A box of goodies…

A box of goodies arrived this week, and there are some really fun looking cameras to play with inside…

Firstly obviously there is a Chinon! This time the 35 F-A with questionable red velvety body covering. As expected it does not work - this era of Chinon compacts were generally absolute rubbish with the odd exception.

Bought for the sole reason that I didn’t have one! Oh and the fact it was five pence plus fees.

Chinon 35 F-A

With the Chinon quickly consigned to the Chinon box, it is on to the next camera - The Canon EOS Kiss IIIL.

It is the 2001 improved version of the EOS 300 (Rebel 2000 in the US) for the Japanese market. Changes from the 300/Kiss III are a backlit LCD and the inclusion of a remote control (which this one is missing). To be honest I thought it was an EOS 500 when I bought it. I wanted to replace my 500 with one that had the panorama switch, and quite liked the colour of the Kiss - it is a darker shade of silver to the UK version.

With a couple of CR2’s chucked in, it fired up and looks to be in good condition, except for a bit of crud on the mirror. Now for the question of what lens to use? I think I will go for the Tamron 28-200 to start as it hasn’t been used for a while - it is heavier than the camera though, so might have a play with the Vivitar Series 1 19-35 as well to mess about with the panorama mode.

Canon EOS Kiss IIIL

Next is one that I’ve fancied for a while - the 1965 Fujica Rapid S2. I really like the design - it is sleek and stylish, plus I do like an old Fujica.

It came with only one Rapid cassette, so instead of ordering one on eBay, it was cheaper to get an Ilford Sprite Rapid Flash with a cassette inside! How does that make sense?

The shutter is working, but I need to check the selenium meter before putting some film in. It takes sixteen 24x24mm exposures per roll, so should be interesting to shoot square on 35mm. It comes with a 28mm f2.8 Fujinar lens which equates to a 35mm focal length on standard 35mm film.

This was the most expensive of the lot - I use the word ‘expensive’ lightly - wait till you see how much the last one cost!

Fujica Rapid S2

Finally and with great hope is the Petri Pro7.

The third example to have arrived at my door, and hopefully this one will actually work!

It was absolutely filthy, the name badge is missing, and my hopes were dwindling quickly. It received a scrubbing with an old toothbrush and soapy water followed by a wipe over with a damp cloth and polished with my t-shirt to get to what you see here.

Unbelievably it actually works!! The shutter fires on all speeds, the aperture lever works and the rangefinder focusing works - even the light meter is responsive! Wow, finally I will get to shoot one of these. All I need to do is steal the badge off of the really broken one, and it is ready.

So, how much did this Pro7 cost? 1p - yes One English Penny! (plus Buyee service fee and shipping, but we won’t mention that!)

I am tempted to swap the top with a really nice one on another camera, but don’t want to jinx this one continuing to operate.

Petri Pro7