Fujicarex II – Flawed Innovation

The Fujicarex II is an early Japanese SLR that was intended to be Fuji Photo Film Co.’s top-of-the-line model in the early 1960’s. It follows the naming convention of the mighty Zeiss Ikon Contarex (Rex, meaning King in Latin). The Contarex was the most expensive, most prestigious, fantastically over-engineered camera in the  Zeiss Ikon Line of the early 1960’s, so it follows that the Japanese would name their flagship camera after it.

The Fujicarex II was introduced in 1963, but I can’t find any data about it’s length of production, nor how it differed from the Fujicarex I before it. The two cameras look identical (in pictures at least). So it follows that the Fujicarex II added some minor upgrade (likely to improve reliability) to the original Fujicarex. As a matter of fact there seems to be very little information floating around about the Fujicarex I and II at all. Please contact me if you have a book or website that has more information on them.

This camera is, in a word QUIRKY. It reminds me a little bit of the Exakta in that a lot of the controls are in strange places. Mind you, this isn’t all a bad thing. The camera designers certainly had ergonomics in mind when they built this camera.  All of the controls except for the shutter speeds are controlled by the right hand. There is a block of controls right where your right thumb naturally sits (Ergonomics!) which contains a thumb-wheel focusing dial, and a dial for adjusting the aperture and shutter speeds together. You shouldn’t even have to touch the lens barrel of this camera except to set the film’s ASA/ISO rating for the meter. Even the rewind lever has been moved from the top of the camera to the left side of the camera to make room for a top-mounted cold shoe. Was this necessary? No… but it’s cool!

Speaking of the meter, mine doesn’t work.  This is no great surprise considering that it’s a 51 year old selenium meter, but it’s a shame because the meter is displayed in the prism finder, which is a very nice feature for 1963.

This camera has a unique lens mount for interchangeable lenses that is very similar to the system used by the contemporary Contaflex. The rearmost lens elements of this camera are fixed in place, with most of them behind the leaf shutter, and the 35mm f/4  50mm f/1.9, and  80mm f/2.8 lenses contain only the front elements of the lens, and rotate and lock into place. It’s not a bad system, but it naturally restricts the variety and focal length of lenses produced, and they’re certainly not adaptable to modern cameras.

Some Specs:

Shutter: Citizen 1- 1/500 + B

Lens: Fujinon 50mm f/1.9, Fujinon 35mm f/4,  Fujinon 80mm f/2.8 (all coated) Unique Fujicarex Lens mount.

Focus:Thumb-wheel, unit focusing with close focusing to a little under 3 feet (about 0.7m)

Aperture: f/1.9 – f/16

Operation:Selenium meter and coupled aperture and shutter dial. (If there is a manual override, I haven’t found it.)

Wind: Single stroke top-mounted lever.

Flash Sync: Yes, standard M/X plug. Cold shoe only.

Picture size: 36×24mm, 36 pictures from a standard 135/36 film.

 

My Take:

This camera is extremely advanced for 1963, and many of the features are very nice indeed…. if they worked properly.  I think the main problem of the Fujicarex is that the camera is ridiculously complex. Either the Fuji engineers got carte-blanche to build their dream camera (regardless of cost), or the marketing department built a camera on paper before handing it to Engineering, but either way, what actually got built bears a startling resemblance to Frankenstein’s monster. This camera has a leaf shutter like the earlier Contaflex (which was already a complex camera), yet has an instant return mirror! It has a coupled thumb-wheel that controls and rotates the shutter and aperture dials at the same time, and a focusing thumbwheel at the back of the camera. This isn’t even mentioning the complexity of the coupled meter and interchangeable lenses.

The end result is a disaster. A very heavy SLR with a max shutter speed of 1/500, with a clunky feeling film advance that only succeeds in cocking the shutter about 70% of the time. The shutter slap/shake on this camera is extremely heavy. The thumb-wheel shutter and aperture dial adjustment only moves through part of the range, from 1/30 and F4 to 1/250 and F11. I had to gently *assist* the rings on the barrel of the camera by hand if I wanted faster/slower shutter speeds or a faster/slower aperture. The thumb-wheel focusing dial doesn’t have enough leverage to properly focus the 80mm telephoto lens, and you actually have to point the camera up or down to let gravity help you focus!

 

In Use:

This camera has more shutter shake/mirror slap than any other camera I own. It’s so severe that I actually had to use 1/250 in normal light with the 50mm lens to make a sharp image. I literally had to use a tripod for the 80mm lens.  The shutter makes a very loud, distinctive two-part “ka-chunk” sound which is actually kind of endearing. People certainly won’t mistake it for an DSLR, but it’s not even close to inconspicuous. The coupled shutter-aperture dial is frustrating in use, since there is no ev-lock override, and the actual travel of the dial is limited, as I mentioned above. Generally, I’ll meter for available light using my hand meter, set it once, then forget about changing it radically on the fly. Unfortunately, this camera is less about enjoying photography, and more about the challenge of overcoming this camera’s foibles and quirks.

