Konica
History. The company traces its history back to 1873 (pre-dating Kodak in the photography business) when pharmacist Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling photographic materials at his shop in Konishiya Rokubē, the biggest pharmacy trader in Tokyo at that time. In 1878, Rokusaburō succeeded to his family and renamed Rokuemon VI (Rokudaime Rokuemon). He gave the original shop to his younger brother and launched a new shop, Konishi Honten (Konishi Main Shop) in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo. In 1882, Konishi launched a project to produce photography related materials in Japan: those products were imported at that time. In 1902 , Konishi began to sell the "Cherry Portable Camera" (チェリー手提用暗函), the first Japanese produced end-user oriented camera. New products were released respectively, and Konishi Main Shop became the leading camera company in Japan. In 1921, old Konishi had his elder son succeed to the family and thus company head with the name, and in this occasion Konishi Honten was turned into a company Konishiroku Honten. The name Konishiroku was taken from the abbreviation of their names, "Konishi Roku"emon. Konishiroku released their "Konica I" type camera in 1948, after which they would name their own company in 1987. Since 1949 Konica  produced a Medium format-camera "Pearl". From 1964 until 1975 Konica manufactured Medium format Omega-cameras , which used Konica's Hexanon-lenses; they were named "Koni-Omega" for the global market. Two models were named "Konica Press" for the Japanese market. Konica's single lens reflex cameras pioneered auto-exposure in cameras with focal-plane shutters and fully interchangeable lenses. The Konica Autoreflex of 1965 used an external light meter cell to set the lens diaphragm automatically after the user selected a shutter speed. With the Autoreflex T of 1968, Konica improved this design into a through-the-lens meter , using the same automation system. (The user could also set the exposure manually on these cameras). Other camera makers eventually adopted auto-exposure as well, but Konica was the first. When Konishiroku got the new name Konica in 1987, the company employed about 4,935 people. In the 1990s Konica signed its first major contract with Los Angeles County providing leasing of copiers to the Los Angeles Superior Court. This resulted in a major shift in the industry that had sold only copiers before. The County initial order of 250 copiers required Konica to redirect all of it inventory throughout North  America to the County. On 5 August 2003, Konica merged with Minolta to form Konica Minolta. In 2006, Konica Minolta exited the photography business. In March 2006, the merged company closed down its photo imaging division, which produced color film, color paper, photo chemicals and digital minilab machines. Its digital SLR camera section was transferred to Sony, which currently known as the Sony Alpha line. Dai Nippon (DNP) purchased Konica's Odawara factory site and continues to produce paper under its own brand, while Seapac acquired the Konica chemical factory. Film. Konica was a major producer of 35mm film  and related products, including film development processors and printing technology. While never equal to giants like Kodak or Fujifilm, the recognized quality of Konica film ensured general presence on market. Originally Konica film and paper was sold under the brand name of "Sakura" meaning Cherry Blossom in English. In the mid 1980s, Konica launched its SR range of film, then SR-V (1987), SR-G (1989), Super SR (1991), Super XG (1993), VX and finally "Centuria" in 1999. Cameras. F-mount SLRs. The first series of Konica single-lens reflex cameras used the Konica F lens mount, named after the  first camera to use it. This was a bayonet mount, and is not compatible with later Konica lens mounts. The flange focal distance of the F-mount was 40.5 mm, one of the smallest ever used for a 35 mm SLR. The diameter was 40 mm. It is not identical to Nikon F-mount, which has a much longer flange focal distance of 46.5 mm. AR-mount SLRs. Konica's second series of SLR cameras began with 1965's Auto-Reflex. This line came to an end in 1987 when Konica abandoned the SLR market. Konica's AR lens mount  kept the same flange-film distance that the earlier Konica F lens mount had (40.5 mm), but it has a larger diameter of 47 mm. Lenses. Konica SLR interchangeable lenses were named Hexanon. The optical quality of most Hexanon lenses is regarded as truly superb, particularly the older fixed-focal length (prime) lenses. Many camera manufacturers of interchangeable lenses produce a few great lenses among their line, but Konica managed to achieve near excellent quality over a broad range of focal lengths in lens tests conducted by several photographic publications over the years. Hexanon lenses were used by the Japanese  government as the standard against which all other lenses were measured.