Chinon CE-5 - A Camera from the 1980s

It uses Pentax K mount, which mean there are many reasonable priced lenses available.  I got this camera for £12 and described as spare or repair.  It was in poor state, but the shutter fired after fitting new batteries.  Some of the leatherette were missing.  I gave it a good clean up, replaced the light seals, mirror bumper.  Also replaced the leatherette with the red vinyl.  It looks like a completely different camera.  Also managed to get hold of a power winder on eBay bundled with another purchase.  You could say it was for free.  In the 80s', I always wanted a power winder.  It was so cool and professional.  Of course, I would not carry one now, it is just too heavy and need another four AA batteries.

The CE5 is quite conventional and innovative at the same time.  It can shoot in manual or aperture priority and has a maximum shutter speed of 1/2000s  Self timer can be set to 5s or 10s.  There is a window on top of the viewfinder to see the aperture selected on the lens.  That is a wonderful idea and wondered why not many camera have this feature.  The camera does need batteries to operate.  It uses  tow LR44 batteries inserted from the bottom.  The innovation of this camera is the ability to fit auto focus lens on the camera.  The three electrical contacts on the top left of the lens mount are for the auto focus lens to connect to the camera.  I have never seen any of these lenses anywhere and must be very rare.  I have no idea how good they were or how fast.

The handling of the camera is very conventional for SLRs from the 80/90s.  Nothing unusual or different.  I am a sucker for the under dog and often wondered why no one remembers Chinon.  The cameras they made are quite good and quite a lot cheaper than the 1st tier companies like Canon, Nikon and Pentax, etc.  What ever the reason, Chinon cameras are very good value now.  I would highly recommend picking up one of these cameras for film photography.

I loaded the camera with Kodak ColorPlus 200 film for some street portraits.

The photos came out OK.  My C41 developer was getting exhausted and it showed in the negatives.  I need to get some new chemical before developing the next roll of film.  I need to shoot more with this camera.

Ricoh KR10 - A Budget SLR from 80s with Pentax K Mount

 I picked up this camera to give away as a gift for Christmas.  I paid £12 including postage as an untested camera from eBay.  In another auction, I paid £12 for a Ricoh Rikenon 50mm F2  lens.  Once received, I only had to clean up the body and put in two LR44 batteries and the camera bust into life and fully working.  I did have the replace the light seals and mirror bumper.  They were in a sorry state.  The lens was in remarkable condition, almost like new.  This will make a wonderful gift for Christmas.  Of course I had to test the camera with a roll of film to make sure it is fully working.

This camera does not work without battery, except X, which is 1/90s.  No other speeds are available.  It also has auto mode, which is aperture priority.  The shutter speed the camera selected is indicated in the view finder with a needle.  Handling wise, it is very standard without any surprise.  There is a mechanical self timer at the front which is about 10s delay.  Shutter speeds available ranges from B, 4s to 1/1000s.  I have not seen a camera that has speed down to 4s.  One feature is the film winding lever act as a on/off switch.  When pushed in, the camera is off and does not fire.  You do have to pull it out to turn on the caemra.

The mirror slap is quite loud though.  It has a distinctive mirror slap noise.  Definitely not a stealth camera.  There is no mirror lock up.  Matched with the 50mm lens. it makes for a very budget friendly setup.

I loaded the camera with Fomapan 400 and headed to Cambridge for some street photography.  The photos came out very well.  Exposures were accurate and I did not have to make many adjustments to the scans.

I would highly recommend this camera to anyone who wants a 35mm film camera to try.  Don't spend too much money in case film photography is not for you.