 

Performance:

I’ve talked enough about the camera itself! So let’s talk about the lenses for a bit.

I’ve picked up rumors on a few forums that the 50mm 1.9 Fujinon standard lens is a planar copy/derivative. There might be some truth to this, because the 50mm lens is extremely sharp and contrasty, even wide open. In fact, despite the ruinous mirror slap, this lens might be the best part of this camera. It’s an all-around excellent lens.  I’ve taken a few test shots with the 80mm and 35mm lens as well, and they’re both excellent lenses. I haven’t shot as much with them because the 80mm has focusing problems on this camera, and the wider 35mm lens isn’t very quick.  In fact, the 35mm is very slow at F4, but this at least has the virtue of making it a light lens so the focusing isn’t an issue like the 80mm lens.

My first roll from this camera was a total shambles due to mirror slap. No matter how firmly I held it or anchored it, anything below 1/100 of a second didn’t come out on this camera. Having learned this lesson, I shot a few decent shots on my second roll of Superia 200 during a surprise snowfall at my school.

 

I’ve been so negative to this little SLR, that I feel like I have to give a list of Pros as well as Cons. Just to be fair 😛

 

Pros:

– Very bright Fresnel focusing screen with a cool triple split image.

– Thumb-wheel focusing with the 35mm and 50mm lenses is slick and easy.

– The form factor is small and very shapely compared to some later SLRs.

– All of the Fujinon lenses are very, very sharp. Even wide open. Excellent optics.

– The 35mm and 80mm lenses are cheap to buy because they aren’t adaptable to digital cameras.

– A very solidly built camera. All chromed brass, glass and leather. Not a cheap feeling camera.

– two step “ka-chunk” shutter sound is cute and different.

 

Cons:

– Infuriating Ev-locked shutter/aperture dial that doesn’t cover the whole range. No manual override either.

– Silly amounts of mirror slap.

– Sometimes the wind lever doesn’t cock the shutter properly.

– 1/500 top shutter speed.

– Thumb-wheel focus can’t handle the heavier 80mm lens.

– Limited lens choice.

– Stunning complexity inside. If this thing ever breaks it’s a paperweight 😦

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fujica Half – Snapshot Ace

This Fujica Half was actually one of the very first film cameras that I bought. At John’s Camera in Blacksburg Virginia, I saw this tiny little metal chunk sitting on a back shelf gathering dust. I knew next to nothing about film cameras, or indeed cameras in general at that time, but it caught my eye because it was a pretty little thing among the great lumps of SLR.

When I looked closer, I noticed the badge ‘Fujica,’ and I was immediately interested, because my recently purchased digital camera was a Fuji X-100 and I had no idea that Fuji/Fujifilm had a heritage of film cameras. I asked John if there was a connection between this Fujica and the same Fuji that made my X-100, and he confirmed my suspicion. It’s the same company, just more than a half a century between this camera, and my digital Fuji.

I could immediately see that the X-100 drew some influence from this little camera, and I had to have it. It turned out that the little camera wasn’t even working. John spent a few minutes playing with it, and I offered him $20 for it if he couldn’t get it working. John smiled, and handed me the camera. Whoops. Now I have a non-working film camera to play with and absolutely no intention of this camera being a paperweight… me and my big mouth.

Having ZERO experience working on cameras, digital or film, I immediately set to work tearing it apart. Or rather, being an adult, I started by analyzing what was working, and what was not. To the internet!  First of all, I noticed that the little built-in Selenium meter was working, and damn near accurately (rare that).

A Selenium meter is a photo-electric meter that relies on the chemical reaction (photovoltaic) that the element Selenium has with light. Because the Selenium meter produces it’s own electrical charge, there is no need for a battery! Unfortunately, these meters are usually more than 40 years old, and at that age, wiring corrodes, the electromagnet that reads the current from the meter wears out, and so-on. As a result, finding a selenium meter that works accurately and reliably today is no easy task.

Going down the list of possible culprits for my non-working camera. I found that the film advance lever worked just fine, and that the shutter made a clicking sound, but the shutter didn’t open. The next place to check is the self-timer. Most old cameras have a clockwork spring-wound self timer, and over the decades, this spring becomes weak and gets slow, or even stuck. One rule that I quickly learned about vintage cameras, is that you should never fiddle with the self timer, because it can jam up the shutter and on some cameras requires a full service to get the timer unstuck.

