Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Konica Recorder

Konica · Fixed lens · 18×24 mm on 35mm film, vertical film travel, so the frame is landscape · 1984

Also known as: Konica AA-35 · Konica AA35 · Konica Recorder DD · Konica Reporter · コニカ レコーダー

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Recorder / AA-35 Half-frame 1984 — No figure published
Recorder DD (1985) Half-frame 1985 — No figure published
  1. The top shutter speed is given as 1/250 by camera-wiki and as 1/500 by Japan Camera Hunter; Mike Eckman gives the range as starting at 1/60, which everyone agrees on and which is the number that matters, since it rules out slow-speed work without flash.
  2. Mike Eckman calls the Recorder the first fully automatic point-and-shoot half-frame — autofocus, motor and flash together — and nothing found for this entry contradicts him.
  3. Prices have risen with the half-frame revival: Japan Camera Hunter noted $120+ in 2012 and Analog.Cafe $200–300 in 2024, for a camera whose battery door and sliding switch are the common failures.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Closed, it looks like a cassette recorder — the sliding cover over the lens is the whole front
  • Autofocus, motor and flash on a half-frame: the only 1980s camera to put all three on the format

Recorder / AA-35:

  • Hexanon 24mm f/4, four elements in four groups — a 35mm-equivalent view
  • Active infrared autofocus, 0.9 m to infinity; CdS programmed exposure, EV 10–16 at ISO 100; shutter 1/60–1/250; GN 12 flash
  • Film runs bottom to top, so the picture is landscape with the camera held normally, and the body is 30.5 mm thin
  • Two AA cells; 112 × 77 × 30.5 mm, 250 g; gold or black, and a red version
  • Recorder in Japan and Europe, AA-35 in North America

Recorder DD (1985):

  • A data back imprinting the date; otherwise the same camera (Mike Eckman)

Specifications

Format
18×24 mm on 35mm film, vertical film travel, so the frame is landscape · 72 exposures
Finder
Direct-vision finder with a low-light warning lamp · no rangefinder image
Shutter
Electronic leaf, programmed · 1/60 – 1/250 (camera-wiki); 1/60 – 1/500 is also given (Japan Camera Hunter) — see the disputed entry
Film advance
Motor drive
Meter
CdS, programmed; ISO 100, 200 or 400 set by hand, or DX
Motor drive
built-in motor
Weight
250 g
Dimensions
112 × 77 × 30.5 mm
Country
Japan

Where sources disagree

Speeds
  • 1/60 – 1/250 (camera-wiki's specification list)
  • 1/60 – 1/500 (Japan Camera Hunter)

Better supported: Unresolved

No Konica document was found for this entry. The two agree on the 1/60 floor, which is the limitation reviewers complain about; the ceiling is one stop apart.

What reviewers say

History

Konica’s Recorder of 1984 is the half-frame with everything the 1980s point-and-shoot had learned. A Hexanon 24mm f/4 — a 35mm view on the small frame — sits behind a sliding cover that makes the closed camera look like a cassette recorder; behind it are active autofocus from 0.9 metres, a CdS programme, a motor and a GN 12 flash, all on two AA cells. The film runs bottom to top, which lets the body be 30.5 mm thin and, unusually for a half-frame, makes the picture landscape with the camera held normally. In North America it was the AA-35; the Recorder DD of 1985 added a date back.

Every reviewer since has said the same three things. It is beautifully made and a pleasure in the hand — 35mmc’s “very solid, well engineered,” Japan Camera Hunter’s “light and comfortable.” It is a daylight camera: f/4, a shutter no slower than 1/60, and ISO 400 as the ceiling. And it is expensive for what it is, because it is the only pocketable, fully automatic, wide-lensed half-frame there is; Analog.Cafe puts it at $200–300 in 2024 and warns about the battery door and the sliding switch. Mike Eckman calls it the first fully automatic half-frame, and it was also, for four decades, the last one from a major maker.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Konica Recorder? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $240 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-10-19 (middle half $210–$240). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 7 days: down 21% from $300.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-10-19$240$210–$2403
2026-10-18$240$210–$2403
2026-10-17$240$210–$2403
2026-10-16$240$210–$2403
2026-09-18$300$270–$36040
2026-09-09$300$270–$36040
2026-09-06$300$270–$36040

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-10-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Kodak Ektar H35 · Konica Eye · Yashica Samurai

Sources (5)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.