The last Century saw the rise of the average man as a photographer. We now think that we’re in era with mobile phone cameras of being ever-ready shooters but we forget that by 2000 most of us would carry some form of film camera to almost every leisure event we did. Point and shoot cameras (P&S) have little in the ways of user controls and just either fixed, basic scale/zone focus or later AF.
This lump of plastic arrived in 2 of the Poundland job lots. It’s providence is unknown but eBay seems awash with them. However there is a reason – they’re Rubbish.
Since I got my Olympus PEN EE-2, I’ve been seeking out a more focusable Half frame camera. As well as the obvious EES-2, one camera caught my attention from the Old USSR, the ФЭД Микро or in English the FED Mikron/micron sometime dubbed the Soviet PEN.
FED Mikron (ФЭД Микро) half frame 35mm soviet camera
So when I finally got a working one I headed out with a roll of trusty Kodak BW400CN.
This fixed focus shooter came to me as BNIB in eBay parlance. The camera was still sealed in its retail pack with film and batteries and was in pristine conditions.
Lomography’s Mythology¹ describes this quirky zone focus shooter as the progenitor of the camera that started Lomography, the LC-A. But how does this camera that the Russians so slavishly copied, stand up on its own ?
Cosina CX-2 35mm film Camera. The alleged inspiration for the LC-A
If you’ve been following my blog you’ll be aware I’ve a somewhat love-hate relationship with the Olympus XA2. At times I’ve been amazed and other times underwhelmed. Well it turns out one of the two XA2 I had over the last 2 years whilst superficially working produced naff results (the other in hindsight was pretty good)
Olympus XA2 ’80s classic supercompact
And this got me thinking about me and other reviewers of film cameras. What happens if we get a wrong ‘un ?
I don’t really like reviewing cameras that haven’t worked but I recently acquired a Yashica Samurai X4 which had a a sticky shutter. The actual other mechanics of the camera worked (bar flash) so these are my musing on this unique camera half frame SLR despite not actually successfully taking a shot on it
Yashica Samurai X4.0 half frame AF SLR from late 1980’s
