C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →rangefinder-medium-format
The Konica Pearl IV (1958) is the final and most capable model in Konishiroku's Pearl folder series. It improves on its predecessors in two meaningful ways: a **coupled rangefinder** integrated into the viewfinder window, and a faster **Hexar 75mm f/3.5** lens in place of the earlier f/4.5 unit. The combined viewfinder-rangefinder window allows the photographer to focus and compose in a single operation -- a significant usability advance over the scale-focus earlier Pearls. The shutter is a **Seikosha-MXV** (~1s to 1/400s), providing reliable leaf-shutter operation with full flash sync at all speeds.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the — format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →C41
Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Develop — film
We're growing the lab directory near you. Browse all labs.
Before you buy used
About this camera
The peak of the Pearl line -- 6x4.5 folder with coupled rangefinder and faster Hexar 75/3.5, 1958.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 film (6x4.5, ~16 exposures) |
| Lens | Hexar 75mm f/3.5 (fixed) |
| Shutter | ~1s - 1/400s + B, Seikosha-MXV leaf |
| Flash sync | All speeds (leaf shutter) |
| Rangefinder | Coupled (combined viewfinder window) |
| Meter | None |
| Weight | ~ |
| Battery | None required |
Konishiroku introduced the original Pearl around 1949. Successive versions (Pearl II, Pearl III) refined the body and optics incrementally, but it was the Pearl IV of 1958 that elevated the line to genuine competition with mid-tier German folders. By 1958, Japanese camera manufacturing had matured considerably; the Hexar f/3.5 lens represents a noticeably higher-quality four-element design compared to the earlier f/4.5 triplet. The coupled rangefinder was by then standard on premium Japanese folders (cf. the Mamiya Six series). The Pearl IV appeared near the end of the folding-camera era; by the early 1960s, Japanese manufacturers were pivoting toward 35mm SLR and rangefinder cameras, and the Pearl line was discontinued. Konishiroku reorganized and rebranded as Konica Corporation in 1987.
The Pearl IV is the most shootable of the Pearl cameras and the one most likely to give consistent results for a contemporary film photographer. The coupled rangefinder eliminates the guesswork of scale focus, and f/3.5 provides a useful half-stop of latitude over the earlier f/4.5. The Hexar lens at this aperture class produces clean, well-corrected results on medium-format film -- not as celebrated as the Tessar-design Sonnars on German competitors, but fully capable of excellent negatives when stopped to f/8.
For collectors, the Pearl IV occupies a historically significant position as the apex of a Japanese folder line that helped prove Japanese optics could compete with European equivalents. It is less commonly found than the German folders that dominated used markets in the West.
BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →Konica Pearl IV
Image coming soon