Throwback Edit Version: I edited this in October 2026, checked the links and converted it to the new WordPress blocks format if needed.

I thought this was such a funky-looking camera, coupled with the fact that it still had the lens cover…I had to try it. Then I found out it was a half frame. Did I still want it? Yeah, ok.

The seals on this 1976 camera were completely shot and disintegrated on touch. So I changed them before I even thought about trying it. The selenium cell seemed to be working fine, but what was that weird dial on the bottom? It turned out to be a spring loaded film winder. It worked intermittently, I was never sure when and how to charge the spring. If it didn’t cock the shutter you could also wind it manually.

There is a great blog post here in Chinese (use Google Translate) that really explains how to use the camera, plus there are example shots of some pimped-up versions. It almost made me want to do that to my camera. The review explained the red dot in the middle of the viewfinder. If there is not enough light, a red dot will appear; if there is enough light, the dot will be yellow. My camera’s dot was a little light, and I didn’t really think about it too much. If you leave the camera on auto, the speed is 1/125th; if you use it on manual aperture, then it is 1/30th. That is way too slow for me, so I left it on auto most of the time, but really…one film speed?

I took the film to a festival and then around and about. This camera got more attention and comments than any other I have walked around with, but did it work?

Yeah, it worked. But as a half frame, it took forever to finish the film, and there were a lot of shots. There are so many shots that this time I could not be bothered to remove all the hairs from scanning. I didn’t think the quality of the shots was worth the effort.

Keep or sell: I gave this one away because I don’t really like half frames…though this camera was one of the coolest I have tried.

Update: Giving it away was a mistake of course.