The Konica C35 EF review for film starter

If you’re new to film photography, we understand your struggle, there’s always these massive chaos in development of the world of anything, and there’s no exception for this little light-catching box : camera, and embrace it my fella, it’s what makes the beauty of world’s diversity.

But I want to help ease the pain, as to assist and provide adequate information, I will never dare to tell you what’s right or wrong as you will find your own aspect along the way, but maintaining a healthy conversation is the key.

Camera are often loosely classified by several different built, the range finder vs. SLR vs. point n shoot, the film format of 135, 120, 110 etc., the focus system of split image, double image or zone focusing etc., there are a lot more, but as a starter I wouldn’t recommend anything beyond try and error, experience is always the best teacher, I myself started with a OM1 SLR made by Olympus, it’s easy to operate, but sometimes it’s other trivial things that got me in pain, i was struggling to find a suitable battery for it because the original suggested mercury battery were no longer produced, and a 30 year old camera can easily trick you in ways like jammed shutter, aperture ring on the lens cranked, or anything else you wouldn’t expect, but luckily a good CLA can solve most of the problems.

I still love my OM1, it’s with me a bit over 10 years now, the fact that a SLR gives you all you need to compose a perfect image, I still can’t wrap my head around how a focusing system other than that can work, for example a zone focusing camera.

Until recently the name konica hexanon system got my attention, it is said that their optics can rival that of Leica lens, but hell, a hexanon lens is nowhere near my affordable range, you might as well agree; there’s no free lunch, right?

Except this guy, the Konica C35.

I should just skip the fact that it conquered it’s own realm back in the day, the glory of that kingdom may be long gone, but the relics it left still glows and impacts the later generation in it’s own way.

like the Big Mini for Robert Frank and C35 EF for Andy Warhol, the forgotten Giant really used to know very well how to make it to public attention.

Truth be told I was never interested in a zone focusing camera, I hate making failures, I can’t allow myself in that situation where I have to guess the distance only to find out much later (sometimes months later) that those photos are out of focus.

but that was in my own imagination before I truly got my hand on one of these cameras.

Like I said, try & error, no teacher will ever be better than experience.

Now I would confidently recommend a Konica C35 EF to a starter, not just because its name, but also the near perfect optical performance,and the fact that it got me to start appreciating it’s beauty of simplicity.

the operation couldn’t be easier, the C35 EF is the worlds first camera with built-in flash, think about it and you will know how they rocked the world of photography back at that time, there are entire fleet of the Konica point & shoot, i don’t want to go into every detail of the differences, it’s just not necessary, owning a Konica is enough for you to indulge in the hexanon system and be surprised.

you load it with a roll of film, make sure the exposure meter and flash light both have the needed battery installed properly, and you’re good to go.

The exposure meter needs a LR44, and flash light works on 2 AA batteries.

on the front of the lens sits a rotate ring for you to set the ASA as to what your film ISO matches, like every camera that has exposure meter does.

the aperture automatically decides itself the moment you press the shutter release button, so you will only need to adjust focusing distance for the subject in your frame. There are 3 focusing ranges as the depicting icon marks on the ring, portrait for one person/ a group of people / and a mountain.

It is supposedly translating to certain sets of focusing range that allows for a sharp image where the subject falls into those ranges.

Here comes the magical part, remember I started film photography with a SLR, my mindset was fixated to everything I experienced from it, I need to know if the split image focus is spot on, I need to make sure that the shutter speed is no slower than the focal length of the lens, I need to be aware that the exposure is in the right and acceptable range, so often when all these factors are about good, my wife turn her smile into a blank face because it takes simply too long.

But now I’m holding this Konica C35 EF, it’s logic forces me to drop everything I know and take some risks, perhaps I intentionally lower the expectation of the result, because I was knowing pretty much nothing about the outcome at the moment pressing the shutter release button.

and BANG, it worked, the image is crystal clear, so sharp that it seems to rip through my retina.

That’s when I realize, the camera has its way to reduce aperture according to the scene, because it’s all automatic, it tends to choose the best aperture it could to provide you the sharpest image.

and hence the combined depth of field.

And that’s why all my concern about having not enough speed, out of focus or out of range exposure should’ve been all gone.

And the flash is a classic too, all you do is pop it up and it will fire anyway once the charging LED lits.

For sure it has its limit, the low shutter speed and the small aperture, it also only takes 3 different kind of film ISO, but overall it’s a pleasing experience, and most importantly, a hexanon prime lens can cost USD$2000, but a C35 EF is a meal in Mcdonalds.

below are some images I took with it on fuji C200.

nothing was touched in a post-editing software, I never expected it can be such a wonderful camera, and for this C35 EF though I eventually let it go because I was originally planning on having a taste of the hexanon system and my main purpose was to make a profit from it, i got it for less than 20 bucks, have it serviced at my local repair store, sell it, make some cash, at the same time do my part of helping the revive of film photography industry.

After this guy I’m seriously considering getting into the M-mount hexanon glass. Perhaps get myself a Hexar RF; the only AE M-mount RF in the world, with a shutter speed of staggering 1/4000!

But that’s just my plan in the near future for it can cost my third leg, we will see how things work out a bit.