Hanimex 35ee Micro

image by Boxy Brown's Bling (Image rights)

The Hanimex 35ee Micro is a 35mm compact camera with automatic exposure, made in Japan by Sedic for sale by Hanimex. It is functionally almost identical to the Zenit ME35 but offers portrait and landscape focal settings. It was also marketed as the Lotus ME35 and Starblitz 35ES. It seems closely related to the Hanimex 35 Micro Flash.

Specifications

• Lens: F3.5 33mm fully-coated, 4 elements in 3 groups
• Viewfinder: Direct vision 0.5 plus magnification 90% field of view
• Focus: Three-zone focus. Person (~1m), Dot (~2m), Mountain ("beyond 2m")
• Shutter: "aperture priority" electronic shutter 1/15-1/500 sec (see notes below)
• Flash: built-in flash Guide Number 10 (meters, ASA 100), shutter is fixed at 1/30 and aperture at f3.5 when the flash is enabled.
• Aperture/ISO settings: ASA 64 / f5.6, ASA 100 / f6.3, ASA 400 / f13
• Battery: two AAA batteries, "BC" button on the back is "Battery Check"
• Dimensions: 102 x 70.5 x 42mm
• Weight: 190 grams (without batteries)
• Film advance: manual, with a notched wheel
• No self-timer, no socket for a remote shutter cable,
• When new, the camera came with a wrist strap anchored in the 1/4" tripod socket on the bottom

The above specifications are from the manual.

Starblitz 35ES image by Adrian Gee (Image rights)

Exposure System

The camera has both an "ASA" and an "ASA MEMO" setting around the lens. The "ASA" setting actually sets the aperture of the lens (as detailed above), and if the lightning bolt icon is selected, sets the aperture and enables the flash. The "ASA MEMO" setting doesn't change the operation of the camera, and is only to remind the user which ASA setting to return to when turning off the flash. There is a CDS light sensor just to the right of the viewfinder window when looking at the front of the camera.

When the flash is not enabled, the meter controls the shutter speed without regard for the aperture being used. Thus, for a given amount of light, the shutter speed remains the same even if the aperture/ASA setting is changed. Therefore the manual's claim of an "aperture priority" shutter is arguably inaccurate, since the user must select the aperture that matches the ISO of their film in order to achieve a correct exposure. There is no Bulb mode, but the shutter is capable of exposures much longer than 1/15s in practice; this is inconvenient, however, since there is no shutter release cable socket and the photographer must hold the shutter button down for the duration of the exposure.

Links

• Hanimex 35ee Micro video by YouTuber 王強-我愛照相機