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Konica Autoreflex TC, what to know?


mikeshoup

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So, I just got my hands on an old Konica Autoreflex TC. Came with a Konica

Hexanon 40mm f/1.8 lens, Sigma 28mm f/2.8 and Lentar 135mm f/2.8 lenses. Seems

like a decent setup. A pretty basic camera without any fancy features.

 

What is there to know about these cameras?

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Hi Mike,

 

Konica played an important part as a camera maker in 1967.

They were the first one's to introduce Auto Exposure to the public,when no one even came across the idea.

 

On any of the Autoreflex series of cameras,the first thing that you'll notice the is A or AUTO on the shutter speed dial. This is aperture priority or better known as (AE Mode).

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Mike -

 

The Konica TC was one of the first Shutter Speed Priority (Not Aperture)Priority camera's. The lens has an "AE" setting for shutter speed preferred setting. (You select the shutter speed and the camera selects the aperture) The 40mm f1.8 is a very sharp lens.

 

It was also one of the smallest 35 mm SLR's at the time. It was the first SLR that I ever owned - Thirty years ago. (I still own 2 today) Hexanon Lenses are good quality and can be found on ebay.

 

One of the advantages of the Konica over the other brands at the time was the fact that the Konica was a Mechanical Shutter. Meaning that if you were in the middle of nowhere and the battery died, you could still shoot. You just had to guess at exposure.

 

Limitations of the TC: 1/125 flash sync, Limited Lens selection, non-interchangable viewfinder, Non-interchange back, no center point metering (you had to either memorize the f/stops or remove the camera from you eye, set the f/stop then shoot), and no motor drive.

 

Konica had a whole T series of cameras T, T2, T3, Tc, T4 - The Numbered T or T1 - T4 were considered to be the "Pro" bodies while the TC was more of a consumer body.

 

It was designed to compete with the Pentax K1000 and the Olympus OM series, not against the Nikon F series or the Canon Pro lines.

 

Have fun with it!

 

Dave

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The original mercury type cells are no longer available legally, but Radio Shack has a hearing aid battery that works well as a substitute; type 675. And they are not excessively expensive. About $8.00 for an 8-pack. The voltage is rated about 0.05 higher than the mercury cells, so any variation in exposure metering will be slight.
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I find with the Autoreflex T3 (which uses a pair of batteries as I think the TC does), that hearing aid batteries work perfectly with a 2/3 stop offset. That is, for whatever ISO rating your film is, lower it by two steps of the dial. On mine, you can use the battery check function to double check it. Battery check is done with lens off, ASA 100 and shutter speed at 1/125. Just do a battery check, and then adjust the ASA dial until the needle is in the right position. Do this after the batteries have been in for a few days, because zinc air cells run a little high before they settle in.

 

Nice solid camera, as others have noted, but my T3 is also the noisiest SLR I've ever used. Even noisier, if that is possible, than a Nikon F. Unabashed machinery, closer kin to a locomotive than to a computer.

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The TC was my first SLR ever, about 30 years ago, and I had some other Konica film gear over the years. I liked all of it, especially the T3N, but I used the TC a lot when traveling. With the 40mm lens, it fit nicely into a jacket pocket and went all over Greece with me a few years ago.

 

As a Konica owner, you need to know about Greg Weber. Greg is a long-time Konica expert, does repairs on all their cameras and lenses (including the medium format stuff) and has a vast supply of spare parts. He can convert your TC to meter properly with silver oxide batteries and it doesn't cost much. Greg is honest, capable, and very helpful. He's got a website with lots of detail about Konica; I seem to have misplaced the URL, but Google will get you there.

 

Dave Shombert

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