Konica seems to have always suffered from financial difficulties and, in consequence, its promotion and marketing campaigns were more modest in scale than that of its main competitors. This was so at the very beginning of the presence of Konica cameras on the American market, at the dawn of the fifties, until the company’s abandonment of the SLR market in 1988. A tight budget was also the main reason why Hexanon lenses – the best aspect of the Konica SLR system – have never been the subject of a sustained promotional campaign.

The gap between Konica advertising campaigns and those of other makers grew less perceptible between 1970 and 1980. At the time, Konica was extremely successful (due in part to the line of Autoreflex cameras, which were much appreciated by consumers) and the major photo monthlies of the seventies had smart colorful Konica ads, often spread out on two pages, in almost every issue.

Konica advertisements not only stressed the technical possibilities offered by the company's cameras, but especially their innovative character. In addition, these advertisements went beyond catchy slogans and explored at some length the technical aspects of the camera. This was especially visible in the days of the first Autoreflex cameras, which were pioneers of automatic exposure, but also with the introduction of the FS-1, the world’s first camera with auto-loading and built-in motor.

The samples of Konica advertisements in this section are arranged in chronological order. Most of them come from photo magazines of the period (the indication M applies to most).

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