Treasure hunting: Pentax PC35AF

Just came across a very nice Pentax PC35AF compact camera in a flea market last week and I bought it without second thought......

Pentax PC35AF is the first Compact Camera from Pentax which is launched in 1984. Around that time, Minolta launched a deluxe compact camera Minolta AFC, while Olympus had the XA series. Canon also had the Canon MC. (yes...Contax launched the most beautiful Compact Camera Contax T as well.)

Pentax PC35AF is not an usual camera. It has a 5 elements/5 groups 35mm f/2.8 lens, with the nearest focusing distance of 0.7M. The size of PC35AF is not as small as Olympus XA but it has the built-in flash. PC35AF uses 2 AAA batteries and the back cover is made of metal so it is pretty heavy but solid in construction. It also has an +1.5EV exposure compensation button. It is a bridge compact camera between mechanic Compact camera to fully auto compact camera. You need to wind and rewind the film manually.. But the story doesn't stop at here. Pentax would like to let this camera having an auto winding function. So they made an add-on winder !!!. It is really really rare comparing with the camera itself... It was the reason why I bought this camera at once since it came with the winder!