Fujica ST705W - Late 70s M42 SLR Camera with Open Aperture Metering

This is a late 70s' SLR camera from Fuji Film in M42 mount.  The only difference between ST705 and ST705W is the W version is able to mount a motor winder.  It is a fully manual camera without any automation.  There are vast choices of lens available in M42 mount.  However, the Fujinon M42 bodies are different and support open aperture metering.  The lenses have a tab which operate a pin which tells the camera what aperture is set to.  Hence open aperture metering is possible.  The camera is very light compact.  It weighs a lot less than my Chinon CS and CXII.  The focus screen is quite a bit brighter, making it much easier to focus.  From what I know, Fujica was the last camera company to abandon M42 mount as all other companies switched over to bayonet mounts which allow much more automations.  This was what photographers were demanding at that time.

One of the reason I like these cameras is they are fully mechanical and the batteries only drives the meter.  Without batteries it is still able to operate normally.  I did have to renew all the light seals and mirror bumper.  I also cleaned the mirror and focus screen.  Although all the shutter speeds were working and appears to be accurate, I removed the bottom plate and lubricated all the small gears and cogs.

What sets this camera apart from other cameras of the time was the ability to meter without stopping down the lens.  Also, the light meter uses photo sensitive diodes. Cameras of that era typically uses Cds which is slower and less sensitive to light.  Also, it uses 2 x LR44 or SR44 batteries.  They are still readily available.  Lots of cameras of that time were still using mercury batteries which are illegal now.

I loaded the camera with Kodak Colorplus 200 and went on a photo walk photographing portraits on the streets of London.  The lens I was using was Fujinon 50mm f1.8.  I found the camera exposures to be accurate and consistent.

Chinon CS and CX II Cameras - Welcome to the 70s

The Chinon CS and CX II cameras are both made in the 70s and uses M42 lens mount.  They are mechanical cameras with shutter speeds from 1/1000s to 1s and B.  They do use batteries, but only to power the meters.  The CS and CX II only differ in the way they operate the light meter.  In both cases, they meter stopped down using match needle in the viewfinder.  The CS uses a stop down switch on the right side of the lens, where as the CX II stops down and meter when the shutter button is half pressed.  Under the skin they are almost the same.  The meter on my CS does not function and I use it using sunny 16 rule or with an external light meter.  However, my CX II's meter actually work.    Since the camera was designed for mercury 1.35V battery, I set the film speed 1 stop over to compensate for the different battery voltages.  As a side note, these cameras were sold under different names in different countries.  In the UK, they were also sold a Prinzflex by Dixon chain of shops.

Chinon CS with Helios 58mm F2 lens.  Note the stop down metering switch on the left of the lens.

Chinon CX II with Fujinon 55mm F1.8 lens.  Metering is performed when the shutter button is half pressed.

In term of focus aid, they have micro prisms on the ground glass but no split focus screen.  It would be good to have both.  With bright lenses, I find the screen to be bright and easy enough to see through for most conditions.  In dark environments, the match needle can be hard to see.  But then the Cds light cells are not that sensitive in low light anyway.  Both cameras have hot shoes and also flash sync sockets for FP and X sync flashes.

Both cameras are quite old now.  Even though they are working well, I did remove the bottom plates and lubricated all the moving parts with light bicycle chain oil.  They were notably smoother after.  All the light seals and mirror bumper have disintegrated.  I bought new light seals from eBay and cleaned and replace the seals.  Both cameras are light tight now.  Hopefully, they will work for another 40 years.

One thing to note is these cameras are heavy!  Construction is solid and almost everything are made of metal.  Shutters are also quite loud.  They are not stealth cameras.  These cameras have vertical travel metal shutter with a flash sync speed of 1/125s, which is double of the horizontal travel cloth shutter can achieve.  Due to the higher flash sync speed, they have become my studio camera of choice, especially the CS, as the meter does not work.

Would I recommend these cameras?  That is a definite yes!  They are cheap, reliable and easy to use.  They are readily available on eBay, so I would not pay over the top price for them.  Even if the meter is not working, they are great cameras to shoot with with a light meter app or using sunny 16 rule.  If you use them in the studio, you will have a flash meter anyway.  Here are a few more photos from the last shoot using the CS with Fujinon lens shot with Kentmere 100 film