Hidden Treasure?
One activity I personally enjoy is finding hidden (or forgotten) treasures, testing them and putting them back out into the world. It is fun not knowing what results, if any, you’re going get. An example of this is finding non-renown cameras and testing their performance.
Goal: Sure testing their performance is fun, but it is really to show that you don’t need the same camera someone else is using to make great art. What you have is more than enough! Check out the video on the Vivitar if you have not yet seen it.
For this recent pickup, I came across the younger sibling of the renown point & shoot Konica Big Mini. Don’t know what it is? Well I didn’t either. It is the Konica BM-S (i.e., Konica Super Big Mini).
Konica BM-S 630Z - Super Big Mini Zoom
I knew nothing about this camera when I purchased it. Whether it was functional, had film, strong/weak flash, etc. It’s always a gamble.
Anyway, why blog about it? Well, besides me not knowing much about, it seems that it is not an indelible camera; there is little to no information of it on the web. There are some sellers out there that include the instruction manual with the purchase or sell the manual all on its own but not for sharing knowledge.
As much as I looked I could not find the significance of “630” beyond the model number. There are other BM-S models such as the 70 and 100. Okay, let’s jump into the features:
Uses Advanced Photo System (APS) Film
Quartz Date
Built-in Flash ⚡️
Infinity Focus 🏔️
Self-timer ⏱️
Red-eye Reduction 👁️
30-60 mm Konica Lens
Powered by one CR-2 battery
Rewind (R) button, if needed
Wide (W) and Telephoto (T) buttons for Zoom
3-way switch for Camera (C), High (H) Definition and Panoramic (P)
Power ON/OFF switch
Film switch (for un/loading)
Overall, if you have some familiarity with point and shoot cameras then this one should, too, be intuitive. The features I had the most trouble were the APS film and the CHP switch. APS film was something new to me as I only dabbled in 35mm and 120. I am aware of others, such as 110, but not so much as other films that are now almost but extinct. As for the CHP switch, I found that this was a common feature on Nikon point & shoot cameras where the chosen switch position is meant to be picked with post-printing in mind. Do you want standard, HD or Panoramic prints for this composition? One thing I did not get to learn was whether choosing “P” would result in consuming more than one shot on the film cartridge or not. Hopefully the next owner can let us know :).
