So who are K.M.C?

I have no clue! They were obviously a camera manufacturer - probably during the 1960’s, and that is all I can give!

I came across my first K.M.C camera a few years ago - the Kino 35mm rangefinder with a fixed Kinegon 45mm f2.8 lens. It didn’t work, but I quite liked it for it’s mystical-ness. I couldn’t find anything online about the camera, but Kinegon did bring up some results for lenses. Perhaps K.M.C stands for something like Kinegon Manufacturing Company??

The camera feels inexpensive, but decent quality - quite standard for this era of Japanese camera with loads of small manufacturers putting out 35mm cameras.

Some years later I found another one on eBay, so snapped it up with the hope it worked and I could use it. And it did.

I didn’t notice initially, but it has a faster Kinegon 45mm f1.9 lens. The size difference between the f2.8 and f1.9 lens’ aperture opening is quite a bit when you have them side by side.

Finally I could see what the Kino could do…

So on New Years Day I took it for a nice walk to Sand Point - a rocky headland in the Bristol Channel with some Ilford HP5.

Surprisingly, the results were really nice. They were all shot around 1/250 f8-11 as the light was fairly good through the overcast sky. It certainly out performed to Zeiss Contessa that I had with me as well.

The lens has great contrast, and the detail of the rocks in excellent. The texture of the waves leading out to the two islands is not spoilt by the HP5’s grain either. The Islands are Steep Holm on the left and Flat Holm on the right - whoever named them must have been a genius!

Now and again I get a craving to be by the sea - this was one such day. I could just sit and watch the waves for hours with not another person in sight.

I don’t have a single complaint about how the camera performed.

The other camera in the K.M.C line-up is the Kino 300. The name refers to the 1/300th top speed, lower than the 1/500th on the Kino. The styling of the top plate is much better than the simple lines of the previously mentioned model. Again it is a 35mm rangefinder with the same Kinegon 45mm lens. And as with my first camera this one doesn’t work! A real shame after the great experience of the second one.

The only other Kino I had seen mentioned online was the Kino 300 Colormate. It has taken a lot of searching to find one, and a lot a patience to bag this particular camera. It was originally advertised for a high price - far too high for camera of this kind, so I continued to watch and hope it did not sell. After a couple of months the seller dropped the price, but not low enough for me (even though I wanted it!). Eventually it happened - the seller obviously realised it was not going to sell, so lowered the price again to half their first offering. It was mine!

The Colormate is the only one that is not a rangefinder - just scale focusing. This time with a Kinegon 45mm f3.5 lens - the slowest of the lot.

The nice five-bar detail and rangefinder window are replaced with a rather fetching gold nameplate. It is a quite handsome camera, and fully working - that’s a 50% success rate on these K.M.C’s!

This must be the full set of K.M.C cameras as I’ve not come across any others in the years of searching… but never say never!

K.M.C Kino…

Boot Sale beauties…