Tag Archives: duty

Konica Z-up 80 super zoom

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This is a lucky camera. When I first started to look at it I could not find the battery compartment. Then I saw it under where the strap should go. It looked broken and had to be accessed by removing some screws. It seemed really impractical and I put it in my own junk bin. I was positive it was faulty. Then I was getting my recycling ready for collection and decided to take another look. I undid the screws and inserted a battery, nothing. I tried two more batteries, nada. I was about to give up but then thought, use the force…it does look like a Darth Vader camera after all. So I just willed it to work. Basically, I shook it and said, “work damn it” and it did. I am sure I knocked some dirt off a contact or something, but it fired up…flash included.

The only issue then was a hole on the top. When I looked for other photos of it online, I saw a flash ready light there. No biggie, I just covered it with black tape just in case of light leaks.

I think the Z-up 80 means zooms up to 80, a guess, but it seems a reasonable one. There doesn’t seem to be much on the net about it. I could only find something on the Amazon.jp site and a couple of Japanese sites. When translated the Amazon page said something like…

“Primary Information is displayed on the back, as a compact, multi-functional and practical Heavy Duty Camera. [Main Features] 35 mm Auto Focus AE camera, Zoom Lens 40-80 mm F3.5 – 7.2  Battery: 2cr5, weight: 485g, released in 1988”

I also found this review, but wow another heavy duty camera. It doesn’t look like the others I have tried, but I hope it works just as well. I did find a manual in Japanese and here one in English for the RC version, I could not find the none RC version. While researching for this post I also saw some tagged photos on Instagram that were pretty cool and it made me wonder about the camera. It seems like it is more than a point and shoot. The manual tells about features such as multiple exposure and times exposure. I wish I had read it before using it, I seem to say that a lot. Now looking at the camera, I see the ME button on the data back.

But did it work?

Yeap, sure did. It is super sharp, I even had to blur some faces. These are taken over a couple of days at work. I even tried a few action shots with the ball catching at full zoom. It was sharp at all zoom settings. I got a little carried away with photos of the lanner falcon, but it was the only camera I had on me at the time.

When you take a photo, the autofocus chooses a zone and illuminates it in the viewfinder. The symbols are the regular person, people, mountain. It was spot on each time. I love it, I want to keep it…it looks like Darth Vader…it is faulty after all…there is a hole on the top.

I will keep it for another roll at least, to try out the other functions.

 

 

 

Fujifilm Epion RVX (APS)

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I saw this camera on Instagram and I was smitten. Look at it, LOOK!! Can you see it? It is very well camouflaged. I searched on eBay and low, there was one, just one…and it was in Japan. But it is an APS, dwindling film supplies. Then along came Asographic and there was new hope on the horizon! So I can buy the camera?? YES!

It arrived in mint condition, not a blemish or a scratch, which is amazing considering it is a heavy duty camera. I love HDCs, they always seem to perform well and have super sharp lenses. Gosh, I think I am setting myself up for disappointment.

It turns out there are quite a few of these for sale online in Japan, but not a lot of information about this camera. Here is some, but you will need Google Translate or equivalent. It states the camera was released in 1997, it also has quite a lot of technical information. Though, from the photos above you can see there is a 25mm lens, quite wide. Plus the minimum focal length is 36cm, pretty good.

I loaded up an expired Truprint film and went for a walk…which a wrote about on another blog here.

I have used expired Truprint APS film before and it always seems to be quite warm. Comparing the digital photos to these, I prefer these. They are sharper, more detailed and I was less worried about damaging the camera..due to the HDC.

I love it. I have already loaded it up with another roll.

Keep or Sell: Though I thought this camera was gorgeous, the dwindling supply of film made me sell it. I decided to keep just one aps camera, and this wasn’t the one I chose.

