Here is another donated camera from the same person that sent me the Dia. What a wonderful package that was to receive. I don’t think I stopped smiling for a month, maybe longer. In fact I still grin when I look at it.

The past winter and spring seasons have been awful, it has rained almost every day. So this was the perfect camera to receive. Just look at it…

It is a hefty beast, you know you are holding a quality camera.

Before I started using it, I checked the O-rings. The sender had said the rings were fine, but I like to check these things. One reason, pure curiousity, another…I wouldn’t want to take the camera anywhere less than dry and regret not checking them.

The rings were perfect, no nicks, good grease. I was confident the camera would be water tight.

I loaded a roll of HP5 took a few shots on a rainy day around my local area, then headed to Tadcaster. The camera handled perfectly. It is designed to be used underwater, probably with the user wearing gloves. The lens has two dials, one for the distance and one for the aperture. There are clear guides on the lens to let you know what distances will be in focus. These guides change as you alter the aperture. The best way to use the camera is to keep the depth of field as wide as possible, especially if you are using it underwater. The camera uses TTL light metering via aperture-priority to autoexposure the shot between 1/30th and 1/1000th. There is a mechanical exposure option of 1/90th for if your batteries fail…you can hardly change them underwater.

Inside the viewfinder a red light will appear if you depress the shutter button. The light will blink if there is too much or too little light. The light will remain steady of there is enough light for the shot. Simple. Mine came with the standard 35mm f2.5 lens which can be used in and out of water. The Nikonos has some lenses which have an UW on them and they can only be used underwater.

By the time I got to Tadcaster, the weather was actually lovely, nice blue skies. Typical, the first time I use this camera and it is NOT raining. Once I got back home, I had issues loading the film onto the developing spool. The spool seemed to be damaged and would not feed the film properly. I ended up stopping and trying another spool, but not before my film was bent and covered in fingerprints. I now use disposible gloves when developing to avoid this, plus, hopefully the weather will warm up and I don’t want sweaty fingers on the negs.

Here are those results.

I love the 35mm focal length and how sharp is that lens?? I was using new to me developing chemicals that seemed to err on the side of under-development. That was a bit disappointing, but I could tell the camera worked and that was the important part. It was an unreleased developer and I hadn’t worked out the best way to use it. I have had more experience with it now and the results are much better.

Anyway, I quickly loaded another roll of HP5 and waited for a rainy day, I didn’t have to wait long. I then headed to Lichfield. It was so rainy that I gave up before I ran out of film. I finished the roll in Wentworth on another day. I was surprised there wasn’t any evidence of raindrops on the lens.

What a smashing, but heavy point and shoot with the added bonus that if you drop it in a pond it will probably be ok. I love it and can’t wait for warmer weather to try it out in the ocean, I am going to be brave and take it for a dip, though maybe not a dive. Also, I won’t be worried about sand getting inside, as long as I don’t change the film at the beach of course.

To the sender, thank you so much. I cannot believe how lucky I am to receive this.

You can read the manual here.
You can read more about this camera here and here.