Yes!Star, which was recently tapped by Fujifilm to produce more film in China, announced a new point-and-shoot 35mm film camera.
While Yes!Star isn’t a well-known brand outside of China, it has been producing dental and medical film for Fujifilm in China for some time. The company is expanding its focus on the consumer segment now and in addition to handling the production of Fujifilm C200 and C400 in the country, Yes!Star will also manufacture and sell a new 35mm film point-and-shoot called the S1.
Shared on Chinese social media site Weibo, the new camera is a very simple design that is reminiscent of classic disposable cameras in its function but is reusable. Announced at an event in Shanghai that boasted the “birth of a new film era,” the S1 features a metal-built, fixed lens, and built-in flash. It also weighs only about 280 grams.
The point-and-shoot description applies due mainly to the lens — it features no focusing system and is a fixed 31mm f/11, meaning the goal of the camera will be to get everything in focus all of the time thanks to the extreme depth of field. That also means that the S1’s low-light performance will be abysmal. That said, the build quality of this camera may make it stand out when compared to other similar cameras.
For example, Ilford makes the Sprite 35-II, a reusable 35mm point-and-shoot-style film camera and Retrospekt offers a similar camera called the FC-11 (which is differentiated mainly by the laundry list of pop-culture-inspired design options the company offers), both of which feature a fixed lens and plastic body. Yes!Star can differentiate itself through the slightly higher quality build of its metal S1.
Pricing for the Yes!Star S1 was not available at the time of publication, but given that the Ilford 35-II costs less than $40, expect it to land somewhere near there and significantly less than the Pentax 17, FilmNeverDie’s Nana, or the upcoming Rollei 35AF. Even though all of these cameras bring metal parts to the table, the Yes!Star S1’s lack of any kind of controls — including focus — indicates it’s going for a very casual consumer audience that won’t expect to pay much for it.
Image credits: Photographs by Federation of Independent Photographers on Weibo