This is the Minolta Weathermatic-A. It was donated to the collection by wildlife photographer and artist Rick Manners who used this camera while taking underwater images when he use to scuba dive.
The camera was produced by the Minolta company in 1980 as a pocket waterproof camera that could remain water tight up to a depth of 5m (16.4 ft) it has very large knobs and film advance leaver so that a diver with gloves on could operate the camera simply. The camera was also coloured bright yellow so that it could be easily seen underwater for easy access or in the case it was dropped it would float to the surface and easily been seen against the surface of the water.
I haven’t been able to shoot with it as of yet but from what my friend said It’s useless for any sort of professional work due to the small size of film it used and could not make any enlargements to the size of what agencies would be looking for. For personal use however it’s a nifty little camera that’s easy to control. Although I don’t have any scuba experience I am looking forward to hopefully try out some snorkeling and take this camera with me to try out.
The Specs:
Type of camera: Pocket waterproof camera
Film/picture format: 16mm 110 film cartridge producing a 13 x 16mm frame
Lens Mount: fixed
Lenses:Rokkor 26mm f3.5 (4 coated glass elements in 3 groups) Manual focusing using a selectable knob for 5 distance symbols
Aperture: 3 apertures for sun, cloud, and flashlight selectable via Knob
Shutter: metal blade shutter with fixed 1/200 sec speed.
Exposure metering: Provided through viewfinder
Viewfinder: bright frame finder with parallax correction masks, low light indicator.
Reflex mirror: none
Depth-of-field preview: no
Frame counter: additive type
Power source: yes 1 x AA 1.5V
Camera Back: locking plastic cover with water seals
Body Finish: Bright yellow
Maximum diving depth: 5m