When I purchased a Fujica 2X teleconverter on Ebay, several extraneous accessories I planned on reselling were included. One of these was a Fujica AX-5* that impressed me with its heft. To ascertain whether it still functioned, I needed a battery, so I headed off to Showcase. With a fresh battery, the meter turned on, the shutter tripped, and the camera appeared to work fine. I considered keeping the AX-5.

The next morning, I took it to Oakland Cemetery to for a safety test. Shooting with the AX-5 was a dream. Precision machinery like this old camera simply is not manufactured today. After running through a roll of Ilford Delta 400, I decided to keep the camera.

fujica x winder

Also included with the teleconverter was a motor drive, which advances the film at a brutally fast two frames per second (FPS). In contrast, my Nikon D70 will shoot at 3FPS and an F5** is capable of 8 FPS. However, for a manual camera, 2 FPS is fast enough. The X Winder is great, because it saves me the trouble of advancing my own damn film. Also, it looks supremely cool and business like attached to the camera. Finally, an off label use of the winder is beating down aggressive vagrants.

results

After picking up my film from Showcase, I was thrilled with the quality of the exposures. The Fujica AX-5 and X Winder was a great deal for a mere seventy clams***.

notes:

* For those readers not obsessed with obscure twenty year old camera equipment, the AX-5 was Fujica’s top of the line model introduced in 1980. Other models in the range included the AX-3 and the AX-1. All featured Fujica’s proprietary X mount, along with the entry level STX-1.
** I am aware the F6 exists. However, the F6 is a bullshit camera. The F5 is the last great Nikon, and as such remains the gold standard against which all others are compared.
*** In the days of way back (1981), the AX-5 retailed for $490.00 and the X Winder went for an additional $150.00.