viewfinder cameras with front cell-focusing lens, a leaf shutter with a limited range of speeds and a removable camera back to load film. An early version with a small single viewfinder mounted directly onto the top plate also existed and I think it is known now as the Lacon J and is almost a copy of the Lacon without the Leica look alike top. Other features of the Lacon are a frame counter that counts from 0 to 40, aperture settings of 3.5 to 16, flash socket on the shutter assembly, utility mount bracket, shutter-timer (10 second), rewind release button, rewind knob, focusing from 2.5 feet to infinity, and two ¼ inch 20 thread tripod sockets on the bottom of the camera.