The company traces its history back to 1873 (pre-dating Kodak in the photography business) when pharmacist Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling photographic materials at his shop in Konishiya Rokubē, the biggest pharmacy trader in Tokyo at that time.

In 1882, Konishi launched a project to produce photography related materials in Japan: those products were imported at that time.

New products were released respectively, and Konishi Main Shop became the leading camera company in Japan.

The Konica Autoreflex of 1965 used an external light meter cell to set the lens diaphragm automatically after the user selected a shutter speed.

With the Autoreflex T of 1968, Konica improved this design into a through-the-lens meter, using the same automation system (the user could also set the exposure manually on these cameras).

While never equal to giants like Kodak or Fujifilm, the recognized quality of Konica film ensured general presence on market.

Originally Konica film and paper was sold under the brand name "Sakura" (cherry blossom).

Many camera manufacturers of interchangeable lenses produce a few great lenses among their line, but Konica managed to achieve near excellent quality over a broad range of focal lengths[25] in lens tests conducted by several photographic publications over the years.