On my little Fujica Half, the self timer was jammed tight. Aha… there’s your problem! Luckily, on the Fujica Half, I don’t have to take apart the whole body to access the self timer assembly. It’s a top mounted wheel-shaped timer under the rewind lever. I unscrewed the rewind lever, undid a pin, and the whole self-timer assembly exploded out of the top of the camera with a SPROING. I then tried the shutter without the self-timer. It works! Success! Who needs a self timer anyway? So I put the whole shebang back together minus the internal gubbins of the self timer, and I had a working camera.

Self timer on the left!

Some Specs:

Shutter: Seikosha-L 1/30-1/300 +B

Lens: Fujinon 28mm f/2.8, 5 elements, coated, filter thread 22.5mm

Focus: Zone Focus, with close focusing to a little under 2 feet (about 0.7m)

Aperture: f/2.8 – f/22 full click stops

Operation: a Selenium Auto mode that selects a coupled aperture and shutter combo. (Full manual control of aperture and shutter possible.)

Wind: Single stroke top-mounted lever.

Flash Sync: Yes, standard X plug. Cold shoe only.

Picture size: ‘Half-Frame’ 12x18mm, 72 pictures from a standard 135/36 film.

Some History:

One of the range of great Olympus half-frame cameras. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Canon / Bell & Howell Demi half frame camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Fujica Half was launched in 1963, in response to the extremely popular Olympus PEN half frame cameras. The Canon Demi, another Japanese half frame, was launched the same year as the Fujica Half, with a similar body design and features. These half frame cameras were mainly designed for the point-and-shoot audience, and they all had some degree of automation, and built-in selenium or CDS meters. All three competitors featured light, compact, stylish bodies, and solid metal construction. Half frame cameras weren’t a new invention in the 1960s, but the high expense of color film (vs. B+W) back then made the film economy of 72 frames on a standard roll of film very attractive indeed. The smaller negative size makes the pictures from a half frame camera slightly grainier than a full frame 35mm camera, but not significantly so on standard prints (enough for snapshots, and far better than 110 film). They all sold extremely well in the early 1960s, which is why you can find them almost everywhere. There are a few half-frame oddities, but most of the Japanese models are pretty common, and thus inexpensive to buy today.

The price of color film steadily decreased throughout the 1960s, and full frame cameras got smaller and smaller…the Rollei 35 for one example. This combined pressure eventually eroded the half-frame market, and by 1969, most of the half frame cameras were gone, or considered obsolete.

My Take:

One thing that you immediately notice about this camera when you pick it up is that it just feels right. The proportions seem a bit blocky in photos, but everything falls to hand nicely (to my small hands at least). The vinyl covering is somewhat rough, and the camera is easy to hold in one hand. The wind lever has a very short ratcheted action that feels excellent, and allows for some very rapid picture taking if you feel like it.

Compared to some of my other 1960’s cameras, this one contains lots of info in the viewfinder, with shutter and aperture info along the left side of the window.

Annoying things about the camera? The shutter release travel is pretty long, and it’s very heavy. I suspect this is because of the coupled selenium meter. The film counter is on the bottom of the camera, which isn’t too annoying, since 72 shots feels like a lot and I never felt the need to look down to check. The manual shutter speed selector is also on the bottom of the camera, and if my auto mode didn’t work so well I would be a bit annoyed by that. As it is, I used Auto mode most of the time.

Shutter speeds and film counter on the  bottom.

In Use:

Zone focus is just a fancy word for guess focus, and you’d think that half of my photos would be a blurry mess of shattered expectations and underexposed junk, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got my photos back, and about 90% were in good focus. That’s actually a better ratio of sharp photos than some of my rangefinders! Part of this is the wide 28mm lens. It’s a pretty forgiving lens as far as focusing is concerned, and most shots are actually at infinity. It’s also much faster for snapshots than some cameras. Between the auto mode and the forgiving guess focus, it’s a pretty carefree camera actually.

My Selenium meter was spot on, and was only fooled in a few backlit locations, where I think my modern digital would have trouble. Note that this is primarily a daylight camera. The ISO indicator on this camera only goes up to 200 (indicative of the slow film of 1963), and the 2.8 lens isn’t super fast.

This camera is perfect for use with a hand strap, and that’s how I used it. A full neck strap would just be wasted on this small light camera.

Performance:

This is where I was most surprised about this camera. With it’s simplified controls and unassuming price of entry, you would think that the lens on this camera would be O.K. at best… perhaps lomo territory. However, I found this little Fujinon 28mm lens to be absolutely fantastic! I haven’t used the camera with black and white film, so I can’t speak to how the contrast fares in B+W, but the color, sharpness, and contrast with color film are absolutely superb for such a tiny package. At f/2.8 the lens is slightly soft (portraits turned out nice), but at f/4 and above, the lens is very sharp indeed. Below are some scanned pics from my school’s trip to the Seoul Zoo. Some are cropped and rotated, others are left in their scanned form, with two to a single scanned frame. Note, this was from a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 with a mediocre scan.

at 2.8 it’s a bit soft.