Anyone used a KonicaFT1? (evil SLR! )

[Dave Wilkinson]

It's done now! - and on the way, in the mail, in a moment of silliness and gas, I bought a Konica FT1 shutter priority evil slr for a very reasonable price, not often seen ( I never handled one ) - I wonder what the opinion is on this camera, and it's 40mm pancake lens?.....any users out there?
Dave.

 

[sooner]

Dave, I'm a huge Konica fan. The FT-1 is supposed to be the best late-model Konica, with motor drive. It's heavy and very nice to use. I mostly use the FC-1 these days because my FT-1 has a funky light meter. The 40mm pancake lens is a joy to use, also, small, easy to focus, very fast, and very sharp. The hexanon lenses for these cameras were awesome--I have most of them--and are very reasonably priced, except for a couple of the very best, like the 28mm UC. The 15mm fisheye is incredible. Have fun.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

Dave, I'm a huge Konica fan. The FT-1 is supposed to be the best late-model Konica, with motor drive. It's heavy and very nice to use. I mostly use the FC-1 these days because my FT-1 has a funky light meter. The 40mm pancake lens is a joy to use, also, small, easy to focus, very fast, and very sharp. The hexanon lenses for these cameras were awesome--I have most of them--and are very reasonably priced, except for a couple of the very best, like the 28mm UC. The 15mm fisheye is incredible. Have fun.

Thanks for that! - very encouraging....forgot to ask if the lens mount is the same as Minolta?
Dave.

 

[pesphoto]

Funny...I was just given an FT1 by my sisters boyfriend last weekend. It was his mothers and its been sitting in his closet since she passsed away so he gave her whole Konica Kit to me. HAvent been able to play with it too much yet, but hope to this weekend. I think the meter might be dead, but the motor drive is working. We'll see, but they are cool cameras. The kit came with some lenses as well. She liked telephotos apparantely.

 

[chambrenoire]

I bought one off the Swedish "eBay" Tradera, with a Sigma 18mm f/2.8, Hexanon 40mm f/1.8 and a Hexanon 135mm f/3.5. Only used the 18mm, which is pretty cool. Not too sharp till f/5.6 or so, but the camera is nice, I have to say. The built in motor is very handy.

 

[pesphoto]

Here are the cameras just given to me. A bit dusty still.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

There does not seem to be many lenses on offer for these cameras, and I read somewhere that the flange-to-film distance is shorter than average, - so adaptors for other makes ( possibly my Nikkors? ) should be a distinct possibillity.........anyone know of any?.
Cheers, Dave.

 

[caperunner]

I have an FS-1 which is similar to an FT-1. First integral motor drive cams on the market apparently. My example of the FS-1 seems to have slight metering problems- tends towards overexposure when on auto.
The Hexanon lenses are great. 35/2.8, 40/1.8, 50/1.7 55/1.4
A few third party lenses were available. Sun, Makinon, and a couple of others I can't remember at present are in my collection. Hexar 135 not as good as Hexanon counterpart. A web site: http://www.buhla.de/
for a comprehensive lens and camera history/review of most of the
models.
Someone has said that the Japanese Ministry of the Interior used Hexanon lenses as benchmarks for the others (presume Nikkor, Canon, etc)

 

[hans voralberg]

Konica is the oldest manufacturer in Japan, so their lens are stuff of legends, but why does the Ministry of Interior benchmarking lens is beyond me lol.

And about a year ago there was alot of Konica lens on the bay, so be patient, or try KEH obviously 😉

 

[Michael I.]

It's done now! - and on the way, in the mail, in a moment of silliness and gas, I bought a Konica FT1 shutter priority evil slr for a very reasonable price, not often seen ( I never handled one ) - I wonder what the opinion is on this camera, and it's 40mm pancake lens?.....any users out there?
Dave.

I use a half dead autoreflex A so I cant say anything pro or con regarding konica bodies, but the 40/1.8 lens is superb, on par with nikkors

 

[shadowfox]

It's done now! - and on the way, in the mail, in a moment of silliness and gas, I bought a Konica FT1 shutter priority evil slr for a very reasonable price, not often seen ( I never handled one ) - I wonder what the opinion is on this camera, and it's 40mm pancake lens?.....any users out there?
Dave.

