2026-06-20 Pentax PC35AF-M Camera

   I went crazy one day and bought $28 worth of camera equipment in one place. One of the items was a $20 tripod I already had, but that is a story for another day.
   One of the other items was this Pentax PC35AF-M (from 1984) in a really fine case. Unfortunately it turned out to be broken. When you add two AA-batteries and open the front up, it just keeps rewinding. Before I could tear it down—trying to find the problem— it got put away.
   I had written about this camera in AllPhotography (a newsletter I wrote from 2000-2010) Issue 26 (December 1/ 2006). In that article I pointed out I had already loaned an earlier camera out to a daughter 12 years ago. So now I must have at least three PC35AF-M cameras kicking around.

It is a great little camera for many reasons. It has a tough metal body, a five element in five groups f/2.8 35 mm lens, autofocus with preview of which of the three distances it has chosen, built in self-timer and flash, motor advance and rewind and much more. One of the negative aspects is its weight and it being slightly too large to carry in a pocket comfortably. Its plastic battery door tends to pop open when it shouldn’t. It’s noisy.
It is such a classic I don’t feel bad about collecting another. In my opinion it beats many of the all-plastic point-and-shoot wonders that became the norm.

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2026-03-14 - History and Evolution of the Kodak Logo

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