Camera Talk

The little Konishiroku Pearl II : a cute little 6x4.5 folder from Konica with a coupled rangefinder.
I was looking for a Pearl III, but most of them on the auction site are in bad shape : especially the leatherette has suffered severely. Then I found a model II in good condition in the local ads. The main difference with the model III is the film advance : the Pearl II has no 'automatic' film advance and instead requires you to look through the red window on the back while cranking the wind key at the bottom. When centering the frame number in the little red window, the frame spacing on the film is perfect.
Last weekend I shot an Ilford HP5 Plus film with the camera and developed it in HC-110 dilution B for 5 minutes. I scanned the film on my Epson Perfection V600 flatbed scanner and I was very impressed with the results of that Hexar 75mm/f3.5 lens.
So here is a picture of the camera and a pair of photos with the little Konica.

I think my first or second folder was a Pearl III, it has light leaks and trying to fix them I destroyed the bellows completely. Someone from the forum took it a a project.
The fee test I did showed a very nice lens, exactly as yours.
Congrats for your new old camera, they are super nice, good catch and nice photos!

Thanks Alex. I really enjoyed shooting with it. It feels well built and it's really compact and heavy. I must get used to a fixed film advance routine though - as I tend to forget if I already wound on for the next shot or not. I often forgot to close the red window shutter too (it's actually a yellow window - perhaps bleached by age?). The Pearl III would do away with the winding routine, thanks to the automatic lock.

Nice results and camera!

I learnt the hard way a routine for using red-window cameras. Wind just before shooting.

Nice find, Benny. The Hexar lens has a solid reputation. Enjoy.

A fine looking camera with good results, too.

PF