Konica BM-510Z
Black Sheep of the Big Mini family and that’s ok
Big Mini is a revered name in the Point and Shoot camera world. Beautiful cameras with great lenses that can macro focus made by Konica a company that always punched above it’s weight class. Konica never really got the love that Canon or Nikon received in America. They do have some heavy hitters that were always respected such as the Big Mini series, Hexar AF, and their M-mount lenses which are much celebrated but the rest of line up never really caught on. Although never embraced on the same level they still made some top notch gear which will always be cheaper because of that fact. Their AR mount lenses are very very good and can be bought for quite cheap even now. The Autoreflex SLR series are also nice entry level cameras that people should be buying instead of spending 100s on Pentax K1000s or Canon AE-1s. I have a soft spot for camera companies that were big in the film days and never really made it in the digital age like Konica, Ricoh, Olympus, Minolta, Pentax, and Petri. I know some of them are still around but they don’t have the presence in the camera world they use to.
Most of the Big Mini series are very slick looking cameras that portray elegance (not so much this specific one). Like the Ricoh GR1 cameras they are minimalistic beauties, it has a lot of straight lines and box shape at least the popular ones do. Big Minis come in varied size and shapes such as F, A4 (not technically a Big Mini), 301, and etc. and can vary such as having large built in tripod stands, square or round protruding lens housings, and variables zoom. The one I have is a zoom which for the most part means it’s a “lesser” camera but does offer more framing flexibility. 1 Along with good picture sharpness this camera has a couple features I really appreciate such as a automatic lens cover and very quick start up, it also has a date-back but tops out at “19” for the year. Most date-back cameras I own stop around then. I wish companies that produced them need a little more faith in their product. The tele and wide zooming buttons are in the front of camera and need to be activated with the left hand which is fine. It means I usually have two hands on the camera that keeps it stable when you are zooming so one handed use is limited to sans tele/wide buttons. It also has the “problem” of being in auto flash mode when it’s turned on so you need to turn it off if you want to avoid flashing people.
I tend to use this camera a decent amount its very well rounded which makes it great for most occasions. It’s not sharpest but depending on what I am doing the zoom is worth the trade off. It has a nice brick-ish design that slips easily into coat pockets since it doesn’t bulge awkwardly on the body. Would recommend since they are decently priced for now.
-Dindo 1/2/21
Specs:
- Aperture: F3.5-
- Speed: 2s-1/250th
- Focal length: 32mm
- Power: 1 3V CR123A battery
1. This is a pretty safe rule for most film lenses and P&S cameras, primes are sharper than anything that zooms (modern zoom lenses for digital cameras can sometimes be as sharp if not sharper than any prime, technology is amazing). Sometimes its nominally better and other times it’s dramatically different. Cameras like MJU and MJU II (Stylus and Stylus Epic in American market) are very sharp small prime lens cameras that are deservingly well beloved. Their zooming counterparts are not as sharp especially when zoomed all the way out and have some light sealing issues in the barrel. Because of the love of the Mju and Mju II their zooming cousins have become prohibitively expense for a lesser product. It makes no damn sense.