Australian film lab FilmNeverDie launching simple 35mm reloadable camera

Australian film lab FilmNeverDie has announced a pre-order for a 35mm simple camera called the Nana, a successor to its previous camera offering, the Niji.  The company unveiled the camera with a special pre-order price, which is around 40% lower than the camera’s retail price.

The metal-clad Nana offers motorized film advance, compared to Niji’s plastic body and manual film advance. The camera’s metal body is inspired by the Contax T2, and the Nana will also feature an improved lens compared to the 31mm f/9 optic on the Niji.

In a blog post on FilmNeverDie, founder Gary Wong says: “Regarding the focusing mechanism, our camera boasts nearly 100 moving parts at the front of the unit. Incorporating autofocus was a significant challenge. During our research, we stumbled upon the Ricoh YF20-E, which allowed the lens to move by pulling a lever in front of the camera, thus changing the focus point. This gave us an idea: what if we could shift the back of the camera? While we’re not the first to attempt this, we were inspired by the old-school medium format cameras and the Contax AX.”

In January, the Dead Pixels Society talked with Wong about the new company’s rotary film processor, the CP800. In the interview below, Wong talks about the business, why they chose to build a film processor, and what it takes to build a film-oriented photo business.