Dave, you're in for a treat. But before you rejoice, make sure that the camera's battery compartment (also doubles as the grip) is clean and working. That's the weak point of all FT-1.

Once you got past that, you have an excellent SLR with a clear and bright viewfinder, good meter, and the Hexanon AR lenses to choose from 🙂

NOTE: That cable is the proprietary remote shutter-release cable.

As for the lenses, 40/1.8 is a good start, but you'll want to get the 50/1.4 if you like sharp lenses, and the UC 80-200/4 if you like bokeh. Because I'm addicted to 35mm focal length, my main lens is the 35/2.

Oh, and you're welcome to this flickr set to see what the Konica AR system can deliver 🙂

Enjoy!

 

[pesphoto]

I have been playing around with the FS-1 in my pic below. I really like how it functions and feels. IM now hunting around for a 50mm 1.4 Hexanon myself. I can't believe the low prices of these on ebay.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

Will, thanks for that - It will be here in the morning, and I'm assured that it is pristine! ( a black one ). I ordered it with a view to my wife using it, as she's not too clever about apertures and shutters!, but sick of holding her digicam at arms length, and squinting into the sunlight, trying to compose her masterpieces 😀, but from some of the replies here, it might just find a home in my bag! 🙂. BTW I'm watching a 50mm f1.4 on the UK 'bay, got a day or two to go, - and was there a fast 80mm available? - ( one of my favourites )
Cheers, Dave.

 

[pesphoto]

my 40mm 1.8 arrived today and I just got back for a walk in the neighborhood to try it out on the FS-1. What a nice compact lens, really like the 40mm for whatever reason. Going to the darkroom to develop now and I'll post pics later on(hopefully).

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

The FT1 arrived, and yesterday I quickly shot a roll of Fuji 400 print film on anything and everything!, just to see if everything worked o.k., and get the feel of this nice little camera. A few people have praised the Hexanon lenses here, and so far I'm in total agreement, - they are SHARP!, even though this first roll was cheap print, and 400ISO, I look forward to seeing the results from a slow mono film!.
Dave.

 

[pesphoto]

The FT1 arrived, and yesterday I quickly shot a roll of Fuji 400 print film on anything and everything!, just to see if everything worked o.k., and get the feel of this nice little camera. A few people have praised the Hexanon lenses here, and so far I'm in total agreement, - they are SHARP!, even though this first roll was cheap print, and 400ISO, I look forward to seeing the results from a slow mono film!.
Dave.

Very nice DAve, my negs are drying now and they look pretty promising! Only issue is the about every 6 frames the FS-1 overlapped 2 frames. So I basically lost 6 frames on a roll of 36exp. BUt the AE worked perfectly so I got 36 different images on my roll, no bracketing.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

Very nice DAve, my negs are drying now and they look pretty promising! Only issue is the about every 6 frames the FS-1 overlapped 2 frames. So I basically lost 6 frames on a roll of 36exp. BUt the AE worked perfectly so I got 36 different images on my roll, no bracketing.

I found the shutter priority AE accurate, and a pleasing change to just focus and use like a P&S, this was the 50mm f1.8, I have yet to sample the 40mm. - waiting for some good light! just getting dull grey days at the moment!
Dave.

 

[ampguy]

I have a Konica mount 3rd party Zoom, made in Japan under the Quantaray label. If you're interested, I'd be pleased to place it in the classifieds here. I think I paid $40 for it thinking it was Pentax K mount, which it wasn't.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

I have a Konica mount 3rd party Zoom, made in Japan under the Quantaray label. If you're interested, I'd be pleased to place it in the classifieds here. I think I paid $40 for it thinking it was Pentax K mount, which it wasn't.

Thanks for the thought - but I once tried a zoom, many years ago - a bit too slow and bulky for me! but if you have a fast 80 or 85.....🙂
Dave.

 

[pesphoto]

couple pics with the FS-1 and 40mm 1.8 taken yesterday.