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This is my Pax 35, a tiny fixed-lens 35 mm rangefinder, made in Japan in 1952-55 by Yamato. It has the EP mark on the base that means it was sold in a US forces tax-exempt outlet (I thought at first this might even have been in occupied Japan, but I think the US occupation ended in about '52; please correct me if you know! I guess there were still Americans aplenty in Japan after that - and still are). I wonder if the name (it's always written PaX) means the cameras were made to be sold in PX stores - I have no evidence for that idea; it would just make some sense. Evidence against this idea is that the pictures in the user's manual are almost all of Japanese people (the manual for the later Pax M4 has a picture of three American sailors in it, among others).
When I got the camera, the focus was stuck with old grease; I understand they usually have this problem. I freed it, but not without scratching the plating on one ring of the lens; I polished the rest of the chrome off, which I thought would look better than the scratches. Anyhow, it works. The lens is a Luminor 45 mm f/3.5; only a triplet (the Luminors in the later Pax M3 and M4 models are 4-element), but not at all bad. The rangefinder spot is a bit dim*, but quite usable, and I think its accurate.
I discover that a 30 mm push-on hood and filters fit, which I already have for my Isolette. Strangely, a user's manual for this camera says 28.5 mm slip-on filters ought to fit; maybe they changed the design; I've never seen one that didn't look exactly like this though.
There are articles on the Pax 35, and some of the other Yamato rangefinders, on Camera-wiki, including a photo of a Pax without the damage I did to the plating on this one :(
* I took the RF cover off (to see why it was working loose), and the half-silvered mirror has no silvering left in the middle; it's been wiped to death, and I'm now trying to focus using the faint image in a plain piece of glass. Amazing that the double image is visible at all, really. Next time I have spare money (never happened yet) I may send it away to get resilvered.
A Jayne-hatted Timmy clone struck out on the open road with @gfbrobot. Will they make it?
(Timmy clone in Jayne hat [by @Rumielf] graciously chaperoned to PAX 2010 by @gfbrobot)