I’ve had the good fortune to visit Japan 5 times in the last 3 years. Each time I go, I get a kick out of choosing which film cameras to take with me – all of them Japanese of course. The Contax T3, Contax G1, Fujifilm Natura, and Minolta TC-1 have all been frequent visitors, but on the last 2 trips I’ve favoured the Fujifilm Klasse S.
The TC-1 is smaller, the T3 more luxurious – and no camera can beat the Natura for wide angles or low light shooting. Yet the Klasse S is almost like the quiet achiever in my collection. Not as flash as the others, yet it rivals the T3 in terms of image quality, and has more bells and whistles than the rest of the bunch combined.
Like the TC-1, you have the ability to choose your aperture, adjust exposure compensation, and set your film speed. The Klasse S goes further though with a bulb mode and Fujifilm’s Natural Photo mode. Whether or not these provide any value proposition to you will depend entirely on your own photographic preferences.
These photos are from my latest December 2025 trip. We arrived in Japan just in time to catch the autumn leaves in Kyoto, where I shot a roll of Fujifilm Superia Premium 400 with the Klasse S to capture the spectacular colours. Heading to Hokkaido for the second half of the trip, the weather conditions were markedly different. A multiday snowstorm was underway in Sapporo when we arrived, making any kind of photography a balancing act between getting a shot and having your camera covered in melting snow. When the storm cleared, I loaded up a roll of Natura and managed to get through all 36 frames before heading home.
When I started using my Klasse S again about a year ago, it took some time for me to get used to the 38mm field of view. Having used the TC-1 so often, I’d become accustomed to a wider 28mm frame. On this leg of the trip surrounded by Hokkaido’s wide open spaces, I appreciated the tighter crop.
The Klasse S is a wonderful pocket shooter, and capturing good photos is a fairly effortless process. Most days I was dressed in hiking pants and a down puffer jacket, so there was no shortage of places to store it. The camera switches on fairly quickly, you can either choose an aperture from f/2.8 to f/16, or (unlike the TC-1) you have the luxury of a program mode.
It’s true that there’s a slight delay when you press the shutter button, but it’s a camera for more considered shooting rather than fast street action. The exposure compensation dial got a good workout in the snowy conditions. Depending on how much white fluffy stuff was in each scene, I would add either 1 or 2 stops of exposure.
There are no award-winning shots on this roll, but overall, I’m happy with the results.
In the aftermath of this trip I stumbled across some listings for Natura on eBay – I was surprised to see how much it’s selling for now. This motivated me to create a YouTube video asking the question Is Fujifilm Natura Still Worth Shooting at $75 a Roll? In the first few minutes I talk about the history of Fujifilm’s high speed colour negative films, which sadly have all been discontinued.
For the first time in years I don’t have a Japan trip on the horizon, but when I do, the Klasse S will be a strong contender for a return visit.
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