As in knocked out by the Koni-Omega 100 that happened my way. Not literally knocked out, although that would be quite possible — even likely — if whacked by this beautiful manly hunk of a camera:
I found out about Koni-Omegas and the minor cult surrounding them only a few weeks ago as I was casting about for inexpensive but interesting 6×6 and 6×7 medium format cameras. This is all in the wake of the Hasselblad 2000FC that thanks to local Foto Friend Brian Cuyler I was able to nab for my wife at quite a good price. She has a thing for Scandinavian stuff. Having shot a few test rolls with Blad, I was instantly envious of the feel, look, and results of it. But, I wasn’t going to find another one that cheap, nor did I exactly want the same camera. Blad is strictly for my Scandinaviophile wife. I had other things in mind, one of them being a Koni-Omega with its famed Hexanon lens and shotgun-pump-action film advance. Oh yeah, and the pistol grip.
I kid you not — you feel empowered when gripping this thing, like some kind of unstoppable cyborg boxing glove has been grafted to your hand. It oozes testosterone. It compels swagger. It activates an aura of Attitude. And that’s just when walking down the street with it. It takes the metaphor of “shooting photos” more literally than any other camera I’ve ever used. The pump-action film advance on the magazine back mimics loading a shell in the chamber of a gun, like a really really short sawed-off shotgun. And then you aim through the rangefinder, focus, and squeeze the button on the pistol-grip. Bang!
I have an extra magazine for it so of course my first idea became my next camera project: the pump-action pinhole camera….
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