Peter asked about my impressions of the Konica C35 EF in this week's weekend thread. As to not hijack the weekend thread with a camera "review" I thought I'd better open a new thread to discuss the Konica C35 EF*/AF* series.
To answer Peter's question about my thoughts of the Konica C35 EF I need to explain how I came to like its siblings. I made my first acquaintance with the Konica C35 series when I bought a C35 AF2 which I more or less stumbled upon at a garage sale. What drew me to the AF2 was its wonderful '80s look and the fact that it obviously was an AF camera but with a manual film advance. This quirky design really appealed to me. So I got it for ~10 € and after trying it for the first time I was blown away. I'd never have expected it to be as good as it turned out to be. I loved (almost) everything about it. It's very quiet (the only thing that you hear is the motor of the AF; more about it in a bit) and the pictures I got from it are sharp and wouldn't suggest that they were taken with a compact camera.
Dune by
C SKonica C35 AF2, Fomapan 100, Caffenol-C-H (RS), red filter
The only thing that's not optimal (but which gives this camera so much character) is the AF2's Honeywell autofocus system. It was first used in the AF which was (according to some sources) the first production camera with autofocus. The AF2 is a followup model with only minor changes to the appearance. The autofocus is a little peculiar in a number of ways. It uses the two little windows to the left and to the right of the Konica logo in the same way that a traditional rangefinder would merge two images into a single view. The only difference is that a microprocessor tries to figure out whether or not the two images align. When you press the shutter release the focussing motor basically pulls the focus over the whole focal range until the microprocessor determines the image to be in focus and only then will it fire the leaf shutter. The problem is that there's no half-pressing of the shutter to pre-focus. Since the autofocus is focussing on the center of the image, you're left with keeping everything that you want to focus on in the center.
It's the way it is. But it's still somewhat quirky (as in "really lovely"
). Don't get a wrong impression here: the autofocus is surprisingly accurate! The lens is a Hexanon 38mm f/2.8. It's a lens with 4 elements in 3 groups. It's the exact same lens as in the C35 EF. And 38mm is a very useful focal length. It also features a very good flash (also the same as in the C35 EF as far as I can tell -- EF stands for "Electronic Flash", BTW). One really good feature is that the light meter is located right above the lens inside the filter thread that surrounds the lens. It's a 46mm thread. This means that you can screw a filter on and the camera will meter through the filter. The camera is powered by two normal AA batteries.
The whole autofocus thing got me thinking: what about getting another Konica C35 that has a similarly good lens but manual focussing so that I'd gain more options for composing an image. I looked at my options and the Konica C35 EF3 caught my eye. It's more compact than the EF and it also features a new Hexanon 35mm f/2.8 lens that has 5 elements in 4 groups. The camera has a zone focussing system. The EF3 is a nice camera because of its compactness and handling. It has a really good lens coating which deals very well with front light. I was surprised that the edge sharpness doesn't seem to be as good as the AF2's. It's still a very good camera, a lot of fun to use and it's also powered by normal AA batteries, which is a real plus. The Konica C35 bug caught me and I ended up getting two more cameras, the Konica C35 EF (newer version) and the Konica C35 EFP. The EF is the only camera that actually needs two types of batteries: two AA batteries for the flash and a single 675 battery (I use hearing aid batteries) to power the light meter. Since there's no way to switch off the meter you either need a lens cap or the ready case for the camera because the meter is powered on all of the time unless it's in complete darkness. That's definitely a minus point. I have a few sample pictures in the current weekend thread. The EF features the exact same lens as the AF2 so it comes as no surprise that you get very nice results. The EFP is also very interesting because it's a fixed focus camera but I haven't tried it yet.
TL;DR - to answer Peter's question: I love the Konica C35 EF. It's a fantastic camera. Is it the best camera among the C35s that I own? Well, I think that the AF2 is at least as good if not a tiny little bit better (in terms of "fun to use" and "uniqueness due to being the first production autofocus camera). The C35 cameras that I own are good cameras in terms of image quality. Maybe an Olympus 35RC is a tad better but the C35s are fantastic none the less.
If you think about getting an EF you have to be aware that there's a substantial "Andy Warhol used a Konica C35 EF" hype. The prices can be ridiculously high. I got my EF and EFP for 55 € total on a well known auction site. But you can regular see single EFs go for as much as 70-90 €. That's definitely too much. If you want to get an EF I'd recommend getting the second version (the one with the self timer lever next to the lens barrel). It not only has the self timer, it's also got a third speed of 1/250s. If you don't seem to be able to find an EF, try getting an AF or AF2 (the latter looks nicer in my eyes). Same lens, heaps of fun and a historically significant camera.
Thanks for your patience, sorry for the rambling.
