Fuji K-28

Fuji Photo Film · Fixed lens · 24×36mm on 35mm film (Koyasu spec table; kakaku.com) · 1991

Also known as: Fuji K-28 · Fuji K28 · FUJI K 28 · Fujifilm K-28 · Fujifilm K28 · FUJIFILME K-28 · Fujinon Lens K-28 · Fuji K-28 / 28mm f/3.9 · Fuji Compact Camera K-28 · Fuji K-28 Construction Camera · Construction Camera K-28 · 工事カメラ K-28 · 工事用カメラ K-28 · フジ工事カメラ K-28 · 富士フイルム工事カメラ K-28 · フジフイルム K-28 · フジフィルム K-28

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
工事カメラ K-28 (1991)	35mm compact	1991	—	No figure published (none in Koyasu, KAERU, Japanese Wikipedia or any review)

One variant, and the K-35 left out of it. The K-35 (工事カメラ K-35) is the same body with a different lens, a 35mm f/3.8 of four elements in three groups against this camera's 28mm f/3.9 of five in five (Japanese Wikipedia). A different optical design is a different family here, as with the Klasse S and W, so the K-35 is not a K-28 variant and has no page yet.
Totte Me Camera's shop listing says the camera "can also imprint the date" (デートの日付印字もできますよ). No spec source lists a date function, no photo shows a date back, and the date and panorama features belong to the later Work Record OP (ImagingPixel), so the line is treated as a dealer error and no "K-28 Date" variant is recorded.
Koyasu's spec table gives the lens of both K models as "FUJINON f2.8 35mm 3群4枚". That contradicts the engravings in Koyasu's own photos and Japanese Wikipedia, so the lens row is taken as a copy error; the table's dimensions, weights, dates and prices are kept.
The 4mm-thick optical-glass front window is given by both KAERU and YashicaSailorboy. Sealing is splash, sand and dust proofing (全天候型生活防水; 防水、防砂、防塵設計, KAERU), not submersion: KAERU knows of no JIS grade, and take4-38 warns not to sink it because the wind lever and rewind are probably not fully sealed. The price card's own tagline is 水洗いできる広角28mmコンパクトカメラ, "a washable wide-angle 28mm compact"; YashicaSailorboy's authors, answering a reader, say the Japanese manual shows it rinsed under a tap.
Name. The price card and the manual cover say 工事カメラ K-28 ("FUJI COMPACT CAMERA 工事カメラ K-28" on the manual), which is used here. Japanese blogs and sellers also write 工事用カメラ; the take4-38 owner calls that the sub-name it was sold under. Eckman files it in Fuji's "HD-series" and Broken Camera Club calls it a "Work Record" camera; neither is a Fuji designation, and Konica's 現場監督 is a rival maker's model name, although some Japanese sellers put that word in K-28 titles.
Country. Fuji Photo Film is Japanese, one Yahoo! Auctions seller writes 日本製 in the title and YashicaSailorboy tags its post "Made in Japan", but no photo of a country marking on the body is known.
Fuji Photo Film's notice of 8 December 2000 covered some 工事カメラ and ヘビーデューティカメラ: with cells of unequal charge mixed (new and used alkalines), hydrogen could very rarely escape, mix with the air inside the camera, and blow the back off with a bang when the flash fired; Fuji offered a free parts exchange by return post. KAERU lists the K-28 as a subject of the notice. Cameota's dated news index gives the notice's title and links the original at fujifilm.co.jp/compact/info.html, which no longer exists. KAERU is the only source that names the K-28 among the cameras covered; YashicaSailorboy translates the notice but names no model.
Prices in Japan, May to October 2026. Yahoo! Auctions closed lots (auction hammer prices, before shipping; the two boxed lots' pages show 税0円, no consumption tax added): 26 results from ¥1 to ¥9,310, most single bodies under ¥3,000. Condition words do not predict price: a lot titled ジャンク (junk) with "shutter OK, power confirmed" made ¥5,885 and another junk lot ¥4,800, while a cleaned, working body made ¥1,000. Boxed examples are the top of the market: unused in the original box ¥9,310 (10 June 2026, a single bid at the opening price) and dead stock with box, manual, strap and battery ¥8,583 (11 September 2026). A Japanese manual alone made ¥423. Dealer prices: natural-camera ¥5,900 for an EXCELLENT+ body, and Totte Me Camera ¥9,800 for a fully working one, both sold; tax treatment not stated. Camera no Naniwa's buyback reference price, what the shop pays rather than asks, is ¥1,900 (shop item code 4902520053251).
The listing filter reads only Latin characters. Japanese titles with no Latin brand name, such as "フジ工事カメラ K-28", cannot be told from a K-35 or a Pentax-K lens and are left off this page, and listings for the manual alone (説明書) cannot be kept off it.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Blue stripe and blue release with a 28mm f/3.9 engraving = K-28; red stripe and red release with 35mm f/3.8 = K-35
Manual focus knob on top and a manual wind lever: the Work Record 28 and OP that followed in 1993 are autofocus with motor wind and prewinding (Koyasu spec table)
Two AA cells under a coin-slot screw cover on the base (ImagingPixel); the Work Record runs on CR123A lithium cells (Koyasu)

