Konica FR
The Konica FR (prototype only) (コニカFR) is a 35mm rangefinder camera made as a prototype by Konishiroku. It has a metal focal plane shutter (1–1000, B), allowing flash synchronization at 1/125. The camera takes Leica screw mount lenses, and was exhibited with a Hexanon lens. (Konishiroku had already sold various lenses for the Leica screw mount.) The integrated range/viewfinder has brightline frames with automatic compensation for parallax. The viewfinder is large and the design emphasizes rectangles, combining to make the camera look rather like a precursor of Cosina's much later Zeiss Ikon.
The Konica FR never went into full production; Konishiroku seems to have thought that a rangefinder camera such as this could not compete with the increasingly popular SLRs of the time.
Bibliography
In Japanese:
- Hishida Kōshirō (菱田耕四郎). "Konica History 11: Maboroshi no kamera to tokushu kamera" (幻のカメラと特殊カメラ, Phantom cameras and special cameras). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.10, September 1987. No ISBN number. Konishiroku kamera no rekishi (小西六カメラの歴史, special issue on Konishiroku). Pp. 81–2.
- Konika-Minoruta-ten (コニカミノルタ展, Konica Minolta exhibition). Exhibition catalogue. Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 2005.
