Preface:
First off support your local camera shop. Mine always comes through. I had been looking for another camera… that I need like a hole in the head admittedly. But there was a perceived gap. An inexpensive, small, pocket-sized rangefinder having, but otherwise automatic 35mm camera. A few came close. The ridiculously named Canon Canonet QL17 GIII for example.
On paper, it is the package. I genuinely liked it. What went wrong? Nothing. It was me. While I appreciated the inbuilt metering this is where the small size worked against it. A small camera means small controls…
…that did not play well with my beef mitts. With this, another came along and displaced it.
So good that I wrote a post comparing it to the Contax T2. I like this camera so much that I still have it even though I have let the Canon Canonet QL17 GIII and Contax T2 go. Should be done. The only “ding” against the C35 was that it is fully automatic with no ability to manually override the camera’s intentions. Since it did such a good job I had no issues… but one. While eerily accurate there is no ability to hold focus so whatever you want in focus needs to be in the center of the frame. Why does this matter? This means no focus and recompose. Most of the time this is fine, but I really like the option to reframe.
I have been looking over the used market places for months. I had a number of false hits where I will see a camera in good or even great condition but will then see the word “Inoperative”. Still have not worked out how a camera can be both in excellent condition and also inoperative but that is a rant for a different day. So just like when I found the Konica C35 AF2 there I walked into my local camera shop. Saw it:
Well hello there Konica C35 cousin to AF2. Immediately realized what I was looking at. A C35 that:
- Did away with the need for my beef mitts to set the shutter speed like with the Canon Canonet etc.
- Added a rangefinder (which I like) that would allow for focus and recompose, unlike the C35 AF2.
Does not hurt that it is a bit of a looker. Touches of the Canonet aesthetic. Nice. So the ask:
- Does it work?
- Yes.
- No sticker on the bottom. How much?
- Chris looked it up and the price was little more than what I paid for a Lomography 35mm 3 pack recently.
Yes, please.
There was mention that it may have not been tested. At this price, I jumped at it. My son asked what happens if it does not work? To which I replied, if not it will make a fine shelf trophy at this price. I immediately put a roll of film in it and got to it. Will share more in a formal review, but here are the results of the first two film rolls in as many days.
Roll 1.
Taken walking about with my son one fine afternoon using Lomography 100 and developed at home with Cinestill CS41.
Again, more on this in a formal camera review but this camera was great. And the film is pretty cool also.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 