14 and 12 researched events on one shared scale. Graflex 1887–present, Konica 1873–present.
The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.
Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling lithographic and photographic tools and materials at Konishiya Rokubeiten in Kojimachi, Tokyo, then established his own Konishi Honten business in Nihonbashi. By 1882 the firm was making lightproof photographic boxes, an early move from importing and retailing into domestic production.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Company Overview
The company expanded practical manufacturing around photography and lithography, building the skills needed to supply a young Japanese photographic culture. That foundation led to the 1903 Sakura Hakkin photographic paper and Cherry Hand Camera, products that joined the light-sensitive material and the picture-making instrument under one house.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Replica of Cherry Portable Camera
William F. Folmer and William E. Schwing began in New York with metalwork, lighting and bicycles, then moved steadily into photographic goods. Their 1890 incorporation and camera offerings of the mid-1890s established the enterprise that would become one of Rochester's defining professional-camera makers.
Folmer & Schwing 1898 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies
Folmer & Schwing's own camera line emerged in the 1890s. The 1898 catalog presents Graphic, Graphic Senior, Cycle Graphic and stereoscopic cameras in several plate formats, alongside a broad lens trade. These compact field cameras supplied the name and practical folding architecture from which later Graphic systems grew.
Folmer & Schwing 1898 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies
William Folmer's reflex-camera work joined through-the-lens viewing to a focal-plane shutter. Kingslake dates the first experimental Graflex to 1898 and describes the decisive 1904 change to a dependable curtain with fixed-width apertures, a pattern that became the mechanical signature of Graflex reflex and Speed Graphic cameras.
A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex 1906 Catalog
The Cherry Hand Camera appeared in 1903 as a branded, mass-produced Japanese camera for amateur use, while Sakura paper anchored the materials side. Konishi Honten broadened the camera range during the following decades, founded a professional photography school in 1923, and introduced Sakura Film for general photography in 1929.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Replica of Cherry Portable Camera
George Eastman purchased Folmer & Schwing in 1905 and moved the operation to Rochester. The organization became a Kodak division and later the Folmer-Century operation, bringing Century's view and Cirkut panoramic lines into the same professional-camera shop while William Folmer remained general manager through 1926.
A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1920 Catalog
Auto, Revolving Back, Press, Naturalist, Series B, Series C, Series D and Home Portrait cameras turned the large-format reflex idea into a broad working system. Formats ranged from compact roll-film sizes to 5 x 7, with the mirror and hood giving photographers an upright, full-size image for focusing before exposure.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1920 Catalog · Graflex 1906 Catalog
The Speed Graphic placed Graflex's curtain shutter in a folding, direct-view camera. Top-handle, larger-board, Pre-Anniversary and Anniversary generations expanded lens choice and refined focusing and handling. By the 1930s and 1940s the camera had become closely identified with American news and military photography.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Graflex Graphic Model History · Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Press Camera · Graflex 1920 Catalog
The Konishi Professional School of Photography linked the company to photographic education, while Sakura Film brought in-house sensitized-material production to general photographers. The business reorganized as a joint-stock company in 1936 and announced Sakura Natural Color Film in 1940, the first Japanese-made color film in the company's chronology.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera
A court-directed divestiture separated Kodak's professional-camera operation. The Folmer Graflex Corporation took over the assets and continued in Rochester, carrying forward Graflex, Graphic, Cirkut and studio equipment through the Depression and wartime production before the corporate name became Graflex, Inc. in the mid-1940s.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1927 Catalog
As Konishiroku became an incorporated photographic manufacturer, its prewar Pearl folding cameras shared the range with sensitized materials and optical work. During the war the company developed and produced military aerial cameras. Civilian production resumed afterward, and the Konica I brought the Konica name to a 35mm camera by 1948.
History: 1873-1959 Cameras and Film—The Beginnings / Steps to a Global Company · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Konishiroku Konica I Cs
The wooden Crown View was followed by the metal Graphic View and longer-rail Graphic View II. These cameras put generous rise, shift, swing and tilt into studio and location tools, sharing selected boards or adapters with Graphic cameras and giving architectural and industrial photographers a distinctly modern American view-camera option.
Graflex 1939 Product Catalog · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1958 Price List
Anniversary and military Graphics, the Combat Graphic, Super D and postwar Pacemaker series carried the company through wartime and into a changed press market. Institutions and working photographers valued robust construction, interchangeable holders and the ability to combine rangefinder, scale and ground-glass focusing on one body.
