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Fujica MA 1 - Lens Made in Japan

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Presented at Photokina 1982 The Fujica MA 1 is the final variant of the M-1.

image from here

It is a low-end plastic camera, with fix focus lens Fujinon f8/42mm with 3 elements, setting of the aperture by two weather symbols, sun( f/11) and clouds (f/8) and a flash setting. The only shutter speed is 1/100. The flash setting moves the focus taking into account the limited range of a flash and it has a winding system by a toothed wheel and a green release button.

Hell yeah, enough bare facts! This camera is sooo plastic. Looks like plastic, everything feels plastic and the sound is definitive plastic. “Lens made in Japan” can be read in large capital letters on the front of the lens, as if that was a mark of quality. Not with that camera.

BUT low quality has never been a downside with us lomographers, right? What I got for a whooping 1 EUR is a true Lomographic un-sharpshooter. The Fujinon produces low-fi creamy saturated colors, quite a bit of vignetting especially on blue sky. The pics come out really dreamy, reminds me of a Holga. Unfortunately it is missing a “B” setting. A strange thing about the focus is that it wont focus to infinity, the focus point seems to be set to “group portrait”.

For me the Fujica MA-1 was a great bargain and a big surprise. It´s my “borrow-it-to-a-friend-to-infect-him-with-the-lomographic-virus-camera.”

written by zark on 2009-03-13 #gear #plastic #35mm #review #toy-cam #fujica #japan

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14 Comments

  1. eyecon
    eyecon ·

    Yeah - something new from Zark! Ist #1 auch Hannover....?

  2. superlighter
    superlighter ·

    wow! lovely! I love the roofs with snow one!

  3. zark
    zark ·

    #1: Kröpcke Center, soon to be demolished! ;-)

  4. eyecon
    eyecon ·

    Ich hätts nicht erkannt!

  5. stouf
    stouf ·

    For one euro you made shots that worth millions !

  6. monoflow
    monoflow ·

    #20awesome! but they are all very nice!

  7. lomosexual_manboy
    lomosexual_manboy ·

    Really great pics Zark.

  8. zark
    zark ·

    #20 is the Gehry Tower, by Frank Gehry:
    de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry

  9. altprocess
    altprocess ·

    Very well done. There is some sharpness to that lens.

  10. imajrinalsi
    imajrinalsi ·

    for more information about this camera check
    nicnichols.com/FourCornersDark/?page_id=790
    www.flickr.com/groups/fujica_m1_fujica_ma-1/

  11. nicksholga
    nicksholga ·

    that's awesome! the pictures look more holga-like than the holga 135 pictures! too bad i couldn't find any on ebay.

  12. raisinglight
    raisinglight ·

    if you unscrew the bottom plate you will find 2 lead weighs.so it s pretty engineered for such a cheap camera and not all plastic.mine is red/black with a white button

  13. foodeanz
    foodeanz ·

    @nicksholga Fujica MA-1 or M1 can be found in Indonesia and Thailand....even in Vietnam...=)

  14. foodeanz
    foodeanz ·

    @nicksholga Fujica MA-1 or M1 can be found here in Malaysia...=)

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