INTRODUCTION

The Topcon UNI is a 35mm film SLR camera made in Japan between 1964 and 1969.

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PERSONAL NOTES

The Topcon UNI is a rare design for a SLR camera. Like the Nikkorex, it uses a leaf shutter in the lens instead of the regular focal plane shutter. This does not make a huge difference while using the camera, the shutter speed is adjusted from the lens instead of the camera body. Also, the flash sync speed can go to the fastest shutter speed, which is 1/500s.

Unlike the Nikkorex which has an integrated lens, this Topcon UNI has interchangeable lenses, mine is equipped with the Topcor 53mm f2.

The camera has a light meter and you can use the shutter priority by putting the aperture setting on the lens to "Auto". It works well outdoor, but my body might have an issue as it meters 2 stop lower than the actual light. So to not take any chance I use mine in manual. But in manual, it's not really fun to use, because there is no display of the aperture setting in the viewfinder. Your eye always have to go back and forth between the finder and the top of the lens to adjust the aperture. Not really practical.

The Topcon UNI seems to be well built, it has an ok grip, a nice finder. The shutter is not on the top of the body, but on the front. You get used to it easily.

For flash photography, it only has a cold shot, but you can use the pc sync which is well placed on the front of the body near the prism.

A nice thing is that you can still shoot with the camera even without any battery, but you have no meter.

CONCLUSION

The Topcon UNI is ok, not a "great" camera, but a nice package that has access to nice lenses for a cheap price.

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