Lomopedia: Leica Mini Zoom

A camera's appeal can come from many things. Design, performance, brand loyalty. Lucky for the Leica Mini Zoom, this camera has all three in the bag. This little point-and-shoot camera isn't the most iconic in the Leica line of cameras but it carries its own weight with a slew of features and good design.

Introduced by Leica in the mid-90s, the Mini Zoom is a compact point-and-shoot camera that offered good build quality at an affordable price. It's nowhere near the price of the iconic cameras under the Leica name but it still carried the Leica badge proudly by giving users bang for their buck. It sports a fairly sharp lens in the form of the 35-70 mm f/4.0 Leica Elmar lens that churned out photos with remarkable contrast and good image quality. It's equipped with a flash for low-light conditions, used a motorized film advance/rewind for convenient shooting, a bulb mode for long exposures, and a self-timer among other things. This Leica point-and-shoot was designed and manufactured for easy and convenient photography — a thing that many users can enjoy regardless if they're Leica fans or not.

There's a lot to like about the Leica Mini Zoom — the lightweight body, compact profile, capable lens, the ability to zoom in on subjects and so on. If you're a photographer who likes capturing candid moments, this can be a viable option for you. If you're a beginner who wants to explore the field of point-and-shoot gear, then you'd love this too. If you're a bargain hunter who's looking to score big with a small purchase, then you'd have hit the jackpot if you find one of these lying around. Small, fun-to-use, affordable, and with a Leica badge? That's the Mini Zoom for you.

Photos Taken by Our Community Members

Technical Specifications:

Type: Point-and-shoot camera
Film: 35 mm cartridge
Lens: Leica Vario-Elmar 35 - 70 mm f/4.0 - 7.6 lens (7 elements in 6 groups)
Focus: Infrared focus with focus memory, center-weighted integral metering with exposure memory, infinity focus lock, infinity focus lock with exposure override
Range: from 60 cm (24 in.) to infinity
Exposure Override: + 2 EV
Flash: built-in, automatic flash activation in low-light, pre-flash option to reduce the "red-eye" effect
Viewfinder: large, bright viewfinder
Others: long-time exposures, continuous shutter release about one frame every 1.5 s, automatic film speed setting (DX-coded), Quartz controlled data back depending on the model chosen

All information used in this article was sourced from Butkus Camera Manuals, Photo.net, Rachel Bakersville, and Depop.

written by cheeo on 2019-09-13 #gear #lomopedia #gear #point-and-shoot #leica #lomopedia #mini-zoom