Konica SF
The Konica SF is a 4.5×6 SLR camera made as a prototype by Konishiroku in 1967.[1] It has exchangeable film backs for 15 frames on 120 or 30 frames on 220 film, a metal focal-plane shutter by Copal (1–1000, B),[2] and through-the-lens metering for shutter-priority automatic exposure. The design allowed for interchangeable lenses and finders, and it is said that the lens mount was compatible with Hasselblad.[3] The camera has been photographed and exhibited with a pentaprism finder and an f/2.8 standard lens; it was notably displayed at the JCII exhibition about Konica and Minolta in 2005.
The Konica SF never went into full production. It was the first Japanese 4.5×6 SLR, years before the Mamiya M645, and one of the first medium-format SLRs in the world to have automatic exposure. The same year 1967, Minolta also made a prototype auto-exposure SLR in 6×6cm format, the Minolta SR66.
Bibliography
- 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.
- Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard). P. 125.
- Shirai Tatsuo (白井達男). "Konika SF". Pp. 77–86 of Maboroshi no kamera o otte (幻のカメラを追って, Pursuing phantom cameras). Gendai Kamera Shinsho (現代カメラ新書). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1982. ISBN 4-257-08077-9. (First published in Kamera Rebyū / Camera Review. no 9, November 1979.)
