Notable ‘firsts’ in new camera

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 30

Notable ‘firsts’ in new camera

A half-frame 35mm camera now on the New Zealand market is the first for several years. It is the first of its kind with autofocus, first with autowind, and probably first with automatic exposure. Recently I tested this camera, the Konica AA-35 compact, by courtesy of Noel’s Photo World in Linwood City. The half-frame system gives twice as many negatives to the roll of film as full-frame 35mm. The half frames have their long edge on what is the short edge of full-frame. Allowing for the border between half frames, the negative proportions are much as with full frame. The film is wound vertically instead of horizontally.

The AA-35 weighs 250 g and is the size and shape of a cigarette case. It has a 24mm lens, which corresponds to about 36mm in full-frame 35mm. As in probably all modem compacts, the lens is wideangle by standard definition. My prints were processed by Hanafins Photographies, Ltd. Although Noel’s has a one-hour instore minilab this is not yet set up for half-frame, which the company therefore sends out for processing. Half-frame processing has varied availability: a few laboratories process regularly, others only when enough have built up to make processing economic. Several labs contract out half-frame processing and the turn-

round time may be . several weeks. To check for grain I used the larger size of commonly-offered prints, 180 mm x 125 mm. Admittedly the film was on the slow side (100 ISO) but there was no obvious grain; nor was there vignetting, nor distortion apart from that inevitable with a wide-angle lens. Focusing was satisfactory except when the subject was moving to or from the camera. The viewfinder on the particular camera I had was not satisfactory, being so far out in one direction that had I bought this camera I would have claimed maintenance under the warranty. Noel’s quote the AA-35 at $262.11. — R.M.