Gottlieb's Life and Work · Graflex 1941 Catalog · Graflex 1958 Price List · Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 Press Camera
Pacemaker Speed and Crown Graphics standardized the postwar folding platform, while the Century Graphic adapted its ideas to 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. Super Graphic and Super Speed Graphic added a revolving Graflok back, built-in rangefinding and electrical shutter features, carrying large-format versatility to the end of production.
Graflex Graphic Model History · Major Graflex Products · Graflex 1958 Price List · Graflex 1968 Product Catalog
The fixed-lens Konica I established a durable camera brand within Konishiroku, alongside Pearl folding cameras and other popular formats. Hexar and Hexanon names became closely associated with the firm's lenses. In 1960 the ambitious Konica F carried the company into interchangeable-lens 35mm SLRs with a fast metal focal-plane shutter.
Konica F, record 103310371208 · Optical Products · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Konishiroku Konica I Cs
Graflex acquired the Ciro camera line and sold Ciro-flex, Graflex 22, Graphic 35, Century 35, Stereo Graphic and Graphic 70 cameras. These 120, 35mm stereo and 70mm products widened the badge beyond Rochester's traditional reflex and press cameras, though several compact lines depended on acquired or imported manufacture.
General Precision Equipment acquired Graflex in 1956, and the company moved to a new Monroe Avenue plant near Pittsford in 1957. The catalog still centered on professional Graphic cameras, film holders and lighting, while product development reached toward lighter Super models and new medium-format systems.
Graflex 1958 Price List · A History of Rochester Camera and Lens Companies · Graflex Corporate History · Graflex 1968 Product Catalog
The Konica F introduced a large lens interface and a vertically travelling metal shutter capable of one two-thousandth of a second, but it was expensive and short-lived. Konishiroku kept developing the idea through later reflex cameras, reaching the Auto-Reflex and then the Autoreflex T, whose open-aperture TTL metering worked with automatic Hexanon lenses.
Konica F, record 103310371208 · Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Konica Autoreflex T Instruction Manual
The XL replaced the folding bed with a modular medium-format body, dedicated focusing barrels and interchangeable roll, sheet and instant-film backs. Rangefinder, Standard and thin Super Wide Angle bodies accepted lenses from Zeiss, Schneider and Rodenstock, making the last Graflex camera system unlike its press-camera ancestors.
The Auto-Reflex combined a focal-plane shutter, interchangeable lenses and shutter-priority automatic exposure, and could switch between full and half frame. The Autoreflex T moved metering through the lens. Successive AR-mount bodies and Hexanon lenses carried that practical automation into the 1980s before Konica's SLR line wound down.
Systematic Survey on 35 mm High End Camera · Konica Autoreflex T Instruction Manual
Singer's ownership carried Graflex cameras into the early 1970s, but camera manufacture ended in 1973 and tooling was sold to Toyo. The original manufacturing company did not continue as a camera maker; surviving cameras, manuals and the specialist community now carry the name's practical and historical continuity.
The C35EF put a pop-up electronic flash into a compact 35mm camera, with Japanese museum records dating its release to December 1974 and the corporate chronology presenting it as a 1975 milestone. In November 1977 the C35AF added passive triangulation autofocus, turning two frequent causes of failed snapshots into camera-managed tasks.
Konica C35AF, record 103310371356 · Konica C35EF, record 103310371333 · History: 1960-1979 Innovative World Firsts / Rapid Growth of Copier Business
Konica translated camera-lens experience into ultra-precise aspheric plastic optics for compact-disc pickups while continuing photographic work. The Hexar and HEXAR RF kept high-grade 35mm cameras in view, digital Revio models addressed the new market, and camera OEM production grew even as optical components became strategically important.
Annual Report 2001 · History: 1980-2002 Digital Age Impact and New Business Challenges · Optical Products
Konishiroku Photo Industry changed its name to Konica Corporation in 1987 and brought the company's products under the Konica brand. Cameras and films remained visible, but copiers, medical imaging, digital systems and optical components grew in weight. A business-technology partnership with Minolta prepared the ground for their 2003 integration.
Annual Report 2001 · History: 2003 onward — Konica and Minolta Integration · History: 1980-2002 Digital Age Impact and New Business Challenges
Konica and Minolta integrated management in 2003. Konica Minolta withdrew from cameras in March 2006, transferred part of the digital-SLR assets to Sony, ended film and paper production on a staged schedule, and completed photo-sales withdrawal in 2007. The current successor remains an imaging and optics company, but not an own-brand camera maker.
Konica Minolta, Withdrawal Plan for Camera Business and Photo Business · History: 2003 onward — Konica and Minolta Integration · Optical Products · Company Overview
