I bought this camera while waiting to see a children’s theatre production. It seemed appropriate as this is more like a clockwork camera. It is from 1964 and is a half frame camera. If you read this blog regularly you will know they are not my favourite, but can this quirky camera change my mind?

As you can see there is a selenium cell, which was still working. Plus there is a huge knob on the bottom…this is a clockwork winder for the mechanical film advance. Turn this knob and the film advances automatically until it needs winding up again.

There are more technical details on this site, this site and this site. As you can see in the photos, the maximum ASA is 200. This caught me as I was about to put a 400 in it. In the end, I chose a Fuji Acros 100 for the test film. I wandered around my village, school and Yokohama. For this film, I did not attempt to remove any hairs or dust, just because it is late and I want to go to bed 🙂

I think I over-developed the film a bit, but it isn’t too bad. The camera seems to work well and the light meter is fine. It works on a zone focusing setting and as usual, I didn’t always remember to change the setting from infinity. I much prefer the range finders or SLRs. The camera is solid and hefty. It feels like a quality camera. The noise of the film advance is awesome. If you like half-frame cameras then this one can be found relatively cheaply.

Keep or sell: Neither I have already promised it to a photographer friend who wants to try some film, along with the Olympus AZ-1 zoom as it has a multi-exposure function.