Point-and-shoot film cameras have been making a comeback as an easy way to jump into analog photography. The Fuji Cardia Travel Mini series is one of the Nineties-era cameras making a comeback – but the tiny point-and-shoot's return may even bleed over into digital.
Earlier this year, Fujifilm asked fans what lenses creators wanted to see next, ranging from ultra-bright zooms to retro brass designs. But one of the lenses on the list is a bit unusual because it’s not a zoom – but it’s not a prime, either.
The Fujifilm XF 18mm and 30mm is a concept lens for mirrorless cameras that’s inspired by Fujifilm’s popular “Travel Mini” series from the Nineties.
This product line went by a handful of different names, due to differing titles for different countries as well as later iterations, so it was known by names like the Fuji Discovery Mini Dual in the US and the Fuji Cardia Travel Mini-P in other regions. It was also commonly referred to as the DL-500.
But what was unusual about the point-and-shoot camera, which at the time of its launch was one of the smallest options around, is that the camera had two different focal lengths in one – but not using zoom.
Cameras with zoom use an arrangement of moving optics that enable the camera to capture multiple focal lengths. Likewise, zoom lenses can capture every focal length in between the widest and farthest focal lengths.
The Travel Mini, however, didn’t use a zoom lens, but rather an unusual optics system that was like having two primes in one. Instead of zooming, the camera swung a handful of lens elements out of the way to switch between 28mm and 45mm lenses.
Unlike a zoom lens, the dual lens on the Fuji Travel Mini can’t shoot at any focal lengths in-between. Instead, the design was more like having two fixed lenses in one.
While the Fuji Cardia Travel Mini is seeing a resurgence in popularity based on Google Trends data, Fujifilm is at the very least toying with the idea of bringing such a two-primes-in-one concept to an X-series mirrorless lens.
An “XF 18mm and 30mm inspired by Travel Mini” was among the different possible concept lenses that Fujifilm asked fans for feedback on during the Focus on Glass event earlier this year – and it surprisingly landed in third place behind only the ultra-bright zooms, the XF 16-80mm f/2.8 and XF 18-50mm f/1.4.
As a Fujifilm photographer, I think the dual lens concept is one of the more unusual choices among the options that the company presented to fans. Including the lens in the survey doesn’t mean that it is for sure going to happen – Fujifilm hasn’t confirmed anything of the sort. But it at least hints that Fujifilm's designers are dreaming of such an optic.
I’m not sure exactly how Fujifilm would manage to swing some of the lens pieces out of the way in order to get two prime lenses in one – after all, the shape of a mirrorless lens is far different than working with a rectangular compact camera body. But, the lens profile included in the survey looked quite compact.
Putting two different focal lengths into one travel-friendly lens would offer a massive advantage. I loved using the Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2.8 R WR pancake lens, but sometimes I wanted to get in a bit closer and reduce some of that wide-angle distortion.
But while I think such a dual focal length prime lens would be legendary, I could see the feature being even more game-changing if such a lens were used in a compact camera like the X100VI. The wildly popular series offers a fantastic APS-C sensor in a compact size, but if doesn’t offer any optical zoom.
Such a dual focal length prime inside a compact camera isn’t entirely just wishful thinking. In a recent interview, Fujifilm general manager for Professional Imaging Products Yuji Igarashi told PetaPixel that the dual XF 18 and 30mm concept lens actually came from both the lens and camera teams, further mentioning that “we all talk to each other and we are both interested.”
But, the interview also hints as to why Fujifilm hasn’t created such a lens yet– after all, the original camera is from the Nineties, so the concept isn’t exactly new. Igarashi said that “the 28mm was a good quality, but the 45mm was probably not.”
The comment suggests that image quality on the longer focal length lens is what has kept Fujifilm from recreating the dual lens from the Cardia Travel Mini on a modern lens. But I wonder if the technology for a dual focal length prime lens is finally good enough to make the idea actually feasible.
The idea reminds me a bit of lenses with built-in teleconverters, like Nikon’s Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S, which is also essentially a prime lens with multiple possible focal lengths.
As a Fujifilm photographer with a kit that skews heavily towards prime lenses, I find the concept lens fascinating – and I hope it’s one that Fujifilm could find a way to bring into reality in the future.
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