Konica SII

The Konica SII was introduced by Konishiroku in 1961 and sold mostly in Japan. It was a subtle update of the 1959 S which was the first coupled light meter camera made by Konica. The most obvious difference between the two being the all black lens of the SII where the S was chrome at the front. The S series is not to be confused with the Auto S series; the S series do not provide auto exposure.

The SII uses a selenium cell light meter so does not require a battery but it’s rare to find a meter that still works as the cells lose accuracy or expire completely over time. That said, it’s not meter-dependent so the camera is perfectly usable without a working meter, judging exposures mentally using the simple Sunny 16 system.

The focusing ring grip looks and feels like that of a quality prime SLR lens from the time and is much more solid, reassuring and professional looking than those on later Konica models. As a unit it feels very well put together and is heavier and feels more robust than the Konica Auto S2 for example.

To hold it feels a lot like the Minolta AL of the same year, but there are a few differences to help choose between the two depending on where your priorities lie. Both the SII and AL shoot from f2 to f22, but the fastest shutter speed on the SII is 1/500 while the AL is capable of 1/1000. Over the years Konica established a heritage of market leading viewfinders and the SII has parallax compensation in a very large, bright viewfinder where the AL has a static frame.

As for the lens? It speaks for itself, very sharp with ‘extremely high resolving power’, as would be expected from any Hexanon.