Tag Archives: 70

Olympus mju Zoom 70 Deluxe

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On this blog, I have tried over 150 cameras. So, without realizing it I have done over one camera a week for two years. I am saying this because I was looking for projects for the new year. I stumbled across many, including one roll, one camera for 52 weeks. I thought, oh that would be hard. Then it dawned on me, I have already done that. For me, a harder project would be choosing just one camera for a year or even a month. Impossible.

Anyway, the camera I tried this time was the 1993 Olympus mju zoom 70 deluxe. There are always mjus in junk bins in Japan, apart from the obvious versions. The zooms can be picked up for $3, just like this one.

You can check out the previous link to see the specs for this camera, suffice to say, it is a little pocket of awesomeness. It is curvey, light and easy to use. I tested mine near my house. Just to make sure it fired, then I forgot about it and left it in my bag for ages.

The first shot is one that I usually take, it makes it easy to compare cameras and films. Plus I just like it. The second two show the 35-70 zoom feature.

Once I remembered the camera I packed it ready to take on a holiday to Hong Kong. It was easy and cheap to get there from Japan, plus I have never been, plus plus I have friends there who said I could use their apartment while they were on their own holiday. Score.

So here is the remainder of the roll, shot in Hong Kong.

Wow, what a stunning little camera. Super sharp and good exposure, even on skyscrapers that were reflecting the sun quite dazzlingly.

I thought Hong Kong might be a great place to buy cameras or equipment as many of the things I buy on eBay seem to come from there. I went to a few places, but I didn’t find that was the case. The prices were much higher than Japan, and no junk bins. I saw this camera for $80 in one shop. After I wandered around a few shops I gave up until my very last day when I bought 3 cameras which I will write about later. But I had already decided to leave the mju for my friend as thanks for letting me stay. I wrote and told him and he mentioned a Nikon FE..that I had already seen on his shelf..he said that it wasn’t working and I could have it. As I already have that camera, I decided to look at it while I was there, maybe I could get it working?? It turned out to be a quick fix, there was a corroded battery which had leaked. I looked in the kitchen for ‘stuff’ and found some balsamic vinegar. So I cleaned off the points and voila, lights alive. It was working again, or at least it was when I left.

I had fixed my friends camera and left him another great camera. Perfect. I am sure he will be very happy when he returns. On a personal note, what he doesn’t know is that I bought my first film camera, a Canon A1, during this blogging era after seeing him with his Nikon FE. I loved the sound it made and the quality of the photos he took. So I looked for a cheap film camera for myself. I then went nuts and got millions of others. They helped me through a difficult time. So thanks buddy, you helped me more than you ever realized 🙂

Chinon ZC 200 (sprocket adapted)

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This is another one of the presents I received over the summer. It is a regular point and shoot camera with one difference. The sender took out the mask so the light could also hit the sprocket area of the film.

And here is what I found on the net about this camera…….

…..

….

Nothing, NOTHING, absolutely nothing. Not even in Japanese, and I searched in Japanese as it is a Japanese company. On the company website, it is not listed. This is a fake camera.

I am not one to give up and I decided just to search for a point and shoot with a 38-70mm zoom…Nothing. Fake camera.

Why not click on images?? You never know??

Then, I saw this…

yashica-zoomate70

Holy Moly, it is exactly the same. Exactly, the same on the front and top, but the Yashica has a data back. BUT it is exactly the same. I can’t say anything about the Chinon, but this camera is from 1995.

Anyway, I slapped in an expired film and got to shooting. And… back to terrible processing. I miss Photo Hippo. The shop lady was cute though, she drew a photo of why the film could not be scanned ready for when I came to pick it up. Of course, I already knew this and had a plan in mind…a 120mm film plate and sellotape.

I managed to get some images off the film and convert them to black and white to get rid of the colour cast.

Funky.

I took the camera to Nihonbashi and Ueno for the dreary, rainy, humid day. Can you see the curved light reflection in the top right corner? If you check the inside of the camera you will see the spirals for the zoom. I think if you are going to remove the mask to expose the film sprockets, it would be better not to use a zoom camera. The light obviously reflects off these spiral tracks. Still, awesome gift and fun project.

Keep or sell: As it was a gift, I think I will regift it for someone else to play with. Spread the love 🙂

Fujifilm Silvi 70

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After the last fuji camera I reviewed, which had no information, this at least had a little out there. Mostly it is in Japanese, but google translate is awesome these days.

It was very clean throughout and fired up immediately with a CR123 battery. It looked and acted like a typical point and shoot camera.

You can find lots of details about it on this page, though as I said it is in Japanese. It was released in 2001 and discontinued 4 years later. This was the cusp of the film/digital threshold. As such it has all the technical power you would need in a point and shoot, such as DX coding and quick autofocusing.

If you need an easy to use, efficient point and shoot, you could not do better than this camera.

Here is my test roll.

As you might be able to tell, I used an expired film. I also have a sort of new hobby…photographing Star Wars figures. It gives me something else to photograph. I don’t do it a lot, but you might see more popping up on this blog in the future.

Keep or sell: Selling on eBay