Fujica M1 Review : by photographer Dimas Ario
In the last couple of months, I’ve seen the rising popularity of Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim camera. Now Vivitar UW&S has become a cult camera among toy camera enthusiast. However, in fact, there’s a lot of toy cameras out there that have same poor quality like Vivitar UW&S and waiting to be discovered. One of those cameras that I refer to is Fujica M1 (I think it’s called Fujica MA-1 in several countries)
After a quick googling, I found out that this plastic camera was made in my country, Indonesia by PT. Honoris Industry in 1982. What an honor to have this camera made in Indonesia and to know that we have the same birth year!
PT. Honoris Industry is one of three subsidiaries of PT. Modern Photo Tbk, the sole distributor of Fuji Photo Film CO. LTD. products in Indonesia since 1971.
In mid 80s, Fujica M1 met with significant success in its domestic and export markets. In 1984, nearly 140,000 unit cameras sold in the global market, and 58 percent of them were sold in France. Ok, enough of this boring history. Now, let’s move on.
Like I said before, Fujica M1 has the same poor quality as the Vivitar UW&S and also with Holga 135, in my opinion. Fujica M1 creates some natural vignettes on the edges. Maybe it’s all because of the plastic lens. It is a fixed focus Fujinon lens with 3 weather settings, although these settings actually had no effect at all. Everything is based on the users own sense of estimation, experience and skills- or maybe a large dash of luck.
I bought this camera about four months ago from flea market for less than 2 dollars. You could say that I’m lucky enough to get this precious camera at a very cheap price. But one thing for sure, luck must have certainly been on my side as my film roll. (Kodak Ektachrome E100VS) stayed intact throughout the trial shoot. Here are couples of examples from my first trial shoot with Fujica M1:
I think the picture vignettes even more when cross processed. The colors are a bit grainy and not so crisp and it creates amazing flare when it pointed into the sun. One of the great things about this camera that really pleased me is that the Fujica M1 equipped with a hot shoe. So I can put my color splash flash on it.
The only bad thing about this camera is there’s no multiple-exposure feature and bulb setting like Holga 135. But maybe, I’d like to do a small modification for it.
Undoubtedly, it’s really a fun little camera, which is literally good plastic point-and-shoot camera that has wonderful plastic fantastic charm. And thank God the price is very ‘fantastic’ too.
Because of the extreme cheap price of Fujica M1, I will end this review with paraphrased an old joke about Trabant and gasoline, “How can you double the value of a Fujica M1? Load it with slide film.”
Dimas Ario is from Indonesia. Currently he is working as a music editor on local subculture magazine, based in Bandung City, Indonesia. Beside writing, his other biggest passion is photography, specifically with toy cameras. “Images that capture my attention are daily pictures of life. I enjoy my own variation of street photography and also enjoy shooting casual, impromptu portraits, mainly of friends and relatives.”