Fujica STX-1

Fujica is probably the camera make you’ve heard good things about but you never bothered looking on that auction site for one. Fujicas were quite popular at their time, they were offering a good mixture of quality and low price backed up by a beautiful line of Fujinon lenses. Fujica was the camera-making section of Fuji industries, starting the manufacturing of cameras in 1948 with the Six I BS – a 6X6 folder and continued to the very popular for the 50’s-60’s rangefinder sector before introducing the Fujica ST 701 in the early seventies. The ST X01/X05 series became popular as they were carrying the famous M42 mount, giving the photographer a vast range of lens choices, from the world famous Takumars to the FSU lenses. By the late 70’s, things had moved on, the offerings from Nikon/Canon/Minolta/Olympus/Pentax meant that the M42 mount was outdated so Fujica presented its own mount, the X-Fujinon mount which they sadly discontinued 5 years later when they pulled the SLR plug.

My camera, the Fujica STX-1, belongs to the first series of X-mount cameras introduced by Fujica. It has a peculiarity though. It looks like an ST 605N with a X-mount. I was wondering why would Fujica produce something like it. Maybe they felt the need to bridge somehow the previous ST line with the following AX? Maybe they had some spare parts left from the ST series? We’ll probably never know. My sample seemed to have had quite a difficult life. The self-timer is missing, the battery compartment is completely corroded, dings and scratches all over the body, deteriorated light seals, the light meter is not working but .. hey…the shutter fires correctly at all speeds! Apparently it required a lot of TLC (i.e. "tender loving care") and now it looks nice and clean again. What a nice surprise actually, the mirror is so well damped and the quite heavy for its size body doesn’t give you any vibrations. The shutter is a mechanical one and does not require any batteries to work and -good news - it is not very noisy either. Fit and finish are fine and a couple of details, such as the coated eyepiece and the quite bright viewfinder, show that this camera was a quality offering from Fujica. Another thing that gave me positive first impressions is the size. It is smaller than most of my SLRs and smaller even than some of my rangefinders (Fed-3b) but it is not too small and fiddly to use.

I can give you 3 good reasons why you would want to have a Fujica. First of all they are all well made. Probably better than the Zenits or the Prakticas, it is highly unlikely that it will disappoint you the moment you really want to take a picture (hmm.. praktica….). Another good reason is the price. You get a very good camera for the money. Really. I got mine for £8 although I know that sometimes Fujicas tent to go as high as £50 on the net (money well deserved if you like this kind of cameras). The best reason, why you would want to get a camera like this is the quality lenses that those cameras come with. I know that Fujinons (and especially X-Fujinons) can be a bit on the rare side but believe me they worth every penny. And don’t get caught up in the “EBC vs non-EBC” debate, my standard 50 f/1.9 is a non EBC but it is so good that I wish I could use it on other cameras too. Contrasty, with loads of details, well made and handles flare with ease, it is a fantastic lens (as all fujinons are) no matter what the price range. I’ve said somewhere else on my blog, the Fujinons and the Hexanons are lenses that you should give it a go at some point.

So what is the problem with this camera? Well, none really. The only thing that bothers me is that it is a vanilla flavour camera. Nothing to be excited about but it does do what it is meant to do and you do enjoy using it at the end. Good news is that the prints I got back where nothing near vanilla flavour thanks to the little Fujinon. I think these were one of the best £8 I ever spend on a camera. Full stop.

Conclusion

I don’t really know what is the conclusion here. I always considered Fujicas to be unexcited cameras and at some level I still feel the same about it. But when you think about the combination of build quality, price and the fantastic Fujinons I cannot see how someone could go wrong with getting one and trying it themselves. I think that a Fujica is probably one of the best offers for a cheap, well made, walk about camera and the list of positives outweigh my concept of what might be boring or exciting for you. If you feel the price is right, give it a go. 

Lasting impressions

I sold this camera soon after the review. The non-working light meter always bugged me so i decided to let it go. The compact size and it's very nice build quality remind me a lot of the other tiny mechanical SLR i have, the Pentax MX and although the two cameras are worlds apart, i can say that the Fujica mas as much fun to use as the Pentax. Excellent lenses too!