Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Fuji K-35

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

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Fuji K-35 · Fuji K35 · FUJI K 35 · Fujifilm K-35 · Fujifilm K35 · Fujinon Lens K-35 · Fuji Compact Camera K-35 · Fuji K-35 Construction Camera · Fuji K-35 Heavy Duty Waterproof · Fuji K-35 rugged film camera · FUJI 工事カメラ K-35 · 工事カメラ K-35 · 工事カメラ/現場カメラ K-35 · フジ 工事カメラ K-35 · フジK-35 · 富士フィルム K-35 · 富士フイルム 工事カメラ K-35

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
工事カメラ K-35 (1991) 35mm compact 1991–1992 — No figure published (none in Koyasu, Awane, the G-Mark record or Japanese Wikipedia). Serials seen: 30301390 (Awane's example), 30301701, about 30301781, 30302452 and 30800371 (Yahoo! Auctions lots), all beginning with 3; five numbers are too few to read a scheme from.
  1. One variant, and the K-28 left out of it. The K-28 shares the body but has a different lens, a 28mm f/3.9 of five elements in five groups against this camera's 35mm f/3.8 of four in three (Japanese Wikipedia; Awane), and a different focus scale, from 0.75 m in eight steps (KAERU) against 1 m in seven. A different optical design is a different family here, so the K-28 has its own page.
  2. 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, Awane and Japanese Wikipedia, so the lens row is taken as a copy error; the table's dates, weight, size and price are kept. Because the table gives the two cameras identical dimensions in a row next to the copied lens entry, the 151.5 × 88.5 × 58 mm figure is not independent proof that the bodies measure the same; the weights differ (421 g against 423 g) and look separately entered. Whether 421 g includes cells is not stated.
  3. Good Design Award 1991, no. 91A0142, product design division (商品デザイン部門), filed under audio/visual, as フジ 工事カメラ K-35, a 35ミリレンズシャッターカメラ, credited to Fuji Photo Film's industrial design centre (工業デザインセンター). The record gives the price as 24,800円 and leaves the release date and sales area blank. The K-28 has no G-Mark record. Fuji's other 1991 winners were the Cardia Wevee (91A0140) and the Cardia Travel Mini Dual-P (91A0141).
  4. Name. The price card reads 生活防水・防砂・防じん機構内蔵 工事カメラ K-35 (with built-in splash-, sand- and dust-proofing), and the box and manual say FUJI COMPACT CAMERA 工事カメラ K-35. One seller titles it FUJICA フジカ (Yahoo! lot k1233308002), though nothing on the camera, box or card says Fujica; because a real K-35 title carries the word, the listing filter does not exclude it. Konica's 現場監督 is a rival maker's model name.
  5. Sealing is splash, sand and dust proofing (生活防水・防砂・防じん, Fuji's price card), with rubber seals on the film and battery doors and controls sized for gloves (Classic Cameras). No submersion rating is published. Whether the K-35 has the K-28's 4 mm optical-glass front window and red underexposure lamp is unpublished; one seller lists a lamp (ライト点灯) among the functions checked (Yahoo! lot s1224797857).
  6. 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 whose backs could come off with a bang (Cameota's dated index gives its title). KAERU, on its K-28 page, gives the cause: with cells of unequal charge, hydrogen could very rarely come from the cells and the back come off with a bang when the flash was used; YashicaSailorboy, translating the notice in a K-28 post, describes the cells as new and used ones mixed. The notice was worded by class, so the K-35 may well have been covered, but neither Cameota nor KAERU names it.
  7. Prices. Yahoo! Auctions in Japan, 2026, closed lots (auction hammer prices, before shipping; each lot's page shows 税0円, no consumption tax added): ¥8,250 after 17 bids from a ¥3,500 start (17 April 2026; shutter, wind, rewind, flash and lamp checked); ¥9,800, one bid at the start price, for a near-new boxed set with price card, manual, cells and strap, not tested with film (1 July 2026); ¥600, one bid, shutter fires, dust in the lens, with manual (11 August 2026). Asking: a ¥7,000 opening price with no bids on a body checked for power, shutter and flash (Yahoo! lot q1250689364, ending 3 November 2026), and a junk body at ¥1,700 on Mercari, listing date and sale not known. Left out of the figures: lot k1244040266, ¥6,251 hammer (¥6,876 with tax), titled K-35 but a K-28 in every photo; and a multi-camera junk lot at ¥10,249. New old-stock spare parts sold as K-35 parts by a camera repair shop made ¥380 for a five-piece set (a circuit board carrying a CdS cell, the wind and frame-counter assembly, the film-gate chassis, a gear plate and a round front window; lot x1234381807); a second set with a shutter unit and battery cover was on offer at ¥300 (lot d454719866). Dealer: Classic Cameras in Australia listed a tested, working body at A$245 in July 2023, now sold out; tax treatment not stated. The K-35 turns up far less often than the K-28: three single bodies closed on Yahoo! Auctions between April and August 2026.
  8. The listing filter reads only Latin characters. Japanese titles with no Latin brand name, such as "富士フィルム K-35 工事カメラ", cannot be told from a Pentax-K lens or the 1956 EMI K 35 and are left off this page; spare-parts lots and listings for the manual alone cannot be kept off it, and a K-28 sold under a K-35 title lands here.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Red stripe and red release with a 35mm f/3.8 engraving = K-35; blue stripe and blue release with 28mm f/3.9 = K-28. Check the photos, not the title: Yahoo! lot k1244040266, titled K-35, shows a K-28 in every picture
  • Focus dial starting at 1 m with seven marks; the K-28's starts at 0.75 m (KAERU)
  • Manual focus dial on top and a manual wind lever: the Work Record 28 and OP of 1993 are autofocus with motor wind (Koyasu)

