Friday, December 21, 2012

The User's Review: Konica AA-35, A Half Frame 35 mm Pocket Camera, Released in 1985



I got this camera in its original package with the shop receipt. As it and the price tags on the box showed, this camera was sold at a discount price of USD 59 at a Caldor store in New York on Nov. 17, 1985. The blue tag shows its original price of 79.94. To me, all these indicate that the camera was not hot when it first got on the market.








In today's standards for a pocket digital camera, Konica AA-35 is neither that compact. I believe, the camera lens is made of plastic, but coated. Every functions are auto except the manual setting for film speeds only at 100, 200 or 400 ISO.






The same model comes with two different model names, Konica AA-35 and Konica Recorder, and in two different colors (gold and black).






I list its pros here:

1. Small size 112.5 x 77 x 30.5 mm
2. Light weight 250 g with no battery
3. Everything auto except film speed setting
4. Half frame



In the current  digital camera era, Konica AA-35 and Recorder become a collector's item and, for a camera in good conditions, its current price is doubled of the original one. Do I use my AA-35 as my daily camera? No, because I doubt its durability.




      
Fuji also produced a half-frame compact camera, TW-3 with 2 lenses.

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