Konica F

A year prior to the Konica F's introduction, a prototype of that camera was displayed at a photo show in Japan. At that time it was called the KonicaFlex. The only difference between the two was the mounting of the selenium light meter: While the Konica F meter was built into the front of the prism housing, that of the KonicaFlex was a flip-up type meter carried over from the Konica IIIM rangefinder of 1957.

Konishiroku had very limited means of distribution for the new camera outside Japan. They were mostly sold by special order and through catalogs. Between 600 and 1500 total Konica Fs were produced, making it a rare and collectible camera.^[3]

A few years later, the company's 35 mm rangefinder cameras were sold under the Wards brand in the United States. Montgomery Ward was a major catalog seller of photographic equipment at that time, and many Konica items appeared in their catalogs during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The small number of Konica Fs on store shelves resulted in the model being largely unnoticed, with the Canonflex R2000 considered by many to be the first 35 mm SLR to achieve 1/2000 shutter speed, despite the Konica F preceding it by eight months.

The Konica F was followed by several cameras using the same F-mount, consisting of the FS (1962), FSW (1962), FP (1963), and FM (1965), before Konica released the Auto-Reflex (1965), which featured shutter-priority autoexposure but used the mechanically incompatible AR lens mount. In the early 1980s, Konica released cameras with similar names, including the Konica FS-1 and FP-1, but these use the AR bayonet mount and are not a continuation of the original F-series cameras.

Konica F-series cameras^[1]

Model	Image	Intro.	Meter	Shutter (sec)	Size (W×H×D)[a]	Weight[a]	Notes
F		1960	In-body selenium cell, coupled	B+1–1⁄2000, 1⁄125 sync	150.5×105.5×91 mm (5.9×4.2×3.6 in)	1,100 g (39 oz)	[2][4]: 4–5
FS		1962	None	B+1–1⁄1000, 1⁄125 sync	145×102.5×80 mm (5.7×4.0×3.1 in)	940 g (33 oz)	[5][6]: 4–5
FSW		1962	None	B+1–1⁄1000, 1⁄125 sync	?	?	FS with data back
FP		1963	None	B+1–1⁄1000, 1⁄125 sync	145×102.5×85.5 mm (5.7×4.0×3.4 in)	1,050 g (37 oz)	Also sold as Revue SR (Europe) and SLR700 (Montgomery Ward)[7][8]: 6–7
FM		1965	In-body CdS, uncoupled	B+1–1⁄1000, 1⁄125 sync	145×102.5×85.5 mm (5.7×4.0×3.4 in)	1,097 g (38.7 oz)	[9][10]: 58–65

Notes

There were four lenses branded Hexanon offered along with the F:

• The normal lens was a 52 mm f/1.4 double Gauss with a 49 mm filter thread (a similar lens was offered later with a 55 mm thread).
• A retrofocus wide-angle, 35 mm f/2.0,
• Telephoto 85 mm f/1.8 and 135 mm f/2.8 lenses were also offered.^[14]

Lenses for the Konica F are known as Konica F-mount (aka "Mount I" or "Old Bayonet", not to be confused with the Nikon F-mount), distinguishing them from the mechanically incompatible Konica AR-mount (aka "Mount II" or "New Bayonet") introduced in 1965 with the Konica Autoreflex line. Within the F-mount, there were two sub-versions, one which coupled to the built-in meter of the Konica F, and another, which were not coupled, as the FS, FSW, FP, and FM successors to the F did not have a coupled light meter.

The 35, 52 and 85 mm all had a linkage that juts out from the side of the lens which inter-connects with a lever on the front of the camera to register the lens' aperture setting with the camera's metering system. Because of this linkage interface, lenses sold with later Konica early mount cameras are not easily fitted onto the F, and vice versa, although they all share the same bayonet mount. In 1965, Konica introduced the Auto-Reflex line of cameras and lenses, which do not share the same bayonet mount as the F and its immediate successors, up to 1964's FM model.^[1]

The 135 mm Hexanon for the F uses a manual aperture, but the other lenses featured a "fully automatic" aperture, which means the aperture diaphragm is held fully open when mounted on the camera body except when exposing the film. Because the diaphragm is open during focusing, this makes the viewfinder brighter and renders a shallow depth of field, both of which help with focusing. Once the shutter release button is pressed, the reflex mirror cycles up out of the light path and the aperture is allowed to snap down to the pre-selected setting, then the shutter opens to expose the film. Further, after the exposure is completed and the shutter closes, the aperture re-opens automatically and the mirror cycles back down.^{[4]: 23, 35} Almost all of the later F-mount lenses aside from the longer telephoto lenses (focal length ≥ 200 mm) were available with automatic diaphragms.

Konica Hexanon F-mount lenses^{[14][15][16][17][18]}

FL (mm)	Ap.	Coupled	Uncoupled	Angle	Ele / Grp	Min. focus	Filt (mm)	Wgt	Dia × Len	Notes
Wide angle lenses
35	f/2–16	Yes	Yes	63°	8/7	0.3 m (12 in)	72	360 g (13 oz)	?×57 mm (2.2 in)
	f/2.8–16	Yes	Yes		6/5	0.3 m (12 in)	55	240 g (8.5 oz)	?×57 mm (2.2 in)	Preset diaphragm version available (uncoupled)
Normal lenses
50	f/2–16	No	Yes	46°	6/5	0.6 m (24 in)	55	185 g (6.5 oz)	?	[6]: 4–5
52	f/1.4–16	Yes	Yes	45°	7/5	0.6 m (24 in)	55 (49)	290 g (10 oz)	?×41 mm (1.6 in)	[10]: 13, 58
	f/1.8–16	No	Yes		6/5	0.6 m (24 in)	55	185 g (6.5 oz)	?×36 mm (1.4 in)
Telephoto lenses
85	f/1.8–16	Yes	Yes	28.5°	6/5	1 m (39 in)	55	400 g (14 oz)	?×67 mm (2.6 in)
100	f/2.8–22	No	Yes	24°	5/4	1 m (39 in)	55	350 g (12 oz)	?×65 mm (2.6 in)	Preset diaphragm version available (uncoupled)
135	f/2.8–22	Yes	Yes	18°	5/5	1.5 m (4.9 ft)	55	445 g (15.7 oz)	?	Manual diaphragm
	f/3.5–22	No	Yes		4/4	1.5 m (4.9 ft)	55	395–425 g (13.9–15.0 oz)	?×92 mm (3.6 in)	Preset and automatic diaphragm versions available
200	f/3.5–22	No	Yes	12°	5/5	2.5 m (8.2 ft)	67	855 g (30.2 oz)	?×156 mm (6.1 in)	Preset diaphragm
400	f/4.5–32	No	Yes	6°	4/4	8 m (26 ft)	55 rear	2.4 kg (5.3 lb)	?×353 mm (13.9 in)	Preset diaphragm
800	f/8–45	No	Yes	3°	2/1	20 m (66 ft)	55 rear	5.6 kg (12 lb)	?×775 mm (30.5 in)	Preset diaphragm

• "Konica F 35mm SLR". Popular Photography. September 1960. p. 116.