工事カメラ K-35 (1991):

  • Lens surround printed "1:3.8 f=35mm FUJINON LENS K-35" above a red stripe, with a red shutter release and a small slide beside it. The K-28 twin has a blue stripe, a blue release and "1:3.9 f=28mm FUJINON LENS K-28" (Koyasu's photos; Yahoo! lot u1239953567 for the K-35 and k1244040266 for the K-28)
  • Charcoal body with a grey grip and grey back, the Fuji logo and FUJI at the top left of the front, and PUSH at the lower left, under the grip; the finder window sits beside the flash on the front, not inside the large round lens cover (Koyasu's photo)
  • Tall focus dial on the top plate marked FOCUS and, in metres, 1, 1.2, 1.5, 2, 3, 5 and ∞: seven positions starting at 1 m (Yahoo! lot u1239953567; Awane gives 1m〜∞), where the K-28's has eight starting at 0.75 m (KAERU). A flash OFF/ON lever with a lightning symbol beside it (Yahoo! lot q1250689364)
  • Yellow-and-black zebra 工事カメラ label on the top plate by the flash, which can be missing. FUJI PHOTO FILM JAPAN moulded on the base above an eight-digit serial on a silver-edged black plate (Yahoo! lots u1239953567, s1224797857, q1250689364)
  • No date back on any example. The retail kit is a white FUJI COMPACT CAMERA box with a zebra 工事カメラ K-35 panel and a drawing of site machinery, holding Fuji's green price card (¥24,800 税別), the manual "FUJI COMPACT CAMERA 工事カメラ K-35 使用説明書", a dealer warranty card, a 西暦早見表 (era-to-year table) leaflet, two Fuji AA cells and a strap (Yahoo! lot k1233308002)

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film (Koyasu spec table)
Finder
Albada bright-frame finder (ブライトフレーム アルバダ式, Koyasu spec table), separate window beside the flash (Koyasu's photo)
Shutter
1/100 s only (固定 1/100秒, Koyasu spec table; シャッター速度 1/100, Awane) · flash sync built-in flash (シンクロ ストロボ内蔵, Koyasu spec table), switched on by hand with a top-plate lever; flashmatic, the aperture following the distance set on the focus dial (Awane). No guide number or coupled range has been published for the K-35, and the K-28's 0.75–5 m (KAERU) is not carried over. · no self-timer
Film advance
manual lever wind and crank rewind (レバー巻上 クランク巻戻, Koyasu spec table)
Back
rubber seals on the film door and the battery door (Classic Cameras); a PUSH button on the lower front (Koyasu's photo), which on the K-28 releases the back latch (Eckman)
Meter
automatic aperture in three steps at the fixed 1/100 s (自動3段切替え方式, Koyasu spec table; 絞り 3段階自動切りかえ, Awane). The three f-numbers are unpublished. No film-speed setting: ISO 100 film only (Awane), which Awane takes to mean the camera was simplified for film sold as trade colour negative film (業務用ネガカラーフィルム). One dealer says ISO 100–400; see disputed
Weight
421 g
Dimensions
151.5 × 88.5 × 58 (Koyasu spec table, the only published figure; a seller measured W15 × D6 × H8.2 cm, Yahoo! lot q1250689364) mm
Country
Japan
Original price
¥24,800 list price before consumption tax: メーカー希望小売価格 ¥24,800（税別）on Fuji's own green price card, photographed with a boxed example (Yahoo! lot k1233308002). The 1991 Good Design Award record, Koyasu's spec table and Awane give 24,800円 with no tax note. That is ¥5,000 below the K-28's ¥29,800 and, Awane notes, below the HD-R sold at the same time for ¥33,900. (today ¥29,000)

Japanese Wikipedia says the 工事カメラ pair replaced the real-image finder the HD line had used since the HD-1 with an Albada bright frame. No magnification or coverage figure is published for the K-35; KAERU's 0.37× and 83% belong to the K-28.

