Konica Sakura 35mm Film Commercial (Hong Kong, 1986)
Originally posted on our Instagram @thirdculture
We are big fans of Konica at Third Culture and even bigger fans of this questionable Konica advertising jingle sung by Hong Kong Canto-pop icon & actor, Leslie Cheung (RIP Legend).
Did you know Konica actually pre-dates Kodak in the photography business, starting in 1873? Konica have always been a very innovative company: releasing one of the first all Japanese produced 'compact cameras' (Cherry Portable Camera) in 1902, pioneering the creation of auto-exposure in cameras with focal-plane shutters in the 60's, developed countless cult favourite film cameras such as the tiny half frame 'Konica Recorder', 80's on-trend aesthetic 'Konica Tomato', voice-activated 'Konica Kanpai', compact legendary 'Konica Big Mini' series and my own daily camera the (super underrated) Konica Hexar RF.
Konica's own 'Hexanon' lenses were that highly regarded (but still underrated commercially!) in terms of optical quality that they were used by the Japanese Government as the standard against which all other lenses were measured. ALL other lenses. Yup..even against Nikon & Canon giants.
They also were a major player producer of 35mm film, originally sold under the name 'Sakura' (seen at the start of the video) but changed the name worldwide in 1987 to fall under 'Konica'.
Konica was the genuine, fun brand that did their own thing, never followed trends and kept it real. They were once the greatest optical company in Asia and one of the top in the world. All until..digital cameras took off and they got left a bit behind. They eventually called it quits in the photography business in 2003 and merged with (another once glorious company) Minolta and decided to make photocopiers together instead. MF photocopiers, man. Damn shame.
Remember the Konica legacy next time you're thinking of photocopying your ass at work and pay respect to the OG instead. ✊🏽
Comments
0 Comments