Anyone Familar with Fujica Compact Deluxe?

[NickTrop]

Have one being shipped from eBoy. $15.00, no other bids. Seems to be a "forgotten" compact rangefinder from the mid-late 60's with full manual control and "I think" it's shutter priority in auto. I saw a small jpeg from a Fujica ad for the camera, that from what I could make out touted the lens as "the best Fujica ever produced". I know it's just an ad but Fujica made glass right up with the best of them, and the 60's japanese compacts seem to all have high spec glass.

The camera seems a bit of an odd bird with a film advance lever underneath the camera that you rotate with your thumb and a small wheel that's used to focus on the back of the camera, rather than on the lens barrel. I also believe to correct parralex error, that the rangefinder shifts the actual image but the framelines remain stationary(?) Not sure if that's true but if so, it's pretty weird. I also think a poster on this forum mentioned that it doesn't require mercury cells.

Anyway, there's very little "out there" about this camera. If anyone is familiar with it, any information about it would be appreciated. It seems like an RD only more eccentric and it costs less.

[ChrisPlatt]

IIRC Eric Hendrickson recently sold one of these on eBay;
he's a terrific repairman so I assume he serviced it, too.

I doubt he can give you much background,
but if it ever breaks or requires CLA,
contact pentaxrepairs@aol.com

Chris

[NickTrop]

Thanks Chris. Appreciate the info. Still waiting... this eBayer is a little slowish.

[ahantsch]

I have one and I'm very pleased with it. Excelent lens and easy to find battery (SR76, 1.5V Silver Oxide Button Cell).

I don't like very much the hard to press shutter button.

I scanned the owner's manual, please go to:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/30795468/F...Owner-s-Manual

Alfred @ Argentina