The Konica U-Mini reminds me of the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim with its all plastic design. Although not as wide as the Vivitar UWS's 22mm lens, I expect this 28mm lens to give me close to the same results. The camera arrived in mint condition with only a bit of dust on the lens surface which I wiped clean immediately. I'll be loading this camera up with a roll of film soon to test its worthiness as a Lomo camera.
A fully functional Olympus T-20 electronic flash. No corrosion in the battery compartment and the front diffuser is still pretty clear. I installs two AA batteries and the flash charged and fired. It's my first ever Olympus flash - I'll introduce it to my Olympus OM-1n later today. Price paid...$3.00
A Konica Big Mini HG (BM-300). It's dusty, dirty, and grimy - plus plenty of scuffs and scratches. I swiped the battery from my other Big Mini, dumped it in, and the camera came to life. I'll give it a good cleaning in the next day or so. The camera still had a partially exposed roll of Kodak 200 Gold 36exp in it - I rewound the film back into the canister and plan to have it developed. It was most likely ruined my someone opening the camera back....but you never know, there may be recoverable images on the roll. Price paid...$6.00
In the month of April my Analog Project 2012 features the Konica Big Mini-302. This camera released by Konica in 1990 is an automatic exposure 35mm point-n-shoot featuring a 35mm lens that shoots at f3.5, auto focus, automatic film advance and rewind, built-in flash, self timer, and options to adjust exposure values by a stop or two. The big Mini's design is of a plastic build, it's light weight, has an attractive sleek and thin profile with smooth rounded corners - fits nicely into any pocket. This camera would make a great companion for no nonsense shooting in most any outdoor conditions. This camera also adjusts the ISO automatically - when using DX type film the camera will select an ISO between 25 and 3200 and when using non DX film the camera defaults to an ISO of 25. If I remember correctly, DX film has a barcode below the sprocket holes which is recognized by some cameras as well as machines used during film processing. I've noticed that several brands and types of film that I've used recently seem to have barcodes, but I'm going to have to take a closer look because whats the point of shooting if the selected ISO is incorrect for the conditions in which I'm shooting. My biggest two complaints about the Big Mini-302 is the slow auto focus and the power and shutter button being too close together.
In the month of March my Analog Project 2012 featured the Mamiya U. This camera released by Mamiya in 1981 is an automatic exposure 35mm point-n-shoot that features a sharp 35mm Mamiya / Sekor f/2.8 lens, shutter speeds that range from 1/8sec to 1/500sec, a built-in pop-up flash, 12sec self timer, and an underexposure warning alert. With zone focusing, this camera is easy to use and serves as a great all-around pocket shooter. I think this camera is best suited for simple daylight shooting with 200 speed film and not too dark indoor shots with 400 speed film as long as you use the built-in flash. My little DIY thumb-tack shutter release button has held up very well over the past year - it saved this camera from a life of never being used as it would have sat on the back shelf. It's another in a series of big bulky PnS from the 80's that I've added to my collection - I seem to have a soft spot for this style of 80's retro cameras. In my opinion these types of cameras (80's point-n-shoots) sits squarely in first place as an alternative to over priced boutique cameras that are all the rage in the Lomography scene.
Check out my YouTube Ch. for a quick video about this camera.
For the month of February my Analog Project 2012 features the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim. This all plastic point-n-shoot camera has built a small following within the lomography community behind it's ultra wide angle lens and it's ability to capture images in just about any lighting condition. The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim features a 22mm fixed focus wide angle lens that captures with a fixed aperture of f/11 and a fixed shutter speed of 1/125sec.The results can be surprisingly sharp and clear when paying close attention to body mechanics (hold still) when shooting with this camera. It's all plastic design makes this one of the lowest weight cameras I own but that's not without sacrifices - the parts inside this camera are so cheap that it's likely to fail due to breakage if handled too roughly. The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim is extremely easy to use, simply load the film, point.....and shoot. But remember to keep your fingers away from the lens or they'll end up in your shot due to the ultra wide angle lens being almost flush with the front surface of the camera. To see a short demo of my Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim jump over ot my YouTube Ch.
In response to a question:
Dear @patternfreak
I too have experienced being stuck on 'E". This seems to happen most when the film take-up spool fails to properly grab and hold on to the film leader after the rear cover has been re-attached. Simply remove the rear cover again and re-thread the film leader on to the take-up spool and making sure to wind the film advance dial a few times to make sure the take-up spool has accepted the film leader. There's enough film in the film canister to allow for extra winding of the film when loading a camera.
Also, take a close look at the top edge of the rear cover. There should be a little plastic stem on the left side of the cover - it sticks out about a quarter of an inch. That stem fits into a hole on the back of the camera. When the rear cover is removed (and the stem is out of the hole) the film counter resets itself to "E". Once the rear cover is re-attached to the camera and the stem is seated correctly in the hole, it enables the film counter to start counting when you wind the film advance knob on top of the camera. If the stem is missing the film will advance....but the counter will always remain on "E".
Good Luck
Randy (Dred242 and BokehImage)
This 35mm leather film holder was totally inspired by Patrick Ng. I follow Patrick on flickr and last year he posted a photo of a leather case he crafted from sections of leather, rivets, snaps, a clasp and some thread all wrapped around a plastic Rollei dual film container. For me it was love at first sight, I had to have one. I'm sure many of Patrick's followers have offered to pay him to recreate his leather goods for them but I don't think he would - he's such a busy person. I was sure that if I had the right materials I could make one myself - so I set out to find what I needed. I got plenty of tools and supplies from Tandy Leather located here in the Bay Area as well as two sizes of clasps from Ace Hardware - the rest was donated by my mother-in-law who has lot's of leather crafting goodies stashed in her garage. I ordered the Rollei film with container on eBay and I plan to order at least one more. I've also got a roll of Rollei 120mm with container in route and should be here in the next day or so - it too will get wrapped. My mother-in-law gave me valuable tips and plenty of coaching before I got started, and my wife helped out with advise when I had to make decisions about cuts and rivet placement. This project took about 2.5 hours total and to be honest....it wasn't that hard. I plan to make at least two more of different shapes in the coming weeks. I don't own a fancy leather camera bag to hang my new little film holder from but I'll have one soon enough.
Patrick Ng is a connoisseur of fine writing instruments, elegant paper, travelers notebooks, leather goods uniquely hand-crafted by himself, vintage cameras, awesome GTD (getting things done) inspired organizational techniques, Moleskine art, world travel, and so much more.Check out his flickr photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moleskineart/
And his website: http://scription.typepad.com/
