The company continued to be successful throughout the 1920s, releasing several other lines of cameras and even founded the Konishi College of Photography in 1923. Over the next 2 decades, Konishi Honten did very well, and in 1921 was renamed G.K. Twenty years later, Konishi sold the Cherry Portable Camera, which was the very first Japanese made consumer camera. In 1882, the company began producing it’s own photographic materials and selling them to other Japanese companies. Sugiura launched his own pharmacy company, named Konishi Honten in 1878. Konica could trace it’s roots all the way back to a man named Sugiura Rokusaburo who in 1873 sold pharmacy supplies in Tokyo, Japan. The original Konica had a long and prosperous history as the oldest Japanese camera maker. An image of Sugiura Rokusaburo who created the company that would become Konica. An early logo for Konishi Honten on a wooden studio camera. The company that in 1965 produced this Auto-Reflex SLR no longer exists and as of 2006, exited the photographic and camera industry. The name Konica is used today in a variety of business applications, making products such as printers, photo copiers, and other imaging related technologies. +1 for unique ability to seamlessly switch between full and half frame auto exposure system, and excellent lenses. Regardless of how you shoot it however, you will undoubtedly be happy with his all metal mechanical build. This gives the Auto-Reflex the distinction as a ‘one of a kind’ camera that is worth seeking out for this one feature. The Konica Auto-Reflex is a very solid and capable camera that compares favorably to the best SLRs of the 1960s, but tops them all with a unique feature no other SLR had or ever would have, which is the ability to switch between full and half frame images in the middle of a roll. Weight: 998 grams (w/ lens), 716 (body only) Shutter: Copal Square Vertically Traveling Focal PlaneĮxposure Meter: Coupled CdS Cell w/ viewfinder readout and Shutter Priority AE Viewfinder: Fixed SLR Pentaprism with Microprism Circle and Ground Glass Focus Aides Lens: 57mm f/1.4 Konica Hexanon coated 6-elements Konica went all in on this camera, not only building it to an incredibly high quality standard, but also offering as much cutting edge technology available at the time of it’s release. The Auto-Reflex was also the first mass produced focal plane 35mm SLR to feature Automatic Exposure which was accomplished via a body mounted CdS exposure meter offering shutter priority auto exposure.

It is also the only model that can seamlessly switch between shooting full frame and half frame 18mm x 24mm shots without changing rolls. This model was the first in Konica’s long lived Autoreflex series and is the only one with a hyphenated name. This is a Konica Auto-Reflex, a 35mm SLR camera produced by Konica of Japan starting in 1965.

Konica autoreflex a aperture 3.5