Figures we worked out rather than found: years.last 1992 is the last year Awane finds the K-35 in the trade catalogue (listed in vol.103, February 1992; absent from vol.105, September 1992; vol.104 not reported). It marks the end of catalogue listing, not a production stop; no Fuji discontinuation notice is known.

Where sources disagree

Announced
  • April 1991 — Awane (first in カメラ総合カタログ vol.101, April 1991; not in vol.100, March 1991); Koyasu spec table
  • March 1991 — Koyasu's text (1991年3月発売)
  • June 1991 — Japanese Wikipedia's Fujifilm product list

Better supported: April 1991

March and April can both be right if a late-March release first reached the April catalogue. 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), and it is the only source that puts the K-28 first. No Fuji press release has been found.

Meter
  • ISO 100 only, no film-speed setting — Awane (感度ISO 100のフィルム専用)
  • ISO 100–400 — Classic Cameras (Australian dealer listing, no source given)

Better supported: ISO 100 only

The same split runs through the K-28's sources, where the Japanese spec pages say ISO 100 and the English write-ups, tracing to one machine-translated reading of the K-28 manual, say 100 to 400. The dealer line matches that English wording. The K-35 manual's specification page would settle it.

What reviewers say

History

By Koyasu’s and Awane’s dates, the K-35 is the first of Fuji’s two 工事カメラ (“construction cameras”), built for the building site; Japanese Wikipedia puts the K-28 first. Fuji had made tough compacts since the Fujica HD-1 of 1979, a sealed body that could take water, mud and knocks, and the HD-S, HD-M, HD-R and HD-P carried that line through the 1980s and into 1990. In 1988 Konica brought out the 現場監督 (“site supervisor”), made specifically for recording the progress of building work, and site crews took to it. Koyasu’s history says Fuji then hurried out a site camera of its own, and this was it: the 工事カメラ K-35, which the Japan Camera Show trade catalogue of April 1991 describes as designed for record photography on all kinds of construction sites. Awane points out that the Konica is an autofocus camera while the Fuji is scale-focus and descends from the HD line, so Konica’s influence may not have gone much further than the name. Japanese Wikipedia files the K-35 and K-28 as their own series, sold alongside the HD cameras and taking over their design, with an Albada bright-frame finder in place of the HD line’s real-image finder. No sale outside Japan is recorded.

It is a deliberately simple camera. The Fujinon 35mm f/3.8 has four elements in three groups. The shutter has one speed, 1/100 s, and the aperture switches automatically in three steps to suit the light. Awane says there is no film-speed setting and the camera takes ISO 100 film only, and guesses it was simplified for film sold as trade colour negative; one Australian dealer says ISO 100 to 400. With the built-in flash switched on, the aperture follows the distance set on a tall focus dial on the top plate, marked from 1 m to infinity. Two AA cells power it, and the film is wound by lever and rewound by crank. Fuji’s price card called it splash-, sand- and dust-proof and listed it at ¥24,800 before tax, below the HD-R sold at the same time. In 1991 it won a Good Design Award, credited to Fuji Photo Film’s industrial design centre.

In June 1991, by Koyasu’s account, Fuji added the K-28, the same body with a 28mm f/3.9 of five elements, a blue stripe under the lens where the K-35 has red, a focus dial that starts at 0.75 m, and a price ¥5,000 higher. The K-28 is the one that lasted. Awane finds both listed together in the trade catalogue of February 1992, but from September 1992 only the K-28 appears, and it stays listed until March 2001; Awane suggests a 28mm wide-angle simply suited site records better. The autofocus Work Record 28 of October 1993, with motor wind and lithium cells, took on the same job, but it did not replace the line, since the K-28 stayed in the trade catalogue beside it for years. The K-35 had already gone. No date, panorama or colour K-35 is recorded.

The K-35 is much scarcer than the K-28. In 2026 a handful of bodies sold on Yahoo! Auctions: about ¥8,000 to ¥10,000 for a tested or boxed example, and ¥600 for one sold untested. Identify it from the photos rather than the title, because at least one K-28 has been sold as a K-35: look for the red stripe and the “1:3.8 f=35mm” engraving. Then check the battery compartment: on the K-28, leaked cells can seize the cover, and without power the automatic aperture does not move. Look through the lens for dust, and treat the camera as splash-proof, not as a camera to put underwater. In December 2000 Fuji warned that on some of its 工事カメラ and heavy-duty cameras, mixing cells of unequal charge could very rarely blow the back off when the flash fired. KAERU names the K-28 among them; no source names the K-35, though the notice was worded by class. Use matched fresh cells.

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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.

Example photos

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Related: Fuji K-28

Sources (21)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.