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

Fuji TW-3

Fuji · Fixed lens · 18×24 mm on 35mm film; the film runs vertically, so the frame is landscape with the camera held normally (Japanese Wikipedia; collection-appareils) · 1985

Known as “Twing”

Also known as: Fuji TW-3 · Fujifilm TW-3 · Fuji TW3 · Fuji TW-3 Twing · Fuji TW-3 DX · Fuji TW-3 Tele Wide half frame · Fuji TW-3 half · フジ TW-3 · フジ ツイング TW-3 · FUJI TW-3 ハーフ

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
TW-3 (1985) Half-frame 1985 — No figure published; collection-appareils says the camera "did not achieve commercial success"
  1. Lens construction (3 groups, 3 elements for each lens), the March 1985 release and the vertical film path are from Japanese Wikipedia's Fujifilm product list, which files the TW-3 outside its Fujica Half series because of the landscape frame; the apertures, focal lengths and the two-mirror telephoto path are camera-wiki's. Nothing read gives the mirror arrangement in more detail.
  2. Focus zones: wide lens 0.5–1 m in a close-up setting and 1 m to infinity; telephoto in three zones from 4 m to infinity (Mike Eckman, from the manual). The 35mm-film equivalents are about 33 mm and 100 mm (collection-appareils); Nobuyoshi Kodera's 2010 test gives a close focus of about 50 cm.
  3. The battery is the camera's weak point. Two CR123 cells are soldered inside the grip; Fuji rated them at five years or about a hundred rolls with no more than half the frames flashed, and expected a dealer to change them. Butkus's manual page carries an owner's note that the old cells can be unsoldered and CR123s (rechargeable ones exist) put in; Eckman's second camera had a failed replacement, and collection-appareils' example, still on its original cells at 38 years, wound film but could no longer charge the flash.
  4. Dimensions are not given by any source read. Eckman describes the body as quite a bit taller and a little wider than an Olympus XA, at almost the same thickness.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • FUJI TW-3 on the front beside the lens disc; a sliding lens cover, two lenses in one turret, and a flash that pops up by itself when the wide lens comes round
  • Not the Fuji TW-300 of the same years, which is a full-frame 38/65 mm tele-wide compact, nor a Konica Recorder or Yashica Samurai, the other 1980s half-frames with a motor

TW-3 (1985):

  • A large lens-selector disc on the front carrying both lenses: 23mm f/8 and 69mm f/8, each three elements in three groups (Japanese Wikipedia); the telephoto path folds through two mirrors (camera-wiki)
  • An albada finder that switches with the lens and shows frame lines only in tele mode; three LEDs below the eyepiece for flash and exposure warnings (Mike Eckman; collection-appareils)
  • A pop-up flash that rises on its own when the wide lens is selected and fires in low light; it does not work with the telephoto (camera-wiki; collection-appareils)
  • Two buttons on the front for a TV mode (1/30 s, flash off, for photographing a television screen) and a +1.5 EV backlight correction, plus a continuous setting of about two frames a second (Mike Eckman; collection-appareils)
  • Two 3 V CR123 lithium cells sealed in the grip, meant to be replaced by a dealer after about five years or a hundred rolls; the serial number is on the base plate (Mike Eckman)

Specifications

Format
18×24 mm on 35mm film; the film runs vertically, so the frame is landscape with the camera held normally (Japanese Wikipedia; collection-appareils) · 72 exposures
Finder
scale-focus albada finder, switched between wide and tele with the lens; frame lines in tele only
Shutter
programmed electronic leaf shutter behind the lens · 1/30–1/500, stepless; TV mode fixes 1/30 · flash sync built-in pop-up flash, wide lens only, automatic in low light · no self-timer
Film advance
built-in motor with pre-wind: the whole roll is wound onto the take-up spool on loading and returns to the cassette frame by frame ("Drop-in Loading", a Fuji trademark applied for in 1982, per collection-appareils); continuous mode about 2 frames per second
Back
hinged, drop-in loading
Meter
CdS, fully programmed; DX-coded film read from ISO 100 to 1600, non-DX film treated as ISO 100; no manual override beyond the +1.5 EV backlight button (Mike Eckman)
Weight
292 g
Country
Japan
Original price
No Japanese list price found. $84.69 in a June 1989 AAA Camera Exchange advertisement, four years after release, which Eckman reads as surplus stock being cleared (today $214)

Mike Eckman's chief complaint: the finder is tiny, and he calls the variable-magnification finder the camera's "wow factor" rather than a help in use.

Where sources disagree

Type (the telephoto's optical path)
  • two mirrors fold the 69 mm path inside the body (camera-wiki)
  • no description of the path; three elements in three groups for each lens (Japanese Wikipedia)

The two statements are compatible; no Fuji document read describes the construction, so the mirror arrangement rests on camera-wiki alone.

What reviewers say

History

The TW-3 is what Fuji did with the half-frame in 1985, when the format had become a niche in Japan and all but vanished in the United States: it gave it a telephoto. Two Fujinons sit on a disc on the front of a pocket body, a 23mm f/8 that is about a 33 mm view on the 18×24 frame and a 69mm f/8, about 100 mm, whose light path is folded through two mirrors so that it fits. Turning the disc brings one lens round and switches the albada finder with it. The film runs vertically, so the small frame comes out landscape with the camera held normally, and Fuji’s Drop-in Loading winds the whole roll out on loading and returns it frame by frame. Exposure is a CdS programme from 1/30 to 1/500, reading DX codes from ISO 100 to 1600; focusing is by zones, two for the wide lens and three for the tele; a flash pops up on its own when the wide lens is selected and fires when the light is low, and will not work with the tele. A TV button fixes 1/30 for photographing a television screen, a second button adds a stop and a half for backlight, and a motor runs about two frames a second. Japan nicknamed it the Twing.

It did not sell. Mike Eckman found one period mention in the American press, a preview in Popular Photography’s June 1985 issue, and a 1989 advertisement clearing them at $84.69; collection-appareils calls it a commercial failure. The reason owners give is the battery: two CR123 lithium cells are soldered into the grip, rated for five years or a hundred rolls, and were meant to be changed by a dealer. Forty years on the cells are dead in most of them, and the camera is bought either as an ornament or as a project for a soldering iron. Eckman’s two examples, bought for under $20 each, gave soft, low-contrast frames and under-exposed indoors, and he scores it seven out of ten for its ingenuity and portability while sending shooters elsewhere. Kodera Nobuyoshi, writing in 2010, found the wide lens easy to live with and the telephoto not, which is the usual verdict on the folded lens. Beside it the Konica Recorder of the year before, with one lens and autofocus, is the 1980s half-frame people actually use.

Expand Collapse

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Fuji TW-3? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $150 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-02 (middle half $120–$150). Tracked since 2026-10-31, 2 days: unchanged from $150.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-11-02$150$120–$1503
2026-10-31$150$120–$1503

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Fujica Half · Konica Recorder · Yashica Samurai

Sources (6)

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.