The Vyne woodlands with Sigma DP2 Merrill

The Vyne woodlands with Sigma DP2 Merrill

Fuji DL-200 - review

How did I come to review the Fuji DL-200? I was a little tired with my 35mm rangefinder cameras, the focusing and the poor or non functional metering, yet interested in the smaller 35mm as opposed to medium format that I shoot most of the time.
I love the my Fuji GA645 point and shoot. What a stellar lens and the ease of shooting with all manual controls when so needed, but yet it is a little bulky and heavy to carry in the laptop bag for occasional film photography when around and about.

So I looked for a 35mm P&S, Fujifilm Klasse, Contax T3, Leica Mini, Konica Hexar, Nikon 35TI all very tempting with full control of the process when so needed, but dropping £500+ on a used camera with many of the models having users witnessing challenges with electronics in these cameras just was not justifiable. The basic idea was to have something always hanging around in the laptop backpack, but expensive gear is not ideal for this.

Next level was premium lens quality P&S like well renowned Yashica T3/T4/T5 fetching £250 on Ebay or Olympus Mju-II for £150 also felt wrong.

Back to square one need to look for a sleeper , Minolta TC-1, Fuji Tiara, Konica Mini Big oops hardly sleepers hmm

All the Fujinon lenses I own have been of good quality, from the truly stellar Fujinon 60/4 Super EBC on the GA645 to sharp Fujinon 50/1.8 EBC on the Fujica Compact Deluxe and the fantastic color rendering of Fujinon 50/1.4 EBC in M42.

There must have been a Fuji/Fujica P&S that was good from that time period. Back in the 80s Fuji was well known for film in the west but their cameras and lenses had little mindshare.
After some research I found a few interesting models Fujica Auto-5 (Fujinon 38/2.8), Fujica Auto-7(Fujinon 38/2.8), Fujica DL-100 (Fujinon 38/2.8), Fujica DL-200 (Fujinon 32/2.8), Fujica DL-300 (Fujinon 35/2.8). There are not many reviews of these models on the web as they are not that common. I browsed the of photos on Flickr for these models still unclear which one to select. I cant say I found the flickr samples very encouraging but then I know that it is not only the camera, it is equally much your skills as a photographer and the knowledge of tools for scan and post process that creates the final picture. Most users seemed only to shot one test film and then giving up. After a while I had decided that a DL-300 would probably be my preference as one could turn off the flash, with DL-200 being second choice because of the interesting TTL metering and the lens of four elements in four group (ie not a tessar clone) but no suitable samples of DL-300 came up so I eventually became the owner of a DL-200 for £9.

Technical spec.
Lens: Fujinon 32mm f2.8, 4 elements in 4 groups
Exposure: Through the lens, EV8.5-18 for ISO 100 film
Shutter: 1/40s to 1/400s
Minimal focus dist: 60cm
Flash: Automatic, Guide Number 10
Film speed: ISO50 to ISO1600 through DX coding. Non DX coding interpreted as ISO100


Enough elaboration on the choice.What about the camera?

First of all it has drop loading meaning that you drop in the film without the whole back opening. Once shut the rear door the camera winds all film and the film counter show how many shots you have left. So the shots are done in reverse order on the film. Each shot protected from accidental opening of the rear door as it is rolled back into the film canister. This was a new thing back in 1983 when the camera was released.

How about the lens?
It is interesting to note that this is not a triplet nor a Tessar clone. There are four elements in four groups. I read somewhere that this was supposed to be an Unar like design.
To be honest when the first film came back I was not impressed because I maybe wrongly had GA645 quality in my mind. The Fujinon 32/2.8 is no Fujinon 60/4 Super EBC but it is still contrasty.

How sharp is it? about the same as Olympus 35RC. Having said that I dont consider the Zuiko 42/2.8 to be very sharp , wide open it is a little soft in my mind, stopped down to f8 yes it is sharp. (Reference calibration for the reader, very sharp lenses in my own experience are the Sigma 30/2.8 on Sigma DP2 Merrill or Fujinon 60/4 Super EBC on Fuji GA645)
There is of course no scientific way of comparing the Zuiko with the Fujinon as one cannot control the aperture on the DL-200 Fujinon 32/2.8.

While the lens has not EBC marking, I bet it is EBC coated though. The shimmer from the coating reflection has the same characteristics as the Fujinon 50/1.4 EBC lens. I tried to shoot into the light and it handles it quite well.

Lets look at some samples. This one shoot straight towards the sun coming from behind St Paul speaks for itself.

St Paul's Cathedral
Fuji DL-200, Fuji Superia 400 (CH-25)

Upper Thames street
Fuji DL-200, Fuji Superia 400 (CH-25)

Next one done under less light and as you can see the aperture has opened up so one can see some background bokeh.

Vauxhall VX220
Fuji DL-200, Fuji NPZ800 (expired 10y+, shot at IE400)

 Next one is under exposed, shot in dusk.

I guess this would be with aperture fully open and the longest shutter time of 1/40.
As you can see there is vignetting, an issue in a pure chemistry work flow but with the hybrid chemistry and digital work flow it is not really an issue and maybe even could be described as character.

