Junk and Cheap Camera Month: Will it or won’t it work for me?

The next few posts will not be gift cameras. These will be cameras I got from West Yorkshire Camera’s charity sale. For the last two months, they have had a sale on the last Sunday of the month. The things that have not hit the grade or they haven’t got around to testing are put on tables outside the shop. They then sell them at very reduced prices with all proceeds going to charity. WYC is very clear that the items might not work and buying them could just be a donation to charity.

Well, I went to the last sale and had a rummage. I ended up getting 4 SLRs and a flight case from the charity tables for £5 each. I also got some items from the outlet store, a folding Bessa and a Mamiya lens.

I used the case for my filter collection. The Bessa needed a service so I sent that away, but the lens was perfect. The SLRs fit this month’s ‘junk’ theme, so they are the focus for the next few posts.

This post is about the non Contax SLR from the photo above, the Chinon CX. I added an M42 lens and started testing it.

It looked pretty clean and the shutter worked when I picked it up. It seemed to work in manual mode. Even if the light meter didn’t work, it was a good buy for £5.

This camera was produced in 1974. It features a meter that is activated by pushing a slider on the side of the lens. The meter was originally powered by a mercury lens, but adapters can be found. There is a battery check button at the side of the rewind lever. That lights a green led in the viewfinder if all is ok. This example lit up as it should. There is also a multiple exposure tab above the advance lever. Oh and the advance lever has quite a small throw.

As for the camera, it felt very heavy. It felt like the heaviest SLR I have tried in a while. I also noticed the meter needle was very slow to respond and not accurate. The settings it recommended seemed to be higher than I expected and might result in underexposed shots. I loaded the camera with a part roll of Street Candy 400 and took a few photos using the in built meter, but then switched to a hand held one.

I developed the film in Pyro, which I previously wrote about, saying it didn’t quite turn out as expected with this film. It was still clear I was right about the meter though. I think you can see where I switched.

Did it work for me? Yes, the meter did work in a fashion but I think I would have to set the ASA to compensate for the underexposing issue. I think it would be better to use it with an external meter. As I said before, it was a bargain even without the meter. BUT, due to the weight of the camera, I really didn’t enjoy using it. This one will be sold or given away… minus the lens 😉

Watch over the next few days for the other SLRs that I got from the sale.