After having my beloved Practika L stolen in the very early 1980s, I bought one of these excellent pocket cameras. It went everywhere with me taking really sharp photos of my young son (from 3 to about 10), my beautiful and classy new girlfriend in 1986 (we were married in 1990 and still are) and my lovely mum (she is no longer with us for the past 3 yrs).
If you understand depth of field, hence zone focus, it’s really easy to use. My standard approach for holiday shot was to try and shoot and f5.6 (sharpest performance) or f8 then set infinity at one extreme of the engraved DOF markers then try and ensure no on walked into the closer distance. At f8 this is about 10 ft.
It’s been all over Europe, Malaysia, America and was my pride and joy until I got my first Canon EF 600, then my EOS1 and onward into Canon DSLR and M series.
In the 1990s I did get a Fuji DL mini for its great lens and autofocus speed, plus wider angle view.
I’m off to Japan and Hong Kong in a few weeks (with my wife 40 yrs after we met) and it’s a toss up which of these two pocket cameras I’ll take.
My heart says the Minox for all its family history and our personal nostalgia but my brain says the DL mini to complement my X100VI as that has a 35mm equivalent lens and the DL mini 28mm for wider shots.
I guess the DL mini with Fuji film would make sense in Japan, but the Minox with Kodak Gold 200 would be an interesting contrast. I’m just waiting to get a new battery kit for the Minox and film stock.
Any film stock recommendations for autumn in Japan. I think Velvia is too expensive and I probably need the latitude of print negative. Gold 200?
From what I’ve heard recently, you’ll be better off taking all your film to Japan, as all colour is priced highly there. That said, I’d probably pick something ISO 200-400 or maybe even Portra 800, as that would make shooting zone-focusing cameras much easier, if you’re still considering that!
Andrew Crossley Sep 7, ‘25
Dmitri Sep 7, ‘25