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Konica Auto-S

Another charity shop find that cost me as little as £5, proves the point that if I am such a lucky guy when it comes to how to spend my lunch money!

By the late 50's, the rangefinder design was delivering the goods to all major camera manufacturers. It was easy and simple to implement, the know-how was around for almost 20 years now and people seemed to love the combination of relatively small size and decent optics. This demand in camera manufacturing gave the all-green for almost all camera manufacturers to produce the upper class, high quality rangefinders with fast, fixed lenses. In April 1959, Nikon released the legendary F which challenged the rangefinder design but it wasn't until the mid-sixtes that the professional photographers were persuaded about the virtues of the SLR design. That fast changing environment gave birth to a series of innovations in camera design and Konishiroku Konica did not sit on their hands. With the Auto-S, Konika produced the first auto-exposure rangefinder camera with a CdS meter.
Taken at f/ 2.8
In the heart of the camera lies a nicely yellow coated Konishiroku Hexanon 47 f/1.9 lens, five elements in five groups. You can find a nice surpise actually in lens - a nice integrated lens hood that extends in order to shield the lens from side light. I don't know how effective that really is but i suppose it is better than nothing. The viewfinder is nicely blue tinted with bright frame lines that move in order to adjust for paralax error. The shutter speeds range from 1sec to 1/500. This is a very good quality rangefinder, no doubt about it, everything made of steel and glass, the tactile sensation and fit and finish is superb.
As a user, this camera has proved to be a very good one. Maybe the only criticism is the relatively long distance that the shutter button has to travel to take the picture but it is something that it is easily getting used to. Also, the size of this camera is quite big, it is bigger and heavier than the Pentax MX and the Minolta XD. But the lens on this camera is first rate, just like any other fast prime lens of that vintage. I like the relatively low contrast and wide open it is very soft and gives a nice dreamy feel (see picture). Past f/5.6 there is no way to notice any difference between this lens and any other standard. Notice the light meter. It has two positions Hi and Lo, you need to remember to switch from one setting to the other according to the light levels otherwise you risk over/under exposure in auto mode. In general, i found the light meter to be accurate enough for negative film.
Taken at f/8
Conclusion
I like this camera a lot. It is beautifully made and the lens is an excellent performer. It was later succeeded by the more sought after Auto -S2 but honestly this is an excellent camera to have.
This camera has fuelled my curiosity for more fixed fast lens rangefinders cameras. Stay tuned, I will be keeping my eyes open for Electros/Hi-Matics/Canonets and see how they compare.

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