My recent fling with The Konica C35 AF got me thinking about what true point and shoots (P&S) there out there. By that I mean a P&S where all the user does is hit the shutter button and possibly wind on – there is no need or ability to set any other controls once the camera was loaded.
If the Olympus Trip 35 became the classic P&S during the 60’s-70’s, that title was likely held by Voigtländer in the 50’s with this all time classic of German Engineering
The Kodak brownie is probably the best known and iconic camera series ever made. The Brownies in one form or another were made from 1900 to 1986 although are best known for the Iconic Box Brownies. The No 2 deserves a special place in this Iconography not just for it’s own 34 year run from 1901 but for the fact this camera gave us 120 film and is arguable the most reliable camera in the world still turning out shots almost a century later. Although this isn’t a Poundland Challenge Camera, scarily you can actually get this classic for a quid or less.
This ended up being my first truly vintage pound or less camera. This scale focus number was launched in 1959 as an update to the Mark I launched a couple of years earlier (the mark III was in by the end of 1959 !!). But how does Ilford’s challenger to Kodak’s retina/retinette measure up ?