Camera Review Blog No. 172 – Hanimex 35ES

I’ve been looking to review a Hanimex camera since I discovered that it was a Hanimex camera that captured my early childhood memories. I really wanted to find the same model camera, the Hanimex 35SE, but sadly, the only ones I could find were for parts only or untested. Throughout last year, I kept my ears to the ground and ended up at Kosmo Foto’s shop, where I saw a massive amount of Hanimex cameras available. After confirming that he could ship to Canada, I began to look more closely. While a 35SE was available, it sold before I could pull the trigger. So I looked through the other options and went for a ‘newer’ Hanimex 35ES. The 35ES is an interesting camera in that it resembles something from the early to mid-1980s, with its hard lines and ‘VCR’ look to the control. But it’s who made the camera that makes this funnier, it’s a Haking Halina, a camera brand that has been a running joke on CCR about how cheap they are and has even ended up on an episode. However, even these inexpensive cameras can produce good images. Thanks to Kosmo Foto for making these cameras available in a safe, tested, and secure method. If you’re wondering why I wanted a Hanimex camera? Well, I wrote about the hunt for the camera over on Kosmo Foto!

Camera Specifications
Seller: Hanimex
Model: 35ES
Original Model Based On: Halina 160
Type: Point-And-Shoot
Format: 135 (35mm), 36x24mm
Lens: Fixed, Halinar 1:5.6 f=33mm
Shutter: Leaf-Type, fixed 1/125″
Dimensions (WxHxD):
Weight:
Power Source: 2x AAA Batteries (Flash Only)
Year of Manufacture: 1980s

Background
Many of the cameras that I have reviewed have a single linage. A single company that has designed and produced the camera, but with the Hanimex 35 ES, the history is a lot messier. While it is not 100% confirmed, most people agree that the Hanimex 35 ES was manufactured by Haking Enterprises Ltd in Hong Kong for Hanimex. Hanimex, short for Hannes Import/Export, traces its origins to 1947 and was founded by noted Australian industrialist Jack Hanes. Hanimex would import electronic and photographic equipment into Australia, reselling it from German and Japanese manufacturers. Notable ones include Topcon and Pentacon cameras. Haking Enterprises Ltd. in Hong Kong, founded by former plastics manufacturer Dr Haking Wong, who moved into camera manufacturing in 1956 after the plastics industry became too crowded. Dr Wong decided to target the ultra-budget market. While no one can agree on which camera was the first, the earliest known camera from Haking is the Halina 35X. The Halina itself is a copy of the Japanese-made Nescon 35. While the Nescon was already a budget camera, the 35X was produced with a die-cast body and stamped sheet metal, which, according to surviving camera ads, cost around $40, or approximately $160 today. By the 1960s, you could get a Halina in any format or style, but it was always aimed at the ultra-budget end. Dr Wong never shied away from the idea of producing these super-cheap cameras so that anyone could afford one. By the 1970s, Hanimex had become a significant industrial powerhouse in Australia, promoting Australian business. Dr Wong would also be recognised for his role in building and expanding the foundation of Hong Kong’s manufacturing sector.

Haking would even go on to acquire the Ansco name in 1978. While Dr Wong continued to maintain control over Haking. For Jack Hanes, things were not going well with the investor-appointed board. A disagreement led to Jack’s resignation in 1982, around the time that the Chase Group, an Australian real estate firm, had purchased Hanimex. Halina cameras continued to evolve over time and by the 1980s had largely transitioned to the 35mm format, featuring simple-use, fixed-focus plastic cameras. Among them was the Halina 160. These cameras were often rebadged by holding firms using classic camera branding. Haking would brand cameras for the American market with the well-known Ansco name, but Miranda also found its name on Halina-produced cameras. Hanimex also spent the 1980s acquiring different brands, including Vivtar, Foto Island, and Polcolor. It was around this time that they used their influence to contract with Haking to produce several cameras in their Hanimex 35 line, including the SE, ES, and others, often with slight differences in the outer shell and branding. In 1989, a downturn in the Australian real estate market forced Chase to sell off Hanimex, which photocopier maker Gestenter then acquired. Gestenter was subsequently bought by Ricoh in 1996. All through this time, Hanimex continued to sell cheap cameras. It was this same year that Dr Wong passed away, but Haking continued to produce cheap cameras, even after the transfer to Hong Kong in 1999. In 2002, Dr Tony Chak-Leung and Dr Tai-Chin Lo completed a new factory for Haking in Xinhui, which continues to produce inexpensive digital and 35mm cameras to this day. In 2004, Fujifilm purchased the Hanimex name from Ricoh, which retired the name but retained ownership. Jack Hanes passed away in 2005.

