A charity shop
find that i came across about a month ago. As you probably know, i am
not a point and shoot camera fan so it was a buy-to-sell buy in order to
further fund my passion for cameras.
This camera comes from the early '90s, and it was
targeted at the same lucrative sector of the higher-end point and shoot
compact cameras. The big mini resulted in good sales and there are a
number of different versions depending on whether they have data-back or
not and different aesthetics. All of them share the same very nice
lens, a 35 f/3.5 consisting of four elements in four groups. There is
also an upper Big-Mini F with a 35 f/2.8 lens but it is not that common
and it usually fetches a lot more.
The camera is a bit on the bigger side and the noise
that it makes while switching on and taking the picture is probably the
biggest disadvantage. Both my EOS 5 and Dynax 9xi are far more quiet
than this little monster. Another thing that left me wondering is the
shutter button, it wasn't always as responsive as other
P&S
cameras. On the positive side, the camera is packed with the usual flash
modes and a very useful +- 1.5 stop exposure compensation. Clearly, the
biggest advantage of this camera is the very nice lens, the pictures i
got from it are very nice overall but to my untrained eye, they seem to
lack the contrast of the Yashica T4 or Nikon L35AF.
 |
| Robert Frank with a Big-Mini |
There are a few reports on the Internet, regarding the
rather fragile way the ribbon cable is attached through the back door
hinges to the camera. This is something to inspect when buying one of
these because apparently there are quite a few that have presented this
problem and makes the LCD and the MODE buttons that are situated on the
back of the camera, inoperative. And by the way, those little buttons on
the back is a real pain to press....
Conclusion
There are
some pictures on the Internet with Robert Frank taking a picture with
one of those and despite the common knowledge that Robert Frank shot the
majority of his well known work with a Leica, not Konica, the Big Mini
seems to me to be fetching at this point in time a price tag that i find
difficult to justify. I sold mine for £40 which by no means i think is
reasonable. I know that i am heavily biased towards SLR's but think what
£40 could get you; pretty much any standard 50mm lens will probably
outperform the little Konica and the SLRs will offer more versatility.
Of course if compactness is your number one priority then sure, why
not... otherwise i would suggest you look elsewhere until the prices
start dropping to a more reasonable level.
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