 

 

Konica Lens 35 WB

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I knew I had already tried a VERY similar camera to this. Basically, the only difference with this camera and the 28WB is that, the focal length. Everything else seems the same. Again, you can find lots of technical information on this site. There is also information on this site. AND I want to mention this site as it is awesome. His is a much better review than I could ever write.

Anyway, here is the camera.

I drove a little further north of Ibaraki to a place called Hananuki Valley,Takahagi. It was a very rainy day, very rainy! I suppose that made it perfect for this camera. Unfortunately, that made it difficult to actually have a clear lens. The person I went with used an umbrella, smart. But I had a rugged, sturdy, super camera. A camera made for those conditions. Damn it, I will not shelter….hence the rain drops on the lens.

So of course, the camera worked. look at those colours.

Keep or sell – I will sell as I have the yellow one I like. Unless I see a coloured one of these rather than black, I doubt I will keep it.

 Update: I found an orange one with original strap and film holders 🙂

Konica Lens 28 WB – off road

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By my reckoning I have about ten cameras left to write about. I am not sure I am going to hit my deadline of writing about them all in a month. But I will try. After that I will start a new blog or continue this one in a different guise.

So on with the show. For this camera I roped in a friend to help test it out. I had bought about three similar cameras at a second hand shop. All were heavy duty style cameras. This one was my least favourite to be honest. The others were either bright yellow or were just plain cooler. This one was rough and dirty, plus there was a scratch on the lens protector.

Ok, cooler until I did some research and then I began to really like it. This website has lots of information about all the different styles and its hardiness. I must say the red version looks really nice.

Anyway I gave this one to a friend who took forever and a day to use a roll and even longer to get it developed. In the time it took for the prints to come back to me she had returned the camera and I had tried my own roll.

Here are her shots. After the first few I wanted to see how hardy the camera was so I took it from her and threw it high in the air into a pile of snow. You can see the ice on the lens for a few shots until it was cleaned. The throwing, the landing, the ice, water, and cold had no effect. It still worked.

It seems like nothing can break this construction site camera. According to this site, another name for this camera is the Konica off-Road. It was produced around 1990 specifically for constructions sites, and Japan does have lots of those. It is waterproof, dust proof, sand proof, shock proof, and the front glass is covered by an extremely hard plastic protective coating…what scratched mine! Gosh I am beginning to like this camera more.

Anyway here are my shots. Excuse the expired film…and the penis shrine, there do seem to be a number of them near my house.

There is nothing to this camera, but simplicity and hardiness. It has auto focusing and an automatic flash if you want it.

Fuji HD-M

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I bought this camera because it looked different and there was mud on it. The HD-M means heavy duty motor. As you can see, it looks like it will withstand just about anything.

According to this site it came out in 1984 and can be used underwater to 2m. I have a feeling that it will actually go a little deeper than that. As a diver I know that the pressure underwater changes the most in the first 10 meters, if I can get it past that depth it should be ok for any type of recreational dive. So next time I go diving I will test it again, just for fun. The battery and film compartments have doors that are held tight and have an o-ring for good measure.

The focusing on this camera is zoned. I often forgot to change the zoning for some reason. I think because the camera looks like it should be a point and shoot. When I did remember to change the focusing I found the resulting photo was very sharp, but it was quite unforgiving if you forgot. The shutter has a lock, so it never fires when you don’t want it to. The shutter button was a little stiff due to the ability to keep out water, underwater it might be an issue. I did take it out in the rain, it would be perfect for street photography on a rainy day.

From what I can gather,and from the mud,I think this type of camera was used by builders to record their progress. Plus it is kind of the original sports camera.

You change the ISO by a dial on the front of the camera. The previous link I gave has more technical information. But did this work? I have already hinted it did.

The exposure was spot on every time. You can see on a couple of repeat shots when I got the zoning right. The timer worked…though not my attempt to use it. I really liked this camera and as I don’t have an equivalent one, I will be keeping this one. Though I do have a couple of similar ones to test later., so I might be swapping it later. The others have automatic focusing so that is the only reason I will swap it out.