Impressions
At first glance, the Hanimex 35ES looks cheap; it feels cheap, and you would be 100% correct in your thinking. The overall look of the camera is right in line with the camera designs of the era. It has sharp lines, sharp angles, and a very VCR look and feel. The camera has a similar look to the Pentax PC35AF and the first-generation Minolta Maxxum SLRs. And at forty yards, the camera does look like a camera, far better than it actually is. But the camera is far simpler than it looks; think of it more like one of the hundreds of simple-use cameras that are popular today. The build quality is also close to these cameras, but it’s slightly better. The camera is light and affordable without feeling flimsy. Controls are good, there’s a lens cover that locks out the shutter release (a nice touch), and the shutter release is big and red. There’s a selector switch for three film speeds, which controls the aperture. There’s a slide switch to turn the flash on and off. The film advance is a dial time, but it doesn’t feel that rough when advancing. And that’s it, the 35ES is far simpler than even the simple cameras of the day.

Experiences
There is nothing to this camera; it weighs nothing, and it’s easy to forget you have it on your person. While it’s easy to use with your bare hands, it’s much harder with gloves on, especially the big gloves I was using earlier this year. That said, even with the gloves on, the camera is perfectly usable. Loading the film into the camera is far easier than I expected; on these cheap bodies, it takes a bit of effort to get the film to wind on. On the 35ES, it takes it up right away. Setting the film speed also sets the aperture, and you do only have three choices. Now you can always adjust this knob to compensate for over- or underexposure, since you are limited to a fixed shutter speed. The one thing I do notice is that, despite there being no bump around the lens, it’s hard to get your finger into the lens’s angle of view, though not impossible. The one annoyance is that the strap is on the opposite side from the shutter release, which makes it hard to use the camera in portrait orientation when hanging from your neck. But the camera feels good in the hand: the shutter is quiet, even when it’s been tripped; the film advance is smooth; and the dial advance doesn’t bite into your fingers. The one thing that makes me feel like I’m going to break the camera is when I open the back by pulling up the rewind knob; the flimsiness reminds me of the LOMO Apparat and RETO Ultra-Wide & Slim.

Optics
Like many other Hanimex and Halina cameras, this one has optics that are not the greatest. While I cannot figure out what the elements are made of, if I were to hazard a guess, I would say plastic before glass. As for the construction, I don’t have information on how many elements the lens has, but I estimate the camera likely has no more than two elements. One thing unique to this lens is that the aperture is rectangular rather than circular, and adjusting the ISO on the camera body changes the aperture. The widest aperture on the lens is f/5.6, and I can’t say, or even guess, what the other two apertures are, as most aperture measurements are related to circular openings. The focal length of 33mm might seem a bit odd, but it actually works out because it is close to what we see with our peripheral vision (~31mm), making it a perfect camera to ‘capture what you see’. Quality-wise, the lens on my copy produces an oddly hazy look and feel to the images, almost like something out of a toy or an old camera. That may not be true of every camera. Either way, it may not work for some, but it does work for me now that I know what the lens does.

Lowdown
I’ll admit, the 35ES isn’t the type of camera I would gravitate toward, and I only got it for the nostalgia factor. What I didn’t expect was to find a camera that was a lot of fun to use. It offers something radically different from what I normally go for, and that’s been something I’ve been focusing on with my camera choices. And while the 35ES won’t always be the first camera I reach for, it offers up that Lomography look without the price tag of modern toy cameras. In some situations, it will work, and I’ll include the 35ES in next year’s edition of the 12 Months on Film project. If you’re looking for these cheap options at a fair price, all of which have been tested, you can head to Kosmo Foto’s Cameraburo.

Further Reading
Don’t just take my word for the Hanimex 35ES; you can check out reviews from other awesome camera reviewers!
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