Disc K

The Minolta Disc K was my second attempt at shooting Disc film. My Kodak Disc 3600 broke part of the winder on the first shot, but since I still had 3 blank discs sitting around, and I was still curious about the format, I decided to try again, but this time with a better made camera. There weren't a lot of high-end cameras made for the system, and most of the ones that were were from Kodak, which I was rather leary of after my last experience. But after doing more research, I found that Fujica, Konica, and Minolta had all built relatively high-end Disc cameras as well. Of the lot, the Minoltas tended to be cheaper on ebay, and after some watching and waiting, I ended up with this Disc K.

In comparison to my Disc 3600, there was an immediately obvious difference in build quality. The viewfinder was bigger with very clear framelines and focus markers, the lens cover slid in and out reassuringly well, and with the folding handle in position, the camera was surprisingly comfortable to hold. Makes me wish it took just about any other film, so I could shoot it more often. It even came with a nice looking leather case with a cutout to hold the camera securely. So maybe the camera holder is thin plastic with a thin felt lining, and maybe the zipper pull snapped in half within a couple uses, but it's still a cool looking piece on my camera shelf.

The Disc K was a K-Mart special, incorporating features from both the Minolta Disc 5 and Disc 7, and being sold exclusively through K-Mart in the US. As such it had the metered auto-exposure, 2-zone focusing system, and auto-flash system from the Disc 5, as well as the rotating handle from the Disc 7, but lacks the selfie mirror and self timer from the 7. I believe it also has the electronic cable release socket from the Disc 7, but I haven't been able to confirm that. The socket was added specifically for the genuine 1980s selfie stick accessory Minolta sold, but those are quite rare and I don't know of anything else that uses the same socket. There was also the ac-101 and ac-301, which were essentially the same as the Disc 5 and 7, but with painted in designer patterns from a French fashion house. Finally, there was a Disc-S, which appears to be exactly the same as a Disc K, but sold elsewhere. I figured it'd be a Sears thing, since they like to do that, but I've heard it was actually exclusive to Europe, though I'm not sure if it was sold exclusively in some store or not.

For as much as I enjoy this camera, the shots it produced were not brilliant. Normally when I'm working with film this old, I try to source some black and white film, as that seems to age better in my experience, but Disc film was only ever made in 200 ISO color negative. The Superia HR I got had expired sometime in the late 80s, and came with a clearance sticker on it, which tracks with how unpopular I'd heard the whole system was. I fashioned a cheap ND filter from an old pair of sunglasses and taped it over the meter window in the hopes of tricking the camera into over-exposing the old film, but it doesn't seem to have done much. Between very magnified grain and the heavy color cast, the results definitely stretch the level of old film aesthetic I'm happy with. I know that someone did a run of new discs around 2012, using a custom die to cut discs out of sheets of 4x5 film, which is a similar thickness to Disc film. They released instructions on how to DIY it as well, so that may be a project for the future. I certainly like the camera well enough, and I'd like to shoot it more.