Konica zoom 8 II s

[marc]

Does anyone here have any experience with this R8 camera? If so, what is your opinion of it?

[marc]

Camera is R8 battery operated, has 16, 24, and 48 fps and ASA speeds up to 160,
Some images:

[Tommy]

Konica made quality products.

[cameratech]

I haven't tested that one, and to be honest, it looks like so many other run-of-the-mill fixed-zoom R8 models from the early 60's that I haven't bothered. With R8 cameras I've found you get so much better results with prime lenses. It's worth remembering that properly compensated zooms only arrived in the 50's. Even the best zoom cameras of the R8 era- Canon Zoom 8-3 or Cine 512, Bolex K1 or K2, Zeiss Ikon Moviflex Super, or D-mount cameras fitted with Vario-Switar, Angenieux or Schneider zooms - generally won't perform as well as a good quality camera with decent primes. Even in the professional realm it wasn't until the 90's that zooms approached the optical quality of the best primes.

Having said that, Konica produced some amazingly good optics at that time, and their Hexanon lenses are still highly regarded, so who knows, it might blow your socks off! Let us know how it goes!

[marc]

I certainly don't expect it to perform like my Bolex C 8 with it's prime yvar lenses. What I like about it is the fact that it is one of those R8 cameras that came at time that defined R8'S evolution and hinted at what R8 cameras would have been had they not been replaced by Super 8. You could say that S8 took over where R8 left off. I like it's high level of automation (electric motor) and that it has a 48 fps slow motion rate which was not common for motorized R8 cameras. With the Bolex C8 I also have to use a separate light meter which is a pain to carry around. And unlike a lot of motorized R8 cameras of the same era, the Konica uses a selenium cell meter which means no hassels with light meter batteries. It also has rewind and a wide range of ASA speeds when a lot of R8 cameras only gave you the option ASA speeds up to 40 ASA ( some exceptions of course).