Paulo J Moreira
Fujica ST801
A nice M42 camera that hides it game well. It is quite small, almost Olympus OM-1 small, but it was developed at the same time as the OM series. To be honest, I did not have a particularly good vibe concerning these M42 Fujicas, but I was wrong. The ST-801 is an all mechanical camera that features a horizontal run focal plane shutter with speed from 1s to 1/2000th, a high class shutter, matching the very best at the time. Also, it is very quiet and vibration is not an issue. The all bells and whistles OM-1 is noisy and vibrates more, not to mention a lower spec’d shutter.
The viewfinder is nice, bright, but not very crisp. In fact, either it is my battered unit that has an issue, but its viewfinder is not brighter than my Revueflex SD-1 (Chinon CS-4) or the last M42 Prakticas (MTL 50). Still, it is nice, it features for the first time in a camera (I think!) a LED exposure system in the viewfinder that I find really intuitive and well designed. The shutter speeds are also visible in the viewfinder, again, the OM-1 feels old with its match needle system .
The camera accepts all M42 lenses and it also does not need to take readings in closed down mode. All this is courtesy of a little pin, however, no pin, no open TTL reading, back to the old stopped down mode, but at least, all M42 lenses can be used, just like the Praktica LLC.
It doesn’t feel as sturdy and well built like a Spotmatic, but then few cameras do. The camera is light, the advance lever transmits to the hand all the efforts that it is going through, hardly Spotmatic quality, but it works.
Many thanks to my friend Filipe Mendonça for this donation!
Fujica ST801
A nice M42 camera that hides it game well. It is quite small, almost Olympus OM-1 small, but it was developed at the same time as the OM series. To be honest, I did not have a particularly good vibe concerning these M42 Fujicas, but I was wrong. The ST-801 is an all mechanical camera that features a horizontal run focal plane shutter with speed from 1s to 1/2000th, a high class shutter, matching the very best at the time. Also, it is very quiet and vibration is not an issue. The all bells and whistles OM-1 is noisy and vibrates more, not to mention a lower spec’d shutter.
The viewfinder is nice, bright, but not very crisp. In fact, either it is my battered unit that has an issue, but its viewfinder is not brighter than my Revueflex SD-1 (Chinon CS-4) or the last M42 Prakticas (MTL 50). Still, it is nice, it features for the first time in a camera (I think!) a LED exposure system in the viewfinder that I find really intuitive and well designed. The shutter speeds are also visible in the viewfinder, again, the OM-1 feels old with its match needle system .
The camera accepts all M42 lenses and it also does not need to take readings in closed down mode. All this is courtesy of a little pin, however, no pin, no open TTL reading, back to the old stopped down mode, but at least, all M42 lenses can be used, just like the Praktica LLC.
It doesn’t feel as sturdy and well built like a Spotmatic, but then few cameras do. The camera is light, the advance lever transmits to the hand all the efforts that it is going through, hardly Spotmatic quality, but it works.
Many thanks to my friend Filipe Mendonça for this donation!