Konica FC-1

Konica built the FC-1 in 1980 as the affordable doorway into their AR system, the cheaper sibling to the FS-1, which was notable for its built-in motorized film winder. Konica had been making good glass and solid bodies for decades and had nothing to prove on optics. What they needed was a body that put aperture-priority automation in the hands of someone who could not afford a Nikon FE, and the FC-1 was that body. It ran for three years, then quietly got folded into the rest of the lineup as autofocus swallowed the market.

Pick one up and the first thing you notice is that it feels lighter than it looks. There is plenty of plastic in the top and bottom plates, but the chassis underneath is honest, and the controls fall where your fingers expect. The viewfinder is bright enough, with a split-image rangefinder ringed by a microprism collar, the standard arrangement that lets you focus fast in the center or scan the matte field. Down the side runs a column of LEDs that lights the shutter speed the meter has picked. Center-weighted, silicon-cell metering, and it is genuinely good. The needle-less LED readout was a small luxury at this price in 1980.

The shutter is electronically timed, focal plane, running from a long two seconds out to about 1/1000, with flash sync at 1/100. That electronic timing is also the catch. The FC-1 is fully battery dependent, with no mechanical backup speed to bail you out when the cell dies. Carry a spare. The other quiet weakness is age. The film door foam and the mirror bumper degrade on these, and a body that has not been serviced will leave residue on your negatives and let the mirror land harder than it should.

What it has going for it is the mount. Konica AR glass is some of the most underpriced quality in 35mm. The standard Hexanon 50mm that came on most of these is a quietly excellent lens, and the 40mm f/1.8 pancake is a cult object. You buy the FC-1 to get into that glass cheaply, which is exactly the role Konica designed it for.

Today it sits in the bargain bin of usable auto-exposure SLRs, cross-shopped against the Canon AE-1 and the Minolta X-700 by people who want shutter button, aperture ring, and a meter that works. It loses the name-recognition contest to those two, which is precisely why it is cheaper. For a backlit street scene or a high-contrast frame where the center-weighted meter will guess wrong and blow your shadows, take a quick spot reading with the Zone Light Meter app and place those shadows on the zone you actually want, then dial it in rather than trusting the body's average. Used with a little intent, the FC-1 punches well above its price.