Mama Mamiya – 5 Frames with a Mamiya 135AF

The year is 1980. A time of New Romantic synth-pop music, shoulder pads and neon colours.  Big hair, make up on both sexes, and a time of big statement looks.  Duran Duran, U2, Depeche Mode and the Eurythmics were some of the music sounds filling the air waves.

The internet was very limited, granting access mostly to universities, government agencies and major corporations.  It was too a year marked by major events. The assassination of John Lennon, the eruption of Mount St Helens, and the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war.

Pac-Man and Space Invaders were the games of the day. The Rubix Cube was popular, and Apple Computers went public.  Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back was doing the rounds, and Abba had released their latest album Super Trouper.

Why a history lesson you may ask?  And what has this got to do with 35mmc.com? Well, it was same the year the camera for this article came out. The Mamiya 135AF, one of many early attempts at the auto focus 35mm compact market.

At the time I was looking for a pocketable 35mm compact with manual film advance, which none of my current compacts have.  I have a few outdated films, so like to use these for any new camera I pickup,  as well for testing a few frames from new black and white films.

The camera came by chance as I was browsing through ebay one evening. It seemed to fit my needs, was only £10.00 so I thought why not? It stated not working and looked in really good condition so I took a chance and purchased it, and it duly arrived a few days later.

The camera uses 2 AA batteries which is another plus, so I popped two in pressed the shutter and bingo… nothing happened.  On inspection I could see corrosion on one of the battery terminals, so after a little clean, I replaced the batteries and this time it fired up and seemed to work. The original light traps were also well past their sell by date so were duly replaced.

For a plastic fantastic, it’s quite a nice looking camera, rather reminiscent of a Nikon L35AF. It sports a Mamiya Sekor 38.2.8mm lens, and focuses from 1.2 metres to infinity. The shutter speeds range from 1/8 to 1/450 of a second, with an ASA range up to 400 adjusted manually by turning a dial in the centre of the lens.

To focus, you half press the shutter and lock onto the distance, before taking the picture. A red light warning also comes on to indicate camera shake and it has an on and off switch for the flash.

The following weekend, I put an out of date colour 24 exposure film in and took a stroll around St Helens in Merseyside.

Like a lot of towns today, it is undergoing some demolition and renovation, leaving a lot of empty properties by the wayside awaiting their funeral, then all that is left, is a piece from history.

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