Actually Konica was the first as Pål pointed out. There are a lot of
old Autoreflex cameras out there so they were successful for a time.
William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "P. J. Alling"
Subject: Re: Recent thread on 85's and 77's
Canon pioneered Shutter Priority Automation while Pentax was
investing in aperture priority automation, pretty much contemporary
IIRC. (I was selling Cameras Retail and the AE-1 was along side the
ME and K2 in the display cases), The AE-1 meter was a PITA to use in
manual mode, I think they used a trap needle system in their
automation. Minolta beat both to punch with both in the same camera,
I believe. Canon was next and I can't remember if Nikon beat Pentax
or not.
Canon was the first to market a successful aperture priority AE
camera, but both Nikon and Mamiya had working (albeit crude) versions
several years before.
William Robb
--
When you're worried or in doubt,
Run in circles, (scream and shout).
