Konica Konilette (early 1950s)
Not much is documented about the Konica Konilette, and what survives conflicts. It appears to have been a folding bellows camera made by Konishiroku (later Konica) in Japan during the early 1950s. One Catawiki listing calls it “a rare and elegant Konilette folding camera.” The body is a mix of metal and Bakelite, and it was sold with a Konitor lens. Past that, the record gets murky.
The biggest conflict is the film format. A Catawiki listing specifies 120 roll film producing 6×4.5 cm frames. Other sources call it a 35mm camera, and at least one says it “shoots non-perforated 35mm film.” The lens is disputed too. Some listings cite a Konitor 75mm f/4.5, others a Konitor 50mm f/4.5. The shutter is described as a leaf type with speeds from 1 second to 1/200 plus bulb. A Flickr user described the camera as having “no rangefinder, limited shutter speeds, slow f/3.5 lens,” which adds a third aperture value to the pile, and still granted it “a brutish charm.”
Since the sources disagree on the essentials, the honest position is that this is a poorly documented folder from Konica’s early postwar period. One surviving example, listed at arsenal-photo.com with serial number 140369, was priced at €179 and is currently sold out. No production years beyond “early 1950s,” no original price, no dimensions and no total production figures have surfaced.
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