The Konica F was the first 35 mm
SLR camera produced by
Konishiroku
was a Japanese manufacturer of, among other products, film, film cameras, camera accessories, photographic and photo-processing equipment, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers, founded in 1873. The company merged with Japanese peer Min ...
, released in February 1960.
[buhla.de, Konica SLR cameras 1960-1987](_blank)
Retrieved 4 November 2020.
It featured a built-in
light metering system to set the correct
exposure.
[buhla.de, Konica SLR cameras 1960-1987](_blank)
Retrieved 4 November 2020. The meter utilized a large selenium cell panel on the front of the
viewfinder
In photography, a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and, in many cases, to focus the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main ...
prism to detect light levels. This type sensor cell generates its own small
electric current
An electric current is a stream of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface or into a control volume. The moving pa ...
, so the metering system does not require a
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
. On the other hand, selenium cells are known to degrade over time, losing accuracy or eventually failing. Many cameras and handheld meters relied upon selenium cells at one time, but they were gradually replaced by
CdS
The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...
and other types of cells that require a battery but tend to give long-term reliability. Between 600 and 1500 total Konica Fs were produced, making it a highly sought-after camera.
A year prior to the Konica F's introduction, a prototype of that camera was displayed at a photo show in Japan. At that time it was called the KonicaFlex. The only difference between the two was the mounting of the selenium light meter: While the Konica F meter was built into the front of the prism housing, that of the KonicaFlex was a flip-up type meter carried over from the Konica IIIM rangefinder of 1957.
Features
The Konica F used a new design of Konishiroku-made shutter called the
Hi Synchro (also High Synchro), the predecessor to the
Copal Square shutter (descendants of which are almost universally used in film and
digital SLR
A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor.
The reflex design scheme is the primary difference between a ...
s in the 21st century). Konishiroku produced a highly reliable, vertically running, metal bladed shutter. Although not a Copal shutter, the new technology was showcased in the Konica F. Contemporary cameras (and many later ones) were using horizontal running, cloth shutters and older designs that were less durable.
The Konishiroku shutter featured 1/2000 speed. This was the highest shutter speed attained to date in a 35 mm SLR camera.
Typical cameras of the time commonly used 1/250 or 1/500 as maximum speeds. Some premium models used 1/1000. In late 1960,
Canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western can ...
released the
Canonflex R2000, the second model to achieve 1/2000 shutter speed, but it still used the older, horizontally running, cloth shutter. No subsequent Konica 35 mm SLR camera ever featured faster than 1/1000 shutter speed.
[buhla.de, Konica FS-1 1979-1983. Retrieved 5 November 2020]
aperturepreview.com 27 June 2019, Konica FS-1
Retrieved 5 November 2020. Most used the Copal Square variant of the shutter and many had 1/125 flash sync. There was even a Copal Square "Hi Syncho" used in the Konica T3 in the mid-1970s, known for its reliability.[buhla.de, Konica Autoreflex T3 1973-1975](_blank)
Retrieved 4 November 2020.
The Konica F also featured a 1/125 flash sync
In photography, flash synchronization or flash sync is the synchronizing the firing of a photographic flash with the opening of the shutter admitting light to photographic film or electronic image sensor.
In cameras with mechanical (clockwor ...
, whereas other cameras of the time offered 1/30 to 1/60 sync.
Konishiroku had very limited means of distribution for the new camera outside Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. They were mostly sold by special order and through catalogs. A few years later, the company's 35 mm rangefinder cameras were sold under the Wards brand in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...
was a major catalog seller of photographic equipment at that time, and many Konica items appeared in their catalogs during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The small number of Konica Fs on store shelves resulted in the model being largely unnoticed, with the Canonflex R2000 considered by many to be the first 35 mm SLR to achieve 1/2000 shutter speed, despite the Konica F preceding it by eight months.
The pentaprism was removable and could be replaced with an optional waist level finder. The focus
Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film
*''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore
* ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...
ing screen of the F has multiple focus aids: a Fresnel focused light on a matte area, a diaprism, and a split image center spot. This wealth of focus was unusual for cameras 1960 and wasn't standard on another Konica until the mid-1970s.
Lenses by Konica
There were four new Hexanon lenses offered along with the F:
*The normal lens was a 52 mm f1.4 with a 49 mm filter thread (a similar lens was offered later with a 55 mm thread).
*A wide-angle 35 mm f2.0,
*telephoto 85 mm f1.8 and 135 mm f2.8 lenses were also offered.[buhla.de, Konica SLR lenses 1960-1987. Retrieved 5 November 2020](_blank)
The 35, 52 and 85 mm all had a linkage that juts out from the side of the lens, that inter-connects with a lever on the front of the camera, to register the lens' aperture setting with the camera's metering system. Because of this linkage interface, lenses sold with later Konica early mount cameras are not easily fitted onto the F, and vice versa, although they all share the same bayonet mount. In 1965, Konica introduced the Auto-Reflex line of cameras and lenses, which do not share the same bayonet mount as the F and its immediate successors, up to 1964's FM model.
The 135 mm Hexanon for the F had a manual aperture, but the other lenses featured what was referred to as "fully automatic" aperture in the 1960s. This is not as automated as apertures eventually became. At that time it meant the aperture diaphragm was held fully open during focusing, to make for a brighter viewfinder and render a shallow depth of field
The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera.
Factors affecting depth of field
For cameras that can only focus on one object dist ...
, both of which helped with focusing. Once the shutter release button was pressed, the aperture was allowed to snap down to the pre-selected setting, before the shutter opened to expose the film. Further, the aperture re-opened automatically after the shutter closed. All this happened in the instant the exposure was made, while the reflex mirror was also cycling up out of the way, then back down to the viewing position.
Weblink
Description of Metal shutters used by Konica on konicafiles.com
References
{{Konica
F
Cameras introduced in 1960