Konica is a brand you probably only recognize as Konica-Minolta due to their merger in 2003 but they had a long history dating back to 1873 as a manufacturing company. For various reasons in their history photography fell into their of products that they manufactured - many of which enjoying historical firsts. This camera, the Konica FS-1, is the first SLR to come with a motor drive function integrated into the camera itself instead of being a separate unit. The camera itself is otherwise a normal manual focus 35mm SLR. It is an electric camera and will not function without battery power.
Specifications
Mount: AR
Design: Electronic 35mm SLR
Focus: Manual Focus with Microprism/Split-image rangefinder/Ground glass
Shutter Range: 1/1000 - 2 with Bulb
ISO Range: 25 - 3200
Flash Sync: 1/60
Meter: TTL wither aperture readout
Exposure Modes: Manual, Shutter Priority
Battery: 4x AA
Weight: 780g
Other Features: Motor advance
Manual: Butkus.us
Collection Information
Date Acquired: 06/10/2019
Serial Number: 349038
Purchase Price: Free
Going Price: ~$20 - Collectiblend
Condition: Mint
My Copy's Performance
Aside from being loud this camera is working perfectly. The camera is a bit weird to hold as it's wide and shallow. The film advance works which is important as you can't manually advance the film. It is crazy loud though which is a bit annoying. Rewind works fine and funny enough isn't electronic. Focus is easy to achieve thanks to the very bright finder with a splut-image and huge field of ground glass. All shutter speeds seem to be working perfectly fine and the aperture actuation works as expected. Even though shutter-priority isn't my favorite automatic mode it also is working fine. Overall the camera's in perfect condition and is a joy to shoot with.
