Sears KS Auto
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| A full-featured K-mount camera from Sears this example missing its self-timer lever image by Paulo Moreira (Image rights) |
The KS Auto was introduced by US retailer Sears in 1979, joining the KS 500 and KS 1000[1] to become their top-end offering. For the moment, the naming scheme of Sears SLRs had become a model of logic and clarity: "K" for K-mount interchangeable lenses; "S" for Sears, and 500, 1000, or Auto to indicate the shutter variant which differentiates the three options.[2] As with the other Sears SLRs this is a rebadging of a Ricoh model, the XR-2s introduced a few months earlier.
The KS Auto is quite a full-featured camera, surprisingly so for a general-merchandise retailer like Sears. It offers aperture-priority autoexposure via an electronically-timed vertically-traveling shutter over a range from 1/1000 to 8 seconds. It has depth-of-field preview, a locking ASA dial, a built-in eyepiece blind, a self-timer, and an M.E. button on the rear for multiple exposures. Both shutter speed and aperture are displayed alongside the viewfinder image, the latter using the peepsight on the front of the pentaprism for a direct view of the aperture ring setting.
Many of these features would be cut back on subsequent Sears SLRs, perhaps because the price of a full outfit with an f/1.4 normal lens, telephoto, flash, and gadget bag was a steep USD $399,[3] almost $1,300 in 2021 dollars. The KS-2 is the closest equivalent successor model, albeit one without the viewfinder direct view of the aperture setting and a slightly less convenient manual-exposure mode.
Notes
- ↑ See them on page 1268 of the scanned Fall/winter 1979 catalog from Musetechnical's "Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks."
- ↑ Fans of Sears cameras should pause and savor this moment, because after 1980's "KSX" the Sears naming scheme becomes a puzzling jumble of KS/KSX's and "Supers"; just as the naming of the source Ricoh models likewise confusingly proliferated.
- ↑ Page 1167 of the scanned Spring/Summer 1980 catalog from Musetechnical's "Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks."
Links
- Original Ricoh XR-2s manual from Mike Butkus' OrphanCameras.com
- The KS Auto and its siblings and accessories shown in the Spring/Summer 1980 "Midwest" Sears catalog, scan courtesy Voxphoto
