Chinese writing on a tin

[NaytanDova]

Hello, can anybody help read this.

[Jim]

Mostly guesswork except I can read all the individual characters, but here goes anyway: the plate on the top reads 彩镜框 "coloured lens frames". The latter two are the characters for the word for spectacles frames but also covers other frames that hold a lens and I think it's something else here, as the bottom pic reads "合致差 修正器". 合致 I'd not seen as compound before and a search suggests it's Japanese for 'identical', add the 差 and that's something that falls short of being identical; latter three characters are a word in Chinese for a correcting device - might be on electronics or more mechanical, or as I suspect here, optical. Some sort of coloured correction lens, though in what context who knows? Military again?

[ZC]

36 minutes ago, Jim said:

the plate on the top reads 彩镜框 "coloured lens frames". The latter two are the characters for the word for spectacles frames but also covers other frames

 

I think when you use 筐 instead of 框 it means something closer to case than frame, so I got more like “colored lens case” so maybe photography related? Possibly it is the case for a camera color correction device maybe used durin the early-ish era of color film?

 

(obligatory end note that I am not an expert at all and may be wildly wrong)

[Publius]

I'm pretty sure it's Japanese.

Only in Japanese can 筐 be used as 框. Also different characters (箱、函、筥、匣、筐) are used to write the native Japanese word はこ 'box, case', which I suspect is the intended meaning.

[NaytanDova]

Thank you, surprised by the translations. Assumed something more military specific. Then again, we are still unsure of what kind of lens was used. Amazingly helpful though, thank you