(1977) This camera is often listed as a Chinese copy of the Minolta SRT101 -- which was introduced 11 years before the Peafowl DF_I. This is probably because it was marketed in the USA by Europhot Distributors, and the photography editors of the time needed to put it into some sort of perspective for their readers. But they got it mostly wrong. Superficially, the Peafowl looks a lot like the SRT101, for sure, but in fact it is substantially different. It is a strictly manual camera with shutter speeds from 1 - 1/1000, plus B. Flash synch is at 1/40 with a special setting. Interestingly it has a 45 degree, diagonally-set rangefinder focusing -- something that would have been nice on the SRT101. It has a silk focal-plane shutter, cable release connection, tripod socket, mirror lockup, self-timer and hot flash shoe. Like the SRT101, the film ASA setting is dialed into the shutter speed dial -- as a film reminder -- but unlike the SRT series, the DF_I lacked a meter.

Dialing in the film speed is simply a film speed reminder -- so there is no need for a film reminder and the back. It has a round viewfinder like the early Minolta SLR cameras:

It lacks any motor drive connections, like the Panda:



The DF_I is normally seen with a 58mm f2.0 lens (marked "DF_1").

It came in both black and chrome versions, but the black version is quite unusual.

The Peafowl is more like the Seagull DF-1 than the Minolta SRT101, but it is named "DF_I" and not "DF-1" -- perhaps to avoid any possible copyright conflicts with Seagull's camera. The DF_I was marketed in the USA in 1985 (and probably before) -- about the same time as the Seagull DF-1 was sold in the US. But neither stood much of a chance of success due to poor marketing and strong competition from the incredible Japanese 35mm SLR cameras of the time (most of which had more features, such as automatic exposure, motor drive options, large lens selections, etc.). This was despite the very low suggested retail list price of $125 for the Peafowl DF_I. That's $275 in 2016 dollars -- about half of what the bargain Japanese cameras were selling for at the time. When compared to the earlier Panda (model 4), it added a hot shoe and dropped the ridge around the top of the camera.

The front of the pentaprism displays an icon of a peafowl (AKA, peacock). Also the self-timer lever is slightly changed and the neck strap lugs are more substantial. Not big differences, but then evolution is a S-L-O-W process.