Fujifilm discovery 1000 zoom panorama review
|
My Uncle Barney from Long Island sends me boxes of cameras he finds while on flea market crawls so I can fix them up and bring them back to life to add them to my collection. Recently in one of these boxes came the Fujifilm Discovery 270 Zoom Date. This compact 35mm camera was released in 1994 and several versions can be found such as the Zoom Cardia Super 270 Date in Japan and a couple others. The Discover in this mail call from Uncle B. came like new with the box, a working battery, expired film and instructions all still together. It uses a CR123A battery which can still be bought today on amazon for $10 for a pack of 6. So that’s not bad. Often vintage cameras that rely on batteries these days are rendered useless because you can’t find the specific battery that runs the camera. My Video Review of the FujiFilm Discovery 270 Zoom Date I shot a roll of Kodak Gold 200 in it to test it out with all its functions. The film is super easy to load with the drop in film loading door and it winds it automatically before and after the film is shot. It accepts DX coded film from 50 to 1600 ISO. The first digital camera to come out for consumers, the Nikon f-3, came out in 1991, so when the Discover was made. digital features were starting to be incorporated on to these 35mm cameras. This one has an LED Screen that shows the film count as well as what flash mode you’re currently using. It also has the digital date stamp feature that can render the date the picture was taken directly into your picture if you want it to. It does have the option to turn it off if you don’t want to stamp your pictures with this info. I remember this feature being considered high tech back when i was a kid in the 90’s. I always got a kick out of seeing the date printed write onto my picture. This feature makes me think of the old 1930’s vest pocket Kodak Autographic cameras that you could use a stylus to write on the back of your film with to keep track of the date or exposure. I guess the digital date stamp feature was the digital answer to that. With this Fujifilm camera, pictures can be taken in the traditional size or a cropped panoramic mode, which isn’t true panoramic of course, it’s just the negative being cropped by the camera to give that appearance, but you can crop it and print it out as a panoramic picture yourself after digitally scanning your negatives. I personally really liked this option because I take a lot of nature pictures and it is a cheap alternative to a real panoramic camera. It uses a Fujinon f/5-9.5 35 to 70mm zoom lens with a zoom mode and wide angle mode. There are a few flash options that make it good for taking pictures indoors. There’s a red eye correction mode and a flash fill mode if you need to light up your subject. Overall I found it to be a very nice, reliable camera that can be used while on vacation or at events. My only complaint from this one time using it was just the loud noise it made when winding the film which can be embarrassing if you’re going to use it at an event such as a graduation or wedding. But you can easily just load before you go and don’t shoot the last shot while your there to prevent it from re-winding. I was pleasantly surprised at the detail and color that resulted from this camera. Usually point and shoot cameras take average pictures without much tonality. I will definitely be keeping this camera as part of my collection of cameras I will shoot with. If you enjoyed this review please check out the YouTube video I posted above. Please subscribe to my channel and follow this blog because I will be doing more vintage camera reviews and more point and shoot camera reviews in the near future. |
