Konica C35 EF aka ‘Pikkari’ Mini-Review – Compact Fun Shooting – By Meifei Tang

I picked up a Konica C35 EF in early in 2018 from eBay Japan. It cost me US$17 and it arrived with some issues such as a missing glass panel and the film rewind knob. I took it for repair at my trusty guy in the electronics market and it was transformed to as good as new for another US$20.

I bought the camera out of curiosity. I was reading a book in a friend’s gallery about Andy Warhol and his Studio 54 days and lo and behold, the Konica C35 was one of his favorites. I got curious and so I got one. Again, for the price I got it for, I thought it should be interesting to see what it comes up with.

The Konica C35 EF is also known as Pikkari in Japan, but the C35 EF name gives away its features. The C stands for compact, 35 for 35mm film, and EF for electronic flash. Obviously, it is a 35mm compact camera with electronic flash. It was introduced in 1975 and was the first compact camera with a built-in flash. It has a 38mm f/2.8 Hexanon lens and is focused via preset distances on the rotating lens barrel.

I loaded the camera with a 1.35V battery for power and 2AA batteries for the flash and first tried it as Andy Warhol used it – during the night. During one of our cross-border trips, I packed it in my son’s diaper bag and started shooting.

I shot a roll of Kodak Colorplus 200 in the Konica C35 EF and found that the colors really pop out. That flash is strong too and details are not bad as well. Now I understand why Warhol liked it a lot. It’s compact, easy to use and just delivers.

Since the first roll, the Konica C35 EF has always been a go-to camera when I’m out on my bicycle around my border town neighborhood.

Here are more images of my neighborhood with the C35:

I didn’t realize how much I had shot the Konica C35 EF until I was organizing files and saw how many folders of scans I have from rolls of film I have shot with it. I like the black body, it’s easy to use, and again, it delivers pretty good images. What more could I want? I now fondly call it my “Andy Warhol Camera”.

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