Konica Auto S Date1966

History

The Auto S Date emerged mid-decade as Konica expanded the Auto S line with specialized variants alongside the mainstream Auto S2 (1965). The addition of a date back addressed a commercial photography need: documentary evidence with built-in date stamps was useful in insurance, civil engineering, legal, and journalism contexts where handwritten captions could be contested or lost. Konica offered similar date-back options across several models in this era.

The slightly revised Hexanon 47/1.9 specification -- compared to the 48/1.8 of the original Auto S -- likely reflects a lens revision made during the mid-series production period, though both remain closely comparable optically. The model was produced in small numbers relative to the mainstream S2 and does not appear to have had a direct successored variant; the Auto SE and Auto S2 absorbed the upper end of the line.

Why It Matters

The Auto S Date is a niche piece within the already-specialized Auto S collector series. Its selenium meter, like the original Auto S, makes it fully functional without any battery or adapter, which is increasingly significant as finding period-correct PX625 equivalents requires additional effort with CdS-metered bodies. The date-back mechanism is its defining feature and primary differentiation from the standard Auto S, adding documentation utility that was genuinely novel for the period.

For collectors, it fills the gap between the original Auto S (1963) and the feature-upgraded Auto S2 (1965, CdS, shutter-priority AE), representing an intermediate variant with a unique feature set. Rarer than either flanking model.

Lenses & Accessories

Fixed Hexanon 47mm f/1.9. No interchangeable lens capability. Standard leaf-shutter flash sync at all speeds accommodates clip-on or cold-shoe mounted flash units. Date-back mechanism uses no separate battery in typical implementations of this era; winding advances the date display mechanically.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Primarily of interest to Konica Auto S series collectors and users who specifically need battery-free selenium metering.
• The date-back feature makes it historically relevant to the professional documentary photography and site-survey markets of the mid-1960s.
• Less documented in film-community online resources than the S2 or S3.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Konica Auto S - covers the Auto S lineage including variants