The vision for the Konost Camera came in May 2011 from a group of electrical engineering students at Cornell University. On their days off they enjoyed taking pictures with their modern day rangefinder cameras. They felt that the true experience of photography was not about the list of camera features, but the immersion of ones self in the act of the art. With this in mind the Konost FF camera was born.
Manual Rangefinder Focus, Manual Aperture, Manual Shutter Setting - That's it
Aside from a pinhole camera or something homemade, this camera's features are about as simple as they can get. The Konost Full Frame Digital Rangefinder camera sports nothing but the essentials.
"Using a manual rangefinder camera forces the user to take time to think and compose before taking a shot, instead of clicking away at a hundred different pictures and picking the right one on a computer" - Konost Team
[embed]http://youtu.be/U7xCskVNOZQ[/embed]
Still in Development, Coming Early 2016
Unfortunately if this photography purists gem has already got you pulling out your wallet, you'll have to wait. It's still in development though the aim is for an early 2016 launch. Also there will be 3 standard models available varying by sensor size and a slightly different feature set.
The Konost Camera Specifications
| Konost Development Kit35MM FULL FRAME | Konost FF35MM FULL FRAME | Konost APAPS-C CMOS | Konost Junior1″ CMOS | |
| Body Only | Body Only | Body Only | Body+Fixed Lens | |
| Mid 2015 | In Development Early 2016 | In Development Early 2016 | In Development Late 2015 | |
| Image Sensor | 20.0 million pixels 36mm x 24mm 5120(v) x 3840(h) | 20.0 million pixels 36mm x 24mm 5120(v) x 3840(h) | 12.0 million pixels 24mm x 16mm 4096(v) x 3072(h) | 10.8 million pixels 13.5mm x 9.2mm 4008(v) x 2724(h) |
| Storage | SD memory card SDHC memory card SDXC(UHX-I) memory card | SD memory card SDHC memory card SDXC(UHX-I) memory card | SD memory card SDHC memory card SDXC(UHX-I) memory card | SD memory card SDHC memory card SDXC(UHX-I) memory card |
| File Format | Raw | Raw JPEG Raw+JPEG | Raw JPEG Raw+JPEG | JPEG |
| Body Construction | Aluminum Case | Aluminum Alloy | Aluminum Alloy | Plastic |
| Lens Mount | M-Mountor F-Mount+adapter | M-Mount Rangefinder Coupled | M-Mount Rangefinder Coupled | Fixed 35mm f/2.0 Lens(*TBD) |
| Sensitivity | SDK Settings | ISO100-6400(*TBD) | ISO100-6400(*TBD) | Auto |
| Exposure Control | SDK Settings | Spot Average | Spot Average | Spot Average |
| Exposure Mode | SDK Settings | Aperture Priority(AE) Manual Exposure | Aperture Priority(AE) Manual Exposure | Aperture Priority(AE) Manual Exposure |
| Shutter Speed (1/s) | SDK Settings | 1-4000 | 1-4000 | 1-4000 |
| Focus | LiveView Manual Focus | True Rangefinder Manual Focus LiveView Manual Focus | True Rangefinder Manual Focus LiveView Manual Focus | True Rangefinder Manual Focus LiveView Manual Focus |
| White Balance | SDK Settings | Auto, Presets | Auto, Presets | Auto, Presets |
| Hotshoe | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View Finder | None | Optical View Finder (OVF) with Electronic Display | Optical View Finder (OVF) with Electronic Display | Optical View Finder (OVF) with Electronic Display |