2026-07-05 FujiFilm DL-450 Tele Super Camera

The FujiFilm DL-450 Tele Super (1991) was a slight upgrade to the DL-400 introduced a year earlier. The DL-450 has the feature of firing the electronic flash before the actual flash exposure. This pre-flash was supposed to cause the subjects pupils to close down to lessen the chance of “red-eye”.

This camera’s name is the European version. It had a different name when sold in North America.

All the “DL” labelled FujiFilm cameras were drop-in loading and loaded the film by advancing the film completely out and then winding the film back into the cartridge as it was exposed. This is a massive advantage if you are prone to opening the camera mid-roll!
The camera set its ISO from reading Dx coded cartridges. It could set from Dx 50 to Dx 1600.

   The camera turns on to being a 35 mm f/3.5 lens (3 elements in 3 groups). Pressing the lens switch provides an 80 mm f/6.7 focal length (7 elements in 6 groups). It doesn’t with this camera. Pressing the lens change switch produces a skipping gear on a rack sound. I have tried prying and pushing the lens while pressing the lens change switch without any sign of a change.*
   Another slight oddity of this camera is the use of a green light to indicate the subject is too far away for the flash. I think it might also light if the autofocus range is exceeded. Using green instead of red seems different.

The DL-450 is relatively light at 323 g. It is lighter than the Pentax Zoom 70-S collected at the same time that weighs 460 g (without batteries). Both cameras can use lithium 223 batteries that are relatively light, but the Zoom 70-S can also use 4 AAA alkaline batteries that would make it even heavier!

The battery door is captive, needing a coin to unscrew the keeper. Worth noting is the Lithium power source allowed this camera to take 1000 exposures with half of them using flash. That would be 40 24-exposure rolls of film or 27 36-exposure rolls. The flash recycled really quickly. The Lithium batteries also aged really well. The Lithium batteries huge drawbacks was the initial price and their relatively rarity compared to AAA batteries.

*I tried to take the DL-450 apart. After removing about ten screws all I could get to come off was the top. I didn’t see anything mechanical that was causing a problem, but I did notice a strange little wheel on the bottom of the frame. It was strange because it was a wheel with one projecting tooth. It might have been the sound I heard when I tried to switch focal lengths. I wasn’t brave enough to try firing the camera up with a battery while large amounts of electronics were bare.

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