Konica Pop

6

The Konica Pop (aka C35 EFJ in Japan) is a popular, compact, point and shoot, 35mm Japanese camera. It was fabricated in 1982. It only features a couple of settings like: the 100 ISO or 400 ISO setting, making it very easy to use. I’ve recently acquired this camera and already love it!

The Konica Pop specifications:

- Lens: 36mm, maximum aperture f/4. Early models are marked ‘Hexanon’; post 1985 are not
- Shutter speed: fixed at 1/125s
- Built-in flash which pops up, hence the name
- Button for close-up flash work (alters aperture accordingly)
- ISO selector for 100/400 only
- Tripod bush
- Possibly unique folding rewind lever (metal) on underside of body
- Power: 2 AA batteries (for flash)

The day before our last day in Cannes for the film festival, walking back to the apartment after spending a lot of time watching movies, I happened to pass by a little camera store. I decided to go in for a look. There were many different cameras and a friendly owner. We started talking as I’d browse through the shelves. I finally ended up buying a Polaroid SX-70 in super condition and the owner gave me a Konica Pop that I spotted in the back of a dusty shelf behind the counter, which he didn’t even know he had there.

As soon as I got back to the Lomo apartment, I opened this new little toy to see if everything was fully functional. I just needed to scrape of a bit of the oxidation on the battery pins to make the flash work, and the rest works fine.

But the first thing I noticed when opening this camera, due to the old age and most probably poor storage conditions, was that the foams that prevent light from pouring in the camera were completely rotten and starting to peel off. I decided on cleaning it, and peel most if off myself. Loaded a roll of xpro chrome for our last day in Cannes and went on a trigger happy spree. Resulting, in what I was expecting to be massive light leaks roll. I wasn’t disappointed, and finally decided, after a while of questioning, that I wouldn’t replace the foams and leave it like this.

In conclusion for any of you trigger happy Lomographers, who really appreciate the 10th Golden rule of Lomography: ’Don’t Care About The Rules", with it’s simple setting, this camera will let you focus on shooting anyone, anything, anywhere at all time ! Just try it and be as pleased I am with it !

Thanks for reading and LOMO on!

written by mikahsupageek on 2011-06-01 #gear #35mm #review #japanese #point-and-shoot #easy #lomography #film-camera #compact-camera #user-review #konica-pop

6 Comments

  1. miss_maha
    miss_maha ·

    I've got the konica pop in bright red and haven't used it yet, but your article makes me wanna try it out! :)

  2. superlighter
    superlighter ·

    same as @miss_maha!

  3. hidings
    hidings ·

    I love the pictures!

  4. deedeet
    deedeet ·

    i want this camera so bad!! :(

  5. d34nr3yn0ld5
    d34nr3yn0ld5 ·

    I just accidentally won two of these on eBay =] Can I take all the foam out without ruining the camera?

  6. iamtheju
    iamtheju ·

    @d34nr3yn0ld5 Yeah, that should be fine. I recently replaced the light seals in my Konica Pop and it was easier than expected. I just used the edge of a cloth to get in the grooves and rub out the old melted foam. The rest should pretty much peel off, depending on how degraded it is, or you can use a plastic knife to scrape it (i find that works well with no risk of damage to you of the camera). you can get a cheap bit of adhesive backed foam from ebay to redo the seals and still have loads spare for other cameras too!

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