The Koni Rapid Omega: A classic film camera with lots of quirks!
The Koni Rapid Omega 200 is a medium-format film camera known for its high-quality photographs and interchangeable lenses. It was originally developed by the Simmon Brothers, a company known for its line of darkroom enlargers, under the name Simmon Omega. It is a rangefinder camera that takes 6x7cm images on 120 roll film and were manufactured in the United States. This 200 version of the Rapid Omega series of cameras was manufactured by Mamiya.
At a glance, this camera is quite imposing and can intimidate first-time shooters. However, looks can be deceiving, and although the camera does have its quirks and peculiarities, these can easily become very familiar with practice. Since I personally like cameras with a “personality”, I tend to find this camera charming because it oozes personality.
At release, this camera featured interchangeable lenses, including a 58 (or 60) mm wide-angle lens, a 90 mm normal lens, a 135 mm portrait lens, and a 180 mm telephoto lens. A close-up adapter was also available, which was popular with wedding photographers.
Like most medium format cameras of its era and caliber, the camera features a dark-slide, which locks the shutter release when in place. This “pro” feature helps prevent accidental exposures, especially necessary because of the eccentric film advance mechanism of this camera. While most cameras in its class are designed with winding mechanism of levers or dials to advance the film, the Rapid Omega 200 relies on an antiquated push and pull crank system with its film transport knob. The real life use of this system is that it requires a full extension and depression each time to complete a frame advance. This movement also serves the dual purpose of cocking the shutter. When the shutter is fired, a shutter cocking lever, located beneath the lens returns to the uncocked position to the left. This is the only way to verify if the shutter is cocked or not, and is quite easy to miss during the excitement of a shoot. Thus, in the non-extended position (typical scenario for packing or transporting the camera), the shutter could be in a cocked position, unless verified with the position of the shutter cocking level. This makes the dark-slide all the more important to prevent accidental shots. It is also worth noting that this camera has the convenience of a dark-slide carrying slot where one can insert the dark-slide to secure it during a shot. This is located at the rear bottom part of the camera.
From a practicality of use point of view, this camera although robust and build solid like a tank, can be quite cumbersome to shoot with. The film advance process can be quite laborious especially if many shots are needed in a short spate of time. There is a risk of not fully extending the film advance mechanism which could lead to overlaps in frames. Also, the weight of the camera does require some getting used to. My recommendation is to utilize a tripod for this camera as much as is practicable or possible. The shutter cocking lever does have another important use, however, to allow for an easy way to do intentional double or multiple exposures. Moving the lever to the right position (cocked position) enables more exposures to be taken on the same frame of film without requiring the cumbersome frame advance movement. This easy-to-use feature does come in as a welcome relief to an otherwise laborious shooting process.
Loading this camera with film, although not too complicated, does require some practice and familiarity of the process.
The Koni Rapid Omega camera is not one that I would recommend to the average film shooter. It requires patience and a high level of enthusiasm to shoot with a camera like this. My concluding thought is that it is ideal for the experienced shooter with a need for a robust and reliable camera, but it also takes a lot of getting used to.