Konica Auto S3
by Karen Nakamura
Overview and Personal Comments
The Konica Auto S3 is a coupled-rangefinder, leaf-shuttered 35mm camera with shutter-priority automatic exposure and a very innovative Guide Number (GN) based system for automatic flash exposures.
Some have classed the Konica as one of the best compact rangefinders of the 1970s, along with the Canon GIII QL17. There are many simliarities between the two - they share the same extremely high quality 6-element, 4-group Double Gauss lens design. The QL17 slightly has the upper hand because it can be operated in full manual as well as aperture-priority.
Everyone praises the Hexanon lens which reportedly gets between 62 and 82 lpi, which is amazingly high performance (Leica-class) for a compact rangefinder.
The nicest thing about the Konica though is that it only came in black paint. In comparison, finding a black paint Canon GIII could cost you over $800.
The Konica shutter ranges from 1/15 to 1/500 sec. It's not TTL metering as the CdS cell is located right above the taking lens, but it still does a great job.Since the CdS cell is on the lens mount itself, a handy feature is that if you forget to leave the lens cap on (a common mistake with rangefinders as the viewscreen doesn't go black as with SLRs), the meter will tell you you can't take a picture. And you can use filters (such as polarizing filters, or red/green filters for B&W work) without having to dial in a filter compensation.
The Konica uses the much maligned PX675 mercury battery that is no longer available in the U.S. An alkaline or silver-oxide 375 battery will also work but the meter will read slightly fast, so you have to compensate using the ISO dial.
| Camera
Name |
Auto S3 | Canonet GIII QL 17 |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer |
Konica | Canon, Inc. |
| Place
of Manufacture |
Japan | Japan |
| Date
of Manufacture |
1972 ~ 1982 | |
| Focusing
System |
Coupled coincident image rangefinder Lens use helicoid focusing |
Coupled
coincident image rangefinder with parallax compensation Lens use helicoid focusing |
| Lens |
38mm, f/1.8, Hexanon lens (6 elements in 4 groups) Minimum focusing distance = 1.0 meters (~3.3 feet) xxx
focusing (infinity on xxx side) |
40mm, f/1.7, Canon lens (6 elements in 4 groups) Minimum focusing distance = 0.8 meters (~3 feet) Right
focusing (infinity on right side) |
| Shutter |
Copal shutter 1/8 - 1/500 X-flash sync at all speeds |
Copal shutter 1/4 - 1/500 X-flash sync at all speeds |
| Metering
System |
CdS
cell mounted above lens on lensmount Needle in viewfinder gives current aperture EV x- xx(at ISO 100) |
CdS
cell mounted above lens on lensmount Needle in viewfinder gives current aperture EV x- xx(at ISO 100) |
| Apertures |
f/1.7 ~ f/16 manual |
|
| Flash |
External
hot-shoe Hotshoe has extra pin for dedicated Canolite D flash |
|
| Film
type / speeds |
Type 135 film (35mm standard) ASA 25 to 800 |
Type 135 film (35mm standard) ASA 25 to 800 |
| Battery
type |
1.35v PX675 mercury-silver (675 silver-mercury willl read 1 stop high) | 1.35v PX625 mercury-silver (PX625A alkalineOK) |
| Dimensions
and weight |
115 x 77 x 60mm , 410g | 120 x 75 x 60 mm, 620 g |
| Retail
price |
¥29,000 (~US$94) in 1972 | |
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Konica is Japan's oldest camera manufacturer. It was founded in 1873 as the Konishi-ya and it sold photographic supplies. It was renamed the Konishi-honten in 1876. In 1902, they built their own factory called the Rokuoh-sha. The company was reorganized in 1921 and called the Konishiroku Honten.
In 1936 they incorporated as the K.K. Konishiroku, then in 1943 they became Konishiroku Shashin Kogyo K.K.. In 1944 they merged with Showa Photo Industries.
The first Konica brand camera was the Konica I which came out in 1948. It was a coupled-rangefinder 35mm camera with a 50mm f/3.5 non-interchangeable-lens.
Konica's heyday as a camera manufacturer was during the period 1950-1970s when it came out with quite a few 35mm rangefinder cameras and their own line of 35mm SLRs. Wedding photographers in the 1970s fondly remember the Koni-Omega. However, despite electronic SLRs such as the FS-1 and FT-1, Konica did not successfully make the step up to auto-exposure, auto-focus SLRs in the 1980s. In the last two decades of the 20th century, they were reduced to mainly making point-and-shoots (the Hexar and Hexar RF were the two exceptions).
In Japan, Konica is famous as a film manufacturer. They started making film in 1929. However, most of their films were not exported or extensively marketted outside of Japan.
In 2002, they merged with Minolta and became the Konica-Minolta Corporation.
Cult of the QL17: |
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