工事カメラ K-28 (1991):

Lens surround engraved "1:3.9 f=28mm FUJINON LENS K-28" above a blue stripe, with a blue (Eckman: "bluish-purple") shutter release. The K-35 twin has a red stripe, a red release and "1:3.8 f=35mm FUJINON LENS K-35" (photos by Mike Eckman and Koyasu)
Fuji logo and FUJI at the top left of the front; a small brass-coloured button marked PUSH at the bottom left, under the grey hump that is both the back latch and the handgrip (Eckman's front photo; Eckman and ImagingPixel describe the button as the latch release)
Charcoal body with a grey grip (Eckman's and Koyasu's photos); the finder window is a separate window beside the flash, not inside the large round lens cover as on the HD-R it otherwise resembles (K's Photo&Camera)
Yellow zebra-stripe 工事カメラ logo on the top left as the user holds it (K's Photo&Camera), often missing: the take4-38 example had lost its 工事用カメラ sticker from the top of the flash
Large focus knob at the top centre, marked in metres only, with the flash on/off switch behind it (Eckman). No date back: none appears in the photos, and no spec list gives a date function (Koyasu; KAERU; kakaku.com)

工事カメラ K-28 (1991): The only version. Every listing and reference seen is this one body in this one finish. No Date, panorama or colour version is recorded by Koyasu, KAERU, kakaku.com or Japanese Wikipedia; the single dealer line saying it can imprint the date is treated as an error (see table notes).

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm on 35mm film (Koyasu spec table; kakaku.com)
Finder: Albada bright-frame finder, separate window beside the flash · 0.37× magnification · 28mm framelines · single · close-range correction marks parallax correction · 83% coverage
Shutter: mechanical, metal-blade (KAERU; Eckman) · 1/100 s only (Koyasu spec table; KAERU; every review) · flash sync built-in fixed flash, switched on by hand with a top-plate switch or lever and charged when switched on; flashmatic, with the aperture coupled to the focus setting; coupled range 0.75–5 m at ISO 100 (KAERU); flash-ready lamp on the back (Eckman; ImagingPixel). No guide number has been published. · no self-timer
Film advance: manual lever, partial strokes possible (KAERU); crank rewind after pressing a release button on the base, which needs a firm press and stays released until the lever is next worked (Eckman); self-resetting frame counter; double-slotted take-up spool with a tooth to catch the leader (Eckman)
Back: hinged on the left, with a thick rubber gasket round the door and a latch on the right that is also the handgrip; the latch opens only after the PUSH button on the front is pressed (Eckman; ImagingPixel). A film-check window in the back
Meter: CdS cell beside the lens setting the aperture automatically in three steps (自動3段切替え, Koyasu spec table; CdS使用による絞り自動3段切り替え, KAERU), switched on by a half-press of the release (Eckman). The three f-numbers are unpublished. The cells drive the aperture, so with no power it stays put (take4-38 guessed about f/5.6). Film speed is disputed: ISO 100 fixed, or ISO 100–400 set automatically
Weight: 423 g
Dimensions: 151.5 × 88.5 × 58 (Koyasu spec table; kakaku.com; KAERU) mm
Country: Japan
Original price: ¥29,800 list price before consumption tax: メーカー希望小売価格 ¥29,800（税別）on Fuji's own price card, code エデ-698011-CO (photographed by Chris Whelan, reproduced by Mike Eckman). Koyasu's spec table gives 29800円 with no tax note. The K-35 listed at ¥24,800 (Koyasu). YashicaSailorboy's "around $215" is the blog's own conversion at ¥138 to the dollar, not a US price; the camera was not sold outside Japan. (today ¥35,000)

