Fuji DL-120

The 3.8 Fuji Wonder

The curved nature of design in the late 80s and early 90s did not age well, but in the case of the DL-120, it skirts that fine line. An all plastic body with hints of gold and red makes this camera nearly invisible to the passerby. Every angle on the camera has been curved, with a more dramatic wave like curve up to the lens. Mostly consisting of smooth plastic, there are textures added to the camera’s body where your hands would naturally fall. Overall a camera design of the time, but nothing too jarring by today.

Giving the DL-120 a quick once over, you will notice there is only a shutter button and a few switches. That is the extent of the control of this Fuji camera; entirely intended to be a no nonsense point and shoot. Starting with the viewfinder, a look inside reveals standard frame lines with parallax correction marks. There is also an autofocus patch in the center of the fame that you can use normally to focus on a subject, or half press the shutter button to lock the focus and recompose. Moving to the top of the camera, we can see this red outlined shutter button on the right, along with a frame counter below. The shutter button also has another function. Once you take the picture, if you keep your finger pressed down, the camera will wait to wind the film until you release.

To load film into the DL-120, you need to push a sliding latch up on the left side of the back of the camera. Once released, the door springs up and is caught by a small arm. This is the Drop In Loading position; all you need to do is slide the film in through the gap of the door to a polished plastic marker on the body. Closing said door should wind the camera to the first frame and you are set to shoot. You are still able to open the back door fully by slightly moving the door down to release the arm mechanism. When open, all you need to do is load the film like a normal motor wind camera. The door also has a window to the left hand side, to show the film type and exposures written on the canister. One last thing to note is that the camera can read 100 to 400 ISO DX coded canisters, the slower speed being the default if no DX code is present.

Continuing looking at the back, on the top left hand side, there is a switch you can move to the left to engage the flash. Once in position, on the rear of the flash, you can see a bit of information for flash distances in relation to the film’s ISO. To the right of that switch is a flash ready light, the viewfinder, and a low light/slow shutter speed warning red LED.

To turn on the camera, there is a sliding switch next to the camera’s lens, that also controls a lens cover. The autofocus windows are to the sides of the viewfinder, while the meter window is situated to the right of the lens. Be careful not to cover that window with your left hand while shooting. Looking at the bottom of the camera, toward the center is the mid-roll film rewind along with the battery compartment. The cover slides over and takes two AA batteries. This cover happens to be the weakest point of the design, breaking on a fair bit of these mid to lower end Fuji cameras.

Finding information about this camera was not the easiest, without owning the original manual of course. However, I did find some specifications inside of an 80s photography magazine. The lens is a Fujinon 35mm f/3.8, a touch slower than other common point and shoot cameras, but a decent wide angle lens. The smallest aperture is undocumented, but I would reason that would be somewhere between f/11 and f/22. There is a healthy range of shutter speeds, from 1/30th to 1/250th of a second, and the flash syncs at all speeds I believe. That is all for the Fuji DL-120, a simple auto everything point and shoot camera.

THE SPECS AND FEATURES

Shutter Speeds - 1/30th to 1/250th of a second

Aperture - f/3.8 to not mentioned (likely between f/11 and f/22)

Meter Type - Cds, adjacent to lens

Shutter - electronic

ASA - 100 to 400

Lens - 35mm f/3.8 Fujinon

Flash Option - built in, indicator for charged, switch to engage

Batteries - 2 AA

Film Type - 35mm

Other Features - drop in loading, slow speed warning

The Experience

I did not intend to own a DL-120 camera, I cannot even recall how it came into my possession originally. I imagine it was included in an ‘As-Is Lot’ of cameras, and once it arrived was put away for a couple of years. Slowly I have been sifting through a box of various point and shoot cameras that I have run across over the years, picking a few interesting cameras to test out and talk about. I’m not sure what drew me to the DL-120, but I believe my initial thought was using it to test a roll of film.

The Fuji DL series has some very interesting looking models from its early years, but the DL-120 seems to be on their lower end range of consumer cameras, a step above the fixed focus versions. As I mentioned previously, information is not easy to come by, however, I did find mentions in everyday magazines of the time, saying nothing of note other than the camera was ‘moderately priced’. This camera seemed to stick around for a bit, well into the early 90s. It was kept around as the lowest end model Fuji had for the time. Once zoom lens point and shoot cameras were on the scene, this and many other DL cameras were discontinued.

Unfortunately, my camera had a few problems. My first hurdle with getting this camera up and running was that the battery door was broken and not latching. I spent months on and off trying to figure something out and trying different things. I ended up making my own tab out of metal, and only just getting it to work. When a very small piece of plastic breaks, it’s not easy to fix or replace. The camera still has a tendency to slide the cover open, so to prevent that I sometimes use a small piece of tape to stop it from siding to that open position. Once fixed, a quick test showed everything was working and in order. I threw a roll of color in and took it out with me for a few weeks, not really expecting anything notable to come out. What I ended up with was a few interesting photos… and one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken. I was awestruck at how dead on the exposure was and the stellar focus. It could have just been the camera stopping down the lens quite a bit, so I decided to try out another test, this time in low light.

A week or so later I took out the DL-120 again, waking up very early in the morning to get some low light shots of a river and bridge. Once developed and scanned, I was absolutely floored again. I’ve taken a handful of pictures of that bridge, even some with large format, but this picture was the best of the lot, hands down. This firmly solidified my admiration for this camera.

I’ve shot a handful of point and shoot cameras in my life, but this really is one of the most impressive. I will say that the build quality is less than perfect though. It feels nice in the hand, but my example had problems with the battery door, the case was spitting apart, there was a lot of dust in the autofocus mechanism I was unable to get out, and writing the specifications part of this article I broke the quick load stopping arm clean off. Not the best impression, but for an around 25 year old point and shoot, I can give it some slack.

I would most certainly recommend this camera to anyone and everyone. It’s light, compact, has a built in lens cover, has a user activated flash and above all is still inexpensive. I’m sure that some other of the early Fuji DL cameras will produce similar or even better results. A wonderful surprise and a great little addition to my compact camera lineup.