I picked up a Konica Big Mini from a charity shop today for the very reasonable price of £5. Pleased!
It did have a very unsightly accumulation of dust in the lens, or at least behind what appears to be some sort of filter, or lens protector on front. I was a little concerned initially, but it turned out to be two screws and a very quick job.
There are two screws, one either side of the extended lens.
Unscrew these and pull the front part of the lens off. Bit of a blow and a wipe and all the nasty little bits of fluff were gone!
Put it back together and I have a nice clean lens!
Im looking forward to trying this camera out, I’ve read a lot of very positive opinions on it. I shall post my thoughts as soon as I have had a chance to run a film through it.
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Now that I have three of those I’m thinking of getting an IR gel and convert one into an IR camera. The gel would just go where the protective filter sits …
I’d like to see that! I suppose you might have issues with focus for closer work, but landscapes should be fine…?
Hello there Hamish. I just bought one konica big mini BM201 for a good price and I had the very same problem. After reading your post I tried it myself. Everything went fine and it was clean once again but… Now the lens doesn’t slide in and out so smoothly. Seems like the motor is being forced therefor making a strange slow working noise. Do you have any idea why this happened and if I can fix it? thanks…
Have you either tightened the screw to tight or left it too loose?
Neither one or the other. I wonder if it can be the battery. I bought a new Panasonic Photo Power CR123A (Lithium 3V CR17345). The camera still marks it as full, but I don’t know if testing the motor so many times made it slower…
I tested now without the lens cap and it still is slow (not so much but still slower than before). So that must not be the problem :/
If it works, I wouldn’t worry anyway … As long as it takes pictures, that’s al that really matters!
Hello Hamish, i’ve got a konica A4, and the film doesn’t wind, the camera works fine without film, everything works fine except this issue. Do you got any idea how to solve this problem?
You might want to try changing the battery in the data back
Hi Hamish, I already found the problem, the problem is with the Film Sprocket, i will try to open and fix.
Thanks
Cool, good luck!
I had an A4 and got great results with it. Mine started to run automatically to the film end, shooting each frame non-stop. I was told that the electronics were wonky on these and winder-related issues were somewhat common. let us know how things turn out, please.
Hey Hamish,
Any idea where I could pick up a light seal kit for the Konica A4? Got a little rectangle light leak that is in the left of my landscape exposures and the top of my potrait exposures.
What colour is the leak?
White!
Its a soft white, that appears to come from the film canister side.
Me too brett after taking the front off to clean the lens, i imagine we’ve damaged the light baffles by taking it apart.
Thats a shame Keiran! I have not taken mine apart, but its not a consistent light leak. So strange.