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

Fujica Mini

Fuji · Fixed lens · 18×24 mm on 35mm film · 1964

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Fujica Mini · Fuji Fujica Mini · New Fujica Mini · Fujica Mini half frame · Fujica Mini 25mm f2.8 · フジカミニ · フジカ ミニ · ニューフジカミニ

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Fujica Mini (1964), chrome Half-frame 1964 — No figure published
New Fujica Mini (1965), black Half-frame 1965 — No figure published
  1. Lens, shutter speed, film-speed jewels and the September 1964 date are Japanese Wikipedia's product list; the fixed 1.5 m focus, the 88 × 62 × 40 mm body, 290 g, ASA 25–200 range, the missing flash socket and the quarter-turn advance wheel are 135compact's. Neither gives a price or a production figure.
  2. Who designed it is told two ways. Japanese Wikipedia credits Tanaka Yoshio with the design and Miyabe Hajime with the mechanism; 135compact names Masaki Nishimura, head of the Konan Camera Laboratory, alongside Tanaka. The two accounts are not necessarily in conflict, since Konan built cameras for other firms, but no source read connects Konan to the Mini directly.
  3. "The smallest 35mm camera" was Fuji's launch claim, as 135compact reports it; at 88 mm wide it is smaller than the Fujica Half of the year before and than any Olympus Pen, and 135compact says Fuji aimed it at women.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Fujica Mini on the front, a selenium window ringing a lens engraved Fujinar K 1:2.8 f=25mm, and no focusing scale at all, since the lens is fixed at about 1.5 m
  • Not the Fujica Half of 1963, which has a 28mm f/2.8 Fujinon with zone focus and a shutter-priority automatic; the Mini is the fixed-focus, single-speed camera below it

Fujica Mini (1964), chrome:

  • A large selenium cell ringing the lens, with a rotating tab on the front that turns the lens mount to bring the exposure needle to the preset mark (135compact)
  • Film speed set under a window on the front with four "jewels": pink for ASA 25, blue for 50, lemon for 100, green for 200 (Japanese Wikipedia; 135compact)
  • A film-advance wheel on the top plate turned a quarter turn, rather than a lever (135compact)
  • 88 × 62 × 40 mm and 290 g (135compact)

New Fujica Mini (1965), black:

  • Black finish; camera-wiki names it the New Fujica Mini and calls it "not so bright", which reads as a remark on the finish or the finder rather than the lens. Japanese Wikipedia's product list has no separate entry for it.

Specifications

Format
18×24 mm on 35mm film · 72 exposures
Finder
direct optical viewfinder, no rangefinder; fixed focus
Shutter
leaf shutter, single speed · 1/125 only · flash sync none; no flash connection (135compact) · no self-timer
Film advance
wheel on the top plate, about a quarter turn per frame
Meter
selenium cell around the lens, match-needle: the film speed is preset with a knob under the front window, and the front tab is turned until the exposure needle meets the preset needle; ASA 25–200
Designed by
Tanaka Yoshio (田中芳郎) — styling — a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts who had also styled the Fujipet (Japanese Wikipedia; 135compact) · Miyabe Hajime (宮部甫) — mechanical design (Japanese Wikipedia)
Weight
290 g
Dimensions
88 × 62 × 40 mm
Country
Japan

Where sources disagree

Designers
  • Tanaka Yoshio (design) and Miyabe Hajime (mechanism) — Japanese Wikipedia
  • Masaki Nishimura of the Konan Camera Laboratory and Yoshio Tanaka — 135compact

Both name Tanaka; the second designer differs.

What reviewers say

History

A year after the Fujica Half, Fuji went the other way with the small frame. Where the Half had a five-element 28mm, zone focus and a shutter-priority automatic, the Mini of September 1964 has a three-element Fujinar K 25mm f/2.8 fixed at about 1.5 metres, one shutter speed of 1/125, and a selenium cell ringing the lens whose needle is matched by turning a tab on the front. Film speed is set under a window with four coloured jewels, pink for ASA 25 and green for 200; there is no flash socket; the film is advanced with a wheel on the top plate. At 88 by 62 by 40 mm and 290 g Fuji called it the smallest 35mm camera made, and it was aimed, as the firm said, at women. The styling was Tanaka Yoshio’s, the Tokyo University of the Arts professor who had drawn the Fujipet; Japanese Wikipedia credits the mechanism to Miyabe Hajime, and 135compact names Masaki Nishimura of the Konan Camera Laboratory instead. A black version followed in 1965 as the New Fujica Mini.

What the Mini can do it does well. 135compact finds it easy to handle and its pictures sharp, which a three-element lens at f/8 in daylight on a half-frame has every right to be; what it cannot do is anything at 1/125 and ASA 200 that daylight does not allow, and it cannot focus. It is bought now for the object, a very small, very plain chrome camera with a jewelled window, and used as the fixed-focus half-frames of the 2020s are used, as a daylight snapshot camera that fits a coat pocket. No price or production figure has been found for it.

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 Fujica Mini? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $140 across 8 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-02 (middle half $110–$170). Tracked since 2026-10-31, 2 days: unchanged from $140.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-11-02$140$110–$1708
2026-10-31$140$110–$1708

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

Show 16 more listings

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

Related: Fujica Half · Ricoh Auto Half · Minolta Repo

Sources (4)

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.