Konica Instant Press (1983–1984)
The Konica Instant Press is a fully manual Polaroid pack-film camera, made by a major Japanese manufacturer a full decade after the Polaroid 195 made the format famous. Konica positioned it as a professional tool for proofing and real-estate work. It was sold in Japan starting in 1983, with international availability following in 1984. Production lasted only those two years, and it has been fairly rare on the used market ever since. Patient eBay and Craigslist hunting will turn one up every so often.
It's a folding camera with bellows that collapse into the body for storage. It takes all Type 100 pack films, but not Type 80 - the camera lacks the notches those packs need. The lens is a 110mm Hexanon with an aperture slider that runs from f/4 to f/64. The slider doesn't click into detents, so you can use intermediate settings if you like. Shutter speeds span 1 to 1/500, plus B and a genuine T setting, which holds the shutter open until you press the button again. Neither the manual Polaroids nor the Fuji FP-1 offered that. The shutter is cocked above the lens and fired from a button on the cover. That button also accepts standard cables and timers, a nice upgrade over the Polaroid's proprietary cable setup. Focus is handled by a knob on the side, which one owner describes as "extremely sensitive and accurate," and the camera gets as close as 0.6 meters. The Polaroid manuals manage 1.2 meters and the FP-1 manages 0.8. The viewfinder is large and bright, with moving guidelines that shift with focus distance to show the actual image area. You focus by bringing two images together in a center circle. The lens takes 49mm filters and hoods, there's a flash mount, and a tripod socket sits on the bottom. The one weak point appears to be the bellows, which are thinner than those on the Polaroid 180/190/195 and prone to developing light leaks along the folds.
Image quality, per the same owner, is excellent - sharper than most other instant cameras they've used, and comparable to the Mamiya 600SE, likely thanks to the Hexanon glass and the precise focusing. Collector prices have held between $700 and over $1,000 since the mid-1990s when a unit surfaces. A community of tinkerers has since adapted the camera for Lomograflok and 4×5 film backs. Free PDF manuals are available online if you track one down.
- Lens: 110mm Hexanon, 49mm filter thread
- Aperture: f/4–f/64, continuous slider
- Shutter: 1–1/500, B, T
- Focus: 0.6m to infinity, side knob
- Film: Polaroid Type 100 pack film
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