This is another of those cameras with 2 names. One for the Japanese market, SF7, and one for the American market, SF10. I bought it from a junk bin very cheaply because I had a Pentax lens without a body which I had from a previous junk find. This was as cheap as buying a lens cover.

It was produced in 1988. I found this ad on YouTube that says the funky display acted as an inbuilt manual.

You can find more technical details here. I found the controls a little clumsy to use and the camera heavy with or without the lens. I don’t particularly like the look of the camera either. This reviewer found the same but ultimately liked it.

I took the camera to a school picnic and let a student play with it for a while. He took some shots and seemed to like it a lot. But did it work?

The focusing is a bit hit and miss, I suspect due to camera movement rather than the ability of the camera. Though it is one of the first cameras to feature auto-focus. I took the two photos of the man with his dog and crow. I changed the focusing point for these photos and the camera handled it well. The spider shots used the macro function of the lens. The exposure seems to be spot on, even with the backlit photo of the boy holding the seagull camera. They were all taken on a pretty dull day.

I don’t think I would bother using the camera or the lens again and it is too heavy to ship anywhere from Japan. I much prefer the look and feel of the Z range of Pentax cameras. So, for now, it will go in my box of cameras labelled ??