0.37× and 83% are KAERU's figures, the only published ones. A red LED at the top of the finder warns of underexposure so the flash can be switched on (KAERU; ImagingPixel; Broken Camera Club). Japanese Wikipedia notes the 工事カメラ pair dropped the real-image finder the HD line had used since the HD-1 for this Albada type. Eckman could see the whole frame wearing glasses.

Where sources disagree

Announced

June 1991 — Koyasu, text and spec table; YashicaSailorboy
April 1991 — Japanese Wikipedia's Fujifilm product list

Better supported: June 1991

Japanese Wikipedia gives the K-35 June and the K-28 April, an exact swap of Koyasu's table (K-35 April, K-28 June). Koyasu's own text dates the K-35 to March 1991, so the K-35's month is unsettled either way. No Fuji press release or 1991 price list was found.

Meter

ISO 100 fixed — KAERU (ISO100固定); kakaku.com (フィルム感度 100); Totte Me Camera (ISO100のみ, buy ISO 100–200 film)
ISO 100–400 set automatically — YashicaSailorboy, from a machine translation of the Japanese manual; camera-wiki and ImagingPixel; Broken Camera Club

The English sources lead back to one reading: camera-wiki points to YashicaSailorboy as its report, ImagingPixel repeats YashicaSailorboy's wording, and Broken Camera Club links all three. No source mentions DX contacts. Eckman's review text says only that point-and-shoots of the era were "calibrated only for ISO 100 and 400", but in a reply to a reader under the review he writes that "the camera only has settings for 100 and 400 speed film", giving no source. The manual's specification page would settle it.

Weight (grams)

423 g without batteries — Koyasu spec table; KAERU; YashicaSailorboy (467 g with batteries)
424 g — Mike Eckman
ca. one pound — camera-wiki
491 g — weighed by a Yahoo! Auctions seller, in the listing title

Better supported: 423

423 g and 424 g agree within rounding, and YashicaSailorboy's 467 g is with cells. The seller's 491 g is unexplained; what was on the scale with the camera is not stated.

What reviewers say

Mike Eckman (blog) — Scores it 7.0. The five-element Fujinon is "optically excellent", sharp across the frame with only slight corner softness and faithful colour on Fuji 200. Large and heavy for a compact, built for gloves, with an awkwardly placed top focus knob and a single speed that limits it; manual zone focus beats period autofocus for predictability. Clean examples are hard to find outside Japan, but he calls it "an easy recommend".
Chris and Carol (YashicaSailorboy, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris) (blog) — A collector's look at a near-new boxed example: June 1991 release, about $215 at the time, 5/5 lens behind 4mm of front glass, 423 g bare and 467 g with cells, and an English translation of Fuji's December 2000 battery notice. A camera "more than capable where it counts", photographed with its bulldozer box.
ImagingPixel (blog) — A control-by-control walkthrough of a rugged camera whose sealed 28mm f/3.9 gives sharp, contrasty pictures despite the single 1/100 s. Manual wind and zone focus are a step back from the autofocus Konica Genba Kantoku 28WB and Fuji Work Record OP; keep bright sky out of the frame for even exposure, and consider it for street work in rain or snow.
ImagingPixel, Analog Diary (blog) — A walkabout gallery suggesting that a camera built for building sites may be just as right for the street and for off-road trips; its one reservation is the size, which needs a section of its own in a bag.
Paul Lovell (Broken Camera Club) (blog) — "A tough little camera" for the beach bag, the kayak or the ski jacket, liked for its wider if slower lens against the HD-R. Not the camera for control: the camera picks everything except an imprecise zone focus, and the big knob is easy to bump off infinity.
K's Photo&Camera (blog) — Large and heavy for a compact of its day, with a 28mm scale-focus lens, 1/100 s only and a three-step automatic aperture. Too good to use only for site records, it writes (工事記録に使うだけじゃもったいない), and a tough, good-looking camera for the outdoors or street snaps. Eight sample frames.
take4-38 (タケログ, ameblo) (blog) — A ¥100 dirty find with leaked cells and a battery lid that will not open, so the aperture is stuck; the mechanical 1/100 s still works for negative film in shade. Finds the eight focus steps fussy (closest, 3 m, 5 m and infinity would do) and warns it is splash-proof only: wash it, never sink it.
Totte Me Camera (operating guide) (blog) — A Japanese how-to for the controls, loading, flash and rewind. States that the camera takes ISO 100 film only and advises buying ISO 100–200, and gives the closest focus as 75 cm.

