_valerian

Konica Big Mini: an entirely unnecessary and overly rambling account of an underrated camera.

The greatest thing about the Big Mini is it’s simplicity. You put the film in, it advances itself, then you point it at what you want a picture of and push the button. You will get a picture that might be better than you deserve. The lens is set at 35mm and if you want to zoom you lean forward or move your feet. It is as much camera as most people might ever need. So is an Olympus Trip 35, as you will discover after reading this interesting article.

Both my camera (on top, with the Nyaraki strap) and Ikue’s camera (with the black cat) are BM-301s, made in about 1992 or ‘93.
Mine was 3000 yen at Map Camera in Shinjuku. A functioning data back lets you set the flash , but when the wires in the back door hinge are frayed (like in mine) the camera is purely automatic, which is why it was so cheap. It was technically broken then, and after almost 3 years of daily use it is certainly beat to hell now. The front cover popped off after meeting the floor of a karaoke pub on Hachijyo Island in 2006, but it was something some black tape could fix. Despite all sorts of abuse, nothing but a dead battery has ever stopped it from making as good of photographs as I can take.

This little point and shoot works as a foil to my Leicas and to the concept that a photograph has added intrinsic value based on how much actual technical control the photographer had in making it. Lack of control is precisely what makes it interesting.

I’d argue that too many choices will hinder a photographer by allowing someone to become more concerned about what they think they could (or should) do instead of being focused on just what they readily can do, which is to shoot. How limiting and frustrating and boring it must be to sift through menus and manhandle one of those enormous DLSRs with 36 point 3D multifaceted eye controlled auto-focus, shooting 9 Frames Per Second through some flower-hooded 18-400mm f2.8 zoom shot in RAW or Medium Well or whatever and then going home to sit there in front of a screen and scroll through hundreds of images and burn back-up DVD copies of all those pictures you are never going to print? (Hah- as opposed to shooting two thousand rolls of film and exhibiting only 60 pictures total in two shows in 3 years?) Or maybe it’s that a DSLR is just another way to go about it and if you enjoy it, then by all means, keep on shooting.

If you were wondering, you can buy about 62 used Big Minis (at 8000 yen apiece) for the cost of one new Nikon D3. But if you wait a few years that figure might balance out similar to the current Big Mini Ratio (BMR is the economic term) of a single used Nikon D1 (circa 1999) which has a BMR of 3 to 1, and a few more megapixels than my mobile phone.

Anyways as a Christmas present to myself I picked up a second Konica Big Mini at Camera Box in Shinjuku last week. This one is a BM-201 and besides being silver, it also has a fully functional data-back which is going to be used to record the date. Also, it lets me know how many shots are left on a roll, information my previous one kept as a mute secret.
I don’t like how it underexposes Fuji Presto, so it is strictly a color film camera. Most color I’ve shot over the past few years has been with a Big Mini. The prints are all put into albums and a few get scanned and put into my ongoing diary.

While we are on the topic of film point and shoots, what about the Olympus Miu?

Here is my answer: The Miu (at the right) is a sharp little camera, with a lens that for color portraits seems cold and clinical when compared to prints from a Big Mini. (That is an entirely lame thing to say-Eds)
Color portraits is what the (my) Big Mini excels at. All of these and these were taken with my Big Mini. It’s not that there is some technical specification that a small point and shoot has that makes it good for portraits. It cannot create a narrow depth of field to “separate the subject from distracting backgrounds” and it doesn’t even have integrated facial recognition technology or that creepy programing that recognizes smiles. However it does have a strange little character about itself that apparently is disarming. Taped up, it does not look threatening in the least and I’ve had little trouble getting in people’s faces with it. The less “real” it looks, the better I guess. It is the perfect conversation camera, small and innocuous, cute and unobjectionable.
Plus, when shooting Japanese photo-literate people, you have the added bonus of hearing “Oh- just like Hiromix (or Araki)” when you pull it out of your camera bag.

If you are in the market for a little film an point and shoot, the Big Mini is (in Japan) easy to find, and far cheaper than a Ricoh GR, Minolta TC-1, Fuji Klasse, or Contax T3.

Elsewhere:

– The Big Mini is featured on this blog with a very similar photo (in terms of camera positioning) to the picture above. Araki is referenced.

– Konica is a good resource for more information. You can see the first Big Mini and the final Big Mini F

– Another picture of a BM-301 and some more information in Japanese.