You know, from my perspective, Konica just doesn’t get the love it deserves. A lot of folks might think of Konica as part of that last-ditch effort from Minolta to keep their camera lines going. Matter of fact – if you search eBay for Minolta – you’re just as likely to get as many results of Konica cameras as Minolta. And if you search Konica – well you’ll probably get more Minolta results.
What I didn’t realize until the last several years is that as a camera company, Konica really made some great evolutionary strides in camera design that we completely take for granted now. They were the very first to market with an autofocus camera – the C35AF in 1977. They were the first to release a camera with a built-in winder with the FS-1 in 1979. And with the 1965 Auto-Reflex, they were the first to offer auto-exposure in a 35mm focal-plane-shutter SLR – a technology that they continued to refine over the next decade. Now, autoexposure cameras did exist prior to the Auto-Reflex. But those were based on cameras with leaf-shutter systems. What amazes me most about the Konica AutoReflex cameras is that they offered this level of automation in a mechanical camera. The batteries are only needed to power the meter.
But let’s back up a bit. There’s still a lot of history to unpack with Konica. Check out the video to learn all about the T3!
Vintage Camera Digest 