Minolta Weathermatic 35 DL (1987)
The Minolta Weathermatic 35 DL is a chunky yellow waterproof 35mm point-and-shoot from 1987. It's the kind of camera you'd grab for a beach trip or a snorkeling excursion. Minolta marketed it as the world's first waterproof camera with switchable focal lengths. A button on the body toggles between a 35mm f/3.5 and a 50mm f/5.6 lens setting, and the viewfinder adjusts its magnification to match. It's not a true zoom. It's a dual-lens system, essentially the same optics as the non-waterproof Minolta AF-DL, in a watertight body rated to about 5 meters (roughly 16 feet).
The camera is fully automatic — autofocus (infrared-based, with a minimum distance of 0.75 meters), auto-exposure, and auto film advance. A close-up button lets you get nearer than the standard focus range would otherwise allow. The body is plastic and yellow, and the whole thing runs on four AAA batteries. That bright, bulky 80s aesthetic is part of its charm; one reviewer on 35mmc admitted the camera was “not really your type” but that they had chemistry with it anyway. On paper, it’s everything they normally dislike — big, bright, and with no manual control — yet the waterproofing makes it genuinely useful in situations where most cameras can’t go.
The original 1987 price was around $285. Today these cameras show up regularly on the used market, often in the $10-40 range. Sellers and collectors both point out one caveat: the internal seals age, so a 1987 example is best treated as water-resistant rather than truly waterproof. Lomography notes the camera's long history of use among its community, and the watertight body is what separates it from the AF-DL it's based on.
Known specs:
- Film: 35mm
- Lens: Dual focal length, 35mm f/3.5 and 50mm f/5.6
- Focus: Infrared autofocus, 0.75m minimum
- Waterproofing: Rated to 5m (16 ft) when new
- Battery: Four AAA
- Introduced: 1987 at ~$285
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