Leica Mini

INCLUDED ITEMS: 

• Leica Mini 35mm film camera
• Strap
• CR123A battery
• Roll of Kodak Colorplus 200 (may vary due to availability)

CONDITION:  Pre-owned. Film tested and fully working. Excellent condition, with normal signs of light use. Nine photos from two test rolls (taken with Kodak Pro Image 100 and Kodak 400TX) can be viewed in the images.

MORE ABOUT THIS CAMERA:  The Leica Mini was made in Japan in 1991 with 50,000 units being produced. It has quite a nice lens (Leica Elmar 35mm f/3.5 with active infrared autofocus), a good flash, and decent construction and design. The photos from the Mini are often quite uniquely stunning, the lens is fairly sharp and the colours it produces have a feeling of naturalness to them, and a big part of the reason for this is the UVa protection filter built onto the front lens element. Another thing we really like is the simple menu screen where there are only four settings ('Auto', 'Flash On', 'Flash Off', and 'Infinity' modes), which makes it quick and easy to find the setting you want. Other handy features include a self-timer, DX decoding (50-1000 ISO), focus lock, film rewind button (for mid-roll rewinding), and a tripod socket. The biggest limitation we've found with this camera is that it can struggle on bright sunny days. The reason for this is the limited aperture range of  f/3.5 to f/7.6 and shutter speed range of 1/250 -1/5 sec. This lends itself well to shooting in low and partial lighting, but makes photos susceptible to over-exposure in particularly sunny conditions (especially with colour negative film). So this is something to be mindful of. One way to approach this is to use a slow speed film, such as ISO 50 (using a film with a slower speed than 50 ISO won't be read by the DX reader and will be shot at 100 ISO). You may also wish to try a 50 ISO black and white film or slide film which both have more of a creative look when over-exposed than normal colour negative film does. And the other option is to not use this camera on the sunniest of days, or alternatively seek out a setting that's in the shade. Overall though, in most conditions this camera is easy to use, well-built, and takes beautiful, natural-looking photos that stand out against the quality of many other similar point and shoots.

YEAR RELEASED:  1991
LENS:  LEICA ELMAR with UVa protection filter built onto front lens element (4 elements in 3 groups)
FOCAL LENGTH:  35mm fixed-focus
APERTURE:  f/3.5 -  f/14.0
SHUTTER SPEED:  1/250 sec - 1/5 sec
AUTOFOCUS:  Active infrared autofocus system
FOCUS LOCK:  Yes
INFINITY FOCUS MODE:  Yes
MACRO MODE:  No
CLOSEST FOCUS DISTANCE:  0.65m
DX READING:  50 ISO - 1000 ISO
LCD PANEL:  Yes
FILM CHECK WINDOW:  Yes
FLASH:  Auto (plus flash-on and flash-off modes)
RED EYE REDUCTION:  No
FLASH RELOAD TIME:  ?
SELF-TIMER:  Yes
FILM ADVANCE/REWIND:  Auto advance / auto rewind (and forced rewind button)
TRIPOD SOCKET:  Yes
POWER SOURCE:  1x CR123A battery

SHIPPING & RETURNS:  Free shipping (Express) on orders over $199. Twelve month warranty on all cameras. Visit Shipping & Returns for more info.