History

The K-28 is a construction-site camera, and it was built for a job Konica had shown existed. Fuji had been making tough compacts since the Fujica HD-1 of June 1979, a reinforced polycarbonate body with synthetic-rubber seals that could take water, mud and knocks, and the HD-S, HD-M, HD-R and HD-P carried the idea on through the 1980s and into 1990. In 1988 Konica brought out the 現場監督 (“site supervisor”), a camera made specifically for recording the progress of building work, and site crews took to it. Koyasu’s history of the line says Fuji then hurried out a site camera of its own: the 工事カメラ K-35 in spring 1991, and in June 1991 its sister with a 28mm wide-angle, this K-28. The K-28 was sold only in Japan. Japanese Wikipedia files the pair as their own series, sold alongside the HD cameras and taking over their design, but with an Albada bright-frame finder in place of the real-image finder the HD line had used since the HD-1.

It is a deliberately simple camera. The Fujinon 28mm f/3.9 has five elements in five groups and sits behind a 4mm window of optical glass. The shutter is mechanical and has one speed, 1/100 s. A CdS cell beside the lens sets the aperture automatically in three steps, the built-in flash couples its aperture to the focus setting, and focus is set by hand on a large knob in the middle of the top plate, from 0.75 m to infinity in metres only. Everything is sized for gloves, and the back is closed by a latch that doubles as the handgrip and opens only after a button on the front is pressed. Fuji’s own price card called it a washable wide-angle 28mm compact and listed it at ¥29,800 before tax, ¥5,000 more than the K-35. The one specification the sources cannot agree on is film speed: the Japanese spec pages say ISO 100 only, while the English write-ups, which appear to trace back to one machine-translated reading of the manual, say ISO 100 to 400 automatically.

Telling it apart is easy. The K-28 has a blue stripe under its lens engraving and a blue release; the K-35 has a red stripe, a red release and a 35mm f/3.8 that is a different four-element design. No date or panorama K-28 is recorded. Those features arrived with the cameras that took over its job in 1993: the Work Record 28, which Fuji’s own product page says shipped until December 2006, and its Work Record OP sibling, which added a quartz date back and panorama (ImagingPixel). Both are autofocus cameras with motor wind and CR123A lithium cells, and both go further than the K-28 on water: Japanese Wikipedia says the Work Record 28 can be used a metre underwater, and Koyasu and ImagingPixel say the same of the OP. Reviewers and sellers sometimes file the K-28 as an HD camera, a Work Record or a 現場監督, and none of those names is its own.

In Japan the K-28 is common and cheap. Most single bodies sell for under ¥3,000 at auction, and boxed sets sold as unused or dead stock for ¥8,500 to ¥9,300. Outside Japan reviewers find it rare and usually worn from site work. Check four things. First, the battery compartment, a coin-slot cover on the base: leaked AA cells can seize the lid, and with no power the aperture does not move. Second, the rubber gasket round the back, before trusting the camera near water; it is splash-proof, not a diving camera. Third, the rewind release, which is meant to be stiff. Fourth, Fuji’s notice of December 2000: mixing new and used cells could, very rarely, let hydrogen build up inside the body and blow the back off when the flash fired. Fuji exchanged the parts free at the time, so use matched fresh cells. Reviewers who have shot one agree on the lens. Eckman found it sharp across the frame and faithful in colour, ImagingPixel calls its pictures sharp and contrasty, and K’s Photo&Camera thinks it wasted on site records and suggests it for street snaps.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

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