Semi Minolta P Classic Japanese Folding Camera : Worth Buying in 2024?

Just doing a brief review on this fantastic little folder. Semi Minolta P (1951-1955). Some further info from the Internet is shown as below:

The Semi Minolta P, released in 1951, is the last folding camera made by Chiyoda (the predecessor of Minolta). This model has less advanced features than the previous Semi Minolta III, and it has a completely different body, more rounded and with the finder and controls on the opposite side, so that the body release is actioned by the right hand.

The Semi Minolta P is easily recognized by its tubular finder: it was sold at a time when the folding finders were considered old-fashioned. This finder has two indexes for parallax correction.
When the camera is held by the photographer to take portrait pictures, the advance knob is on the left and the back is hinged to the right. Film advance lacks the automatic stop device of the Semi Minolta III, and it is controlled by a red window at the top of the back, protected by a vertically sliding cover. There is a thick accessory shoe at the right of the viewfinder, with the serial number engraved behind. The camera is usually embossed Minolta in the front leather. It seems that some examples lack this marking but maybe their covering is not original.

The Semi Minolta P is equipped with a Promar SII 75/3.5 three element lens, said to be made by Asahi Kōgaku. The shutter is a Konan-Flicker, giving B, 2–200 speeds and synchronized, said to be made by Chiyoda itself.

A total of about 70,000 examples were produced, in two main variants. The early variant, advertised in 1951 and early 1952, has a flatter folding bed, a standing leg that folds back, and there is nothing at the right of the top plate. The shutter plate is black and the synch connector is the same specific type found on most IIIB and IIIC. An advertisement for this model appears in the February 1951 issue of Asahi Camera and it is called Semi Minolta P (セミミノルタP型).

The late variant, advertised from 1952 to 1955 under the name Minolta Semi P (ミノルタ・セミP型), has a more rounded folding bed, with a standing leg retracting laterally into it. It also has a small flange added to the right of the top plate, to support the film spool, absent on the early variant, as well as an ASA bayonet synch connector. The shutter plate is black with white markings and later white with black markings.

One example, probably transitional, has been observed with the new leg but without the flange and with the old type of synch connector. Another example, perhaps a modified one, has been observed with the white shutter plate and a PC synch connector.

The price was ¥13,600 in 1952, lowered to ¥11,800 or ¥10,950 in 1954 depending on the source. An advertisement dated September 1952, placed by the distributor Asanuma Shōkai, shows the late variant with a black shutter plate, while later advertisements dated August 1954 and November 1955 show a white shutter plate. In the latter advertisement, the camera is offered together with an accessory rangefinder, for ¥10,950. During the year 1954, Chiyoda Kōgaku organized a succession of photo contests open to the users of the Semi Minolta P, with a ¥3,000 first prize. Each of these contests was taking place in a different region of Japan, for example the second one was open to the photographers living in Kyūshū and the fifth one to the inhabitants of the Chūbu region.