Konica MR.70

Name: Konica MR.70
Brand: Konica

The Konica MR.70 is a compact 35mm point-and-shoot from the mid-1980s. It belongs to the dual-lens compacts, which offered two fixed focal lengths instead of a true zoom. The record on this model is muddled. Sources disagree on nearly everything except that it exists, it's a Konica, and it shoots 35mm film. Some of the confusion likely comes from the variants, the base MR.70 and the later MR.70 LX, which appear to have been conflated in various listings and databases.

The most consistent account is this. The MR.70 LX, released in 1987, has a built-in lens with two focal lengths, 38mm wide and 70mm telephoto. It switches between them instead of zooming continuously. Maximum aperture is f/3.2. Exposure is programmed autoexposure with a CdS cell for center-weighted metering, and there is no manual exposure control. Focus is automatic. It has a built-in flash, electric film drive, and a self-timer. Dimensions are approximately 140 × 79.5 × 59.5mm. It weighs about 450 grams without batteries, or 455 grams for the Auto-Date version, which imprinted the date on the film. filmphotography.eu describes it as a compact, fully automatic camera "built for grab-and-go shooting."

The base MR.70 appears to have arrived earlier, around 1985. Some sources describe it with a fixed 38mm f/2.8 lens rather than the dual-lens system. That may be a real difference between the base model and the LX, or it may be sloppy record-keeping. One source dates the MR-70 to 1982 and claims full manual control, but that page also describes a point-and-shoot as having manual exposure, so the source is unreliable or conflating models. The name is inconsistent across period and modern sources: MR-70, MR.70, MR.70 LX, MR70LX, MR 70 LX all appear. The Kamerastore listing for the MR.70 describes it as a dual-lens 38mm/70mm switch camera and dates it to 1988, which muddies the timeline further.

Konica also made a weather-proof cousin, the MR-640, released in June 1988. It is a separate model, and vintage-analogue.com explicitly distinguishes it from the MR.70 LX.

Surviving examples trade modestly. A tested MR.70LX sold for $108.48, and a parts/repair unit was listed at $19.95. One Catawiki lot noted a unit that beeped on contact but would not power on, with slight haze on the lens. The original retail price is given as around $300 on one source, but that figure comes from the same page with the questionable manual-control claim, so treat it with caution.