Skip to main content

Konica Autoreflex T2

This is a quick review of the Konica Autoreflex T (my variant is the T2). This is a thrift shop find - i paid a bit more than i usually am willing to pay but it looked in so good condition so i ended up buying it.

There are four variations of this camera, all of them look pretty much the same but they are updates of the original T which went out in 1967, one offering hot shoe, the other multiple exposures, the last one having a split microprism etc. The T2 reviewed here is virtually an T with a shutter lock and a redesigned shutter button. Now, don't confuse the T-line with the A-line which is the more economical line with certain features being removed. There is also the original Auto Reflex (two words) which is the firs AE SLR camera and a very different beast altogether - offers also half frame. After the final incarnation, the T3N came the TC-line and others that are very different cameras.

First impressions are mighty good - this is a very heavy camera, very substantially made. Fit and finish is superb, if it was saying "LEICA" on the prism, i would have easily believed it. Winding on the shutter is super smooth - pressing the shutter the camera makes a noise of an artillery cannot - definitely not a discrete camera to lug around. One thing i didn't like is the long distance the button has to travel to take the picture - there is also friction from the spring (that probably needs replacing) and engages the aperture on the lens.
The Konica compared to the Olympus OM-1
Viewfinder is nice, not very bright and no split microprism (the updated T3 offers it) but it shows aperture on the right and the selected shutter on the bottom of the frame.Once you turn the lens aperture to "AE", the camera goes into shutter priority mode, the needle in the viewfinder shows the selected aperture. The light meter is designed to work with the old mercury button cell that is long discontinued so you need to adjust the ISO scale to get the correct exposure with newer batteries. Actually, adjusting the ISO is not ideal, it works well in good light, the brighter or dimmer the scene there is an exposure error depending on the light levels.
Konica's Viewfinder
 Two things to watch out for: First of all battery leaks, this can cause the battery contacts of the cables to corrode and break - no easy way around that - an experienced technician needs to take it apart and this is not an easy task on these cameras - it requires a full disassembly.
Another thing to watch out for is the dreaded 'shutter pre-firing'. Some of these cameras fire the shutter at the end of the cocking cycle - unfortunately my camera suffers from it. From a 36 roll i ended up getting only 29 pictures - the rest were destroyed by it. So unfortunately i ended up returning the camera. The pictures that came out well we beautifully, the Hexanon lenses are beautiful.
Hexanon lenses are really nice pieces of glass
Conclusion:
Fantastic cameras if you find one working well. Due to their age they will need a service but as you can expect spare parts are getting scarce nowadays. Konica lenses are beautiful and relatively cheap. If you find one in good working order, get it, they are beautiful. Watch out for the dreaded shutter pre-firing, expensive to repair and erratic enough to miss it when checking a camera - make sure you buy them with some sort of warranty.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nikon N90s (F90x)

This is a review of the Nikon N90s which is the same as the Nikon F90X in Europe. I came across this camera while I was browsing on that big auction site for a Nikon lens for the F4s. An online retailer was selling it for £23 including postage so I thought it would be silly to ignore it. The camera is in mint condition except from a small depression on the prism that has created a scratch. Everything else is shining new! Without going into too much details about the history of this model, the early 90's where still quite difficult for the AF Nikons as they where not the fastest systems around although they were offering backward compatibility with older lenses. In 1992, Nikon released the plain F90 which was an improvement over the older F-801s but still it wasn't a match for the Canons or Minoltas of that era. The F90x came in 1995 and placed Nikon back on the AF SLR map. It was the first Nikon with an AF module which was just as good - and at times better ...
2 comments
Read more

Nikon F801s

The venerable Nikon F801s  This is a review of the Nikon F801s and it's progenitor, the F801. I've been using the F801s for a few months now and I own a plain F801 since 2017. As it is usually the case, it was an impulsive buy, it was for £0.99 with no bids online and I decided that I wanted to compare it with the old trusty F801. * Background information and history. Nikon joined the AF race quite early on in 1986 - Minolta's surprising announcement of the Dynax 7000/9000 the year before forced Nikon to release a modified version of the F301 with an AF module - the F501AF. Canon joined a year later with the first EOS camera (EOS 650) featuring a new lens mount with no backwards compatibility. Nikon's F501 used a very basic AF module with 96 CCDs  - this was eventually replaced by the "legendary" (the emphasis is mine) AM200 module (an array of 20 by 10 CCDs) which found its way in all AF Nikons - from F401 to the F4 and even the third generation ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pentax MZ-50

Cute... This was an impulsive buy - found it for £5 and thought i could have it. It came with 2 CR-2 batteries and initial testing at the shop showed that it worked well. Anyway, the batteries alone cost more than £5. I am not sure how did Pentax experienced the 1990's. Pentax was big in the swinging and dancing 60's with the Spotmatic, did very well in the 70s with the MX and it was the LX that dominated Pentax's pro-line in the 80s. But in the 90s Pentax did not come up with any pro camera and did not introduce any exotic lenses either. The different iterations of the Z-1 were good cameras but in the same league such as the Nikon F90 or Canon EOS5. If you scroll down my blog you will find a review of the Z1 - a very good camera which I sold due to the complicated user interface.  I have to say that the photographic press was pleasantly surprised by the Z-20. I don't see a lot of them coming up online and some of the reviews I read describe it as functiona...
Post a Comment
Read more