Green park, ecotricity
Fuji DL-200, Fuji NPZ800 (expired 10y+, shot at IE400)

 

Fuji DL-200, Fuji Superia 400 (CH25), IE400

Straight into the Sun
Fuji DL-200, Fuji Superia 400 (CH25), IE400

Exposure,  I must say the negatives looked very correctly exposed when shot inside the camera parameters. The issue is as usual that fully automatic is not always correct in terms of what you may want to have lit in your composition. As the exposure measurement is done TTL by reflection off the film there is no way of tricking the camera before hand by first pointing at something darker or brighter and half pressing the shutter button. All that does, is lock the focus but it does not lock the exposure. This is also why this camera cannot have a flash-off switch, the only way to determine if flash is needed or not is to open the shutter.
What I don't fully understand is how it actually works.I get the reflection off the film and the basically integrating the incoming light and once enough light is captured the shutter is closed. The part that I don't fully understand is at what stage the auto program selects the aperture. To measure the light the shutter must be opened and the aperture must start in some position. At some stage the aperture need to be changed. My speculation is that it start with a very small aperture say f25 (corresponds to EV18 ISO100 and 1/400s) opens the shutter for the minimum time of 1/400s integrate the incoming light, after that assesses what aperture is needed inside the maximum of 1/40s minus the 1/400s already consumed = 9/400s. This would also explain why the minimum EV is 8.5 instead of 8.33 as it should be with ISO100 f2.8 1/40s. Apart from curiosity this maybe be important to allow some control of the exposure.
There are no direct controls for exposure except for a flash fill-in button.
My guess is that when the flash engages due to low light the aperture is based on the distance measured, however if the fill-in button is pressed the exposure program should assume that the available light would be controlling the aperture and the fill-in just assists with additional light. Now if one tapes up the flash with electrical black tape it should be possible to push the camera to open up the aperture without being compromised by the flash program. So after all a flash program switch off using the fill-in button and tape. Of course now it is up to the photographer to determine whether the light conditions are sufficient for this.

Fuji DL-200 in stealth mode w the flash suppressor mounted

Flash fill-in button to the upper right on the camera

Despite the awkward feeling to press the flash fill-in to avoid the flash and flash program it seems to allow a large aperture in low light conditions.

 

Fuji DL-200
Kodak Vision3 500T, IE500, no 85 filter,
fill-in pressed, flash suppressor mounted

Fuji DL-200
Kodak Vision3 500T, IE500, no 85 filter,
fill-in pressed, flash suppressor mounted

Fuji DL-200,
Kodak Vision3 500T, IE500, no 85 filter,
fill-in pressed, flash suppressor mounted

 

Fuji DL-200
Kodak Vision3 500T, IE500, no 85 filter,

fill-in pressed, flash suppressor mounted

The camera likes to flash. I guess that the Fuji engineers have put in some sound margin  to avoid underexposed shots on this consumer camera. This test shot was purposely orchestrated to see how a larger aperture would look like. I metered with my phone before which called the scene F5 @ 1/40s  ISO400. Guess what, the flash fired. With GN10, ISO400 film in the camera and I guess about 3.5m to the wall the aperture should be about 5.7, if the camera measured correctly and my eye measure from memory is reasonable.
.

Fuji DL-200, Fuji Superia 400 (CH25), IE400

f25 - not so sharp?
Loaded with fast film (IE500) the camera seems hanging on small apertures. The shots in bright light with fast film is nothing to write home about. The diffraction seems to take the best out of the lens.

Fuji DL-200
Kodak Vision3 500T, IE500, no 85 filter,

fill-in pressed, flash suppressor mounted

Handling

The camera start-up is nothing short of SLOW with the battery I have in it. The battery measures 5.5V (should be 6V) so it is probably nearing end of life. As the flash needs to be ready due to the TTL measuring it needs to charge the flash, this takes about 20s on my camera when it has been off for awhile. I guess the capacitor is discharged and requires to be recharged, maybe my battery is on the edge. From photo to photo it is not that bad. The "decisive" moment may quickly be gone if you need to reach for the camera from your backpack and then get the charging going. If you are on alert mode with the camera open this is not an issue. If one just close the lid for short while say a few minutes it is instantly ready to shoot when opened again. I am thinking about replacing the battery which is easy on my DL200 as it is version2 with the battery changeable w/o soldering.
[Update: I hacked the battery and replaced the cells with 2x3.2V rechargeable ones and now the camera starts from completely discharged capacitor in 11s]

Conclusion
This is a technically interesting camera. It takes reasonable sharp photos.
Who is/was the camera for?
Consumer: It was as consumer film camera and still serve as one P&S film camera quite well.
Advanced amateur: With some tricks as described one can get some control of the process. It does seem to have a reasonable lens.
Professional: I never done photo shoots for money, and i probably never will, but I would not select this camera if I had a paid jobs. Not enough control of what it does. For some art work where experimental is allowed maybe it can be used.

Will I use or sell it. Actually I have not bought any camera for about 3+ years despite always looking. I introduced a piece of self discipline a few years back not to buy more cameras unless I also sold a camera. The problem is each time I am thinking about selling a camera I always think about the reasons I got it in the first place and some good photos with that camera. With this one only costing me £9 I skipped that rule of selling.

I doubt this will be my main camera but at £9 it stays on my shelf and will probably see a few rolls pass though it.