Who remembers Konica? This once massive Japanese camera maker produced some truly stunning designs – but where are they now?
John Wade traces the history and importance of a now largely forgotten name, Konica The post Who remembers Konica? This once massive Japanese camera maker produced some truly stunning designs – but where are they now? appeared first on Amateur Photographer .
Konica, a once dominant Japanese camera manufacturer, gained prominence in 1903 when Konishi Honten, a camera importer and copy maker, established the Rokuo-sha factory in Tokyo to produce their own brand of photographic plates and printing paper. The company's first homegrown Japanese camera, the Cherry Hand Camera, debuted in 1903, offering fixed shutter speed, aperture and focus for amateur photographers using 2¼x3¼in glass plates.
In 1921, the company reorganized as Konishiroku and began manufacturing folding cameras before adopting the name Konica in 1948 for their 35mm cameras. Over the decades, Konica produced an array of iconic cameras, including the 1925 Pearlette, the 1934 Baby Pearl, the 1941 Rokuoh-Sha Machine Gun Camera, and the 1948 Konica I.
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