Dead

Kind if ironic.

After deciding NOT to buy the analog Pentax 17 - and instead use "the next best thing" I have at home - which is the Konica HEXAR AF - acting like a little automated Leica M (with manual settings possible)...

It gave up. Is dead.

I rarely have cameras that just quit on me. After 31 years of duty - well i guess the Konica Hexar AF is smoke from now on. Apparently it isn't uncommon that the captivators on the circuit board can fail. I have not yet decided if i open it up, trying to clean it - or sending it off to a repair shop in Finland... or just letting it die "as it is".

I believe the last time I used it was summer 2021, when Sal was in Sicily, while Tekki and I went about in that sunny weather, and i had it also with me at work (subway).

 

A pity it is of course...

The Hexar is special in regard that it was more advanced compared to a Leica. For those who wished in the 90s for a Leica with automatic and AF, so to speak. It is also the kind of analog camera I have, that acts like a "full automatic compact camera".

Shame that it broke.

No Pentax 17. No Konica Hexar AF, either.

 

Am I enough interested to give the Hexar AF into repair ?

I am sure that if i send it off to Finland, the cost likely will be close to what i would have to pay for a Pentax 17 half-format camera. And I wonder if i am really that interested in reviving the Hexar... if that is even possible (since there are no spare parts available anymore).

Before I discovered that the Hexar was dead, i basically looked everywhere i keep photographic equipment, in order to find the little Konica flash that belongs to this camera. It took 1.5 hours - and to my surprise, I couldn't find it.

Well, it would have been even more sour, if i finally had found the flash - and then discovered that the Konica Hexar AF isn't working anymore

 

Third best option ?

I am not sure. Either my old Canon EF or the Canon AE-1 analogue SLR camera, I could use. But then it isn't compact anymore, nor is there any AF. The whole idea was to have access to an analog COMPACT camera, keeping it around in my backpack, at all times.

Maybe I should bring back a very, very simple, analog Canon EOS 3000 V camera. It has AF. Pairing it with my smallest EOS EF lens perhaps ? And what lens would that be... uhm... I don't know *LOL*

The weird EF 28/1.8 USM perhaps...

 

Oh boy, that grip is STICKY !!

I cleaned it (took away the sticky layer) with Isopropyl alcohol - and that worked. The shutter button however feels as if there is some glue feeling from within making the button a bit "slow". However - it does work. The camera even had still film in it - and God knows from when... It is a roll from 30 meter bulk-film. Perhaps Ilford HP5+ 400 ?! No lo so (I don't know).

None of the three cameras can be called compact, really.

Small, but not compact - especially with a lens on it. The Canon EF and AE1, have a fun factor in their robust handling; like little trucks with a solid (and rather fun) feeling when dealing with them. Both work (since I have a special battery converter in each of them - they can now use normal button cells). The super plastic "fantastic" Canon EOS 3000 V on the other hand feels... kind of strange... weird. Diffuse. Clunky plasticy feeling.

 

Will see.

Haven't made up my mind.

If i use the manual focus Canon EF or AE-1 cameras, or the Canon EOS 3000v. THE Canon EF + AE-1 need foam seal replacement - there are hardly any left to speak of. Just old dirty frime left in the places where there use to be foal seals. Those important in order to prevent light from leaking into the camera / onto the film.

Now where are those damn foam sheets.... huh !?

Tekki... search. Fetch !

 

I found them !


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