After years of chasing Chinon cameras, I do wonder if there is a larger collection out there?

Having spent the weekend updating my inventory, this question occurred to me! With nearly 40 different SLR’s and over 90 different compacts - is anyone else mad enough to buy this many Chinon’s?

Note - this is not an up to date image, and there are quite a lot of additions since it was done!

Production started back in the late 1960’s with the Chinonflex SLR through to the early 2000’s with the M- series of point & shoot compacts, with only two Chinon branded digital models released in the Nineties - The ES-1000 and ES-3000.

It has to be said that compact point & shoot’s were not the company’s strong point with some truly terrible cameras with low build quality and unreliability, but on the other hand they made some epic models that could rival the big players at the time. The Auto 3001 is one such camera - the 35mm f2.8 lens is excellent and the triple infrared beam auto focus is accurate and fast. It does command a higher price than any other model, but is well deserved.

In stark contrast models built around the time of the Auto GX, GL, etc were awful, with cheap plastic, poor lenses and a struggle to find a good working one. The Pocket Zoom was infuriatingly slow, the GX’s lens cover always breaks, the 35FX range feels very cheap and the list goes on.

This is an oddball - The CARP special release for the Hiroshima Toyo Baseball team. It is very rare, but used the not very good 35F-II as it’s base!

However models like the Splash are fantastic fun on the beach, the MC-340 is well made, simple and a great pocket camera, and strikingly looking like a Konica Big Mini - Chinon did make cameras for other manufacturers, so is fairly common to see the same model with a different badge.

If you are in the market for a Chinon compact, you sure have to choose wisely as they vary immensely…

My top picks include the Chinon 35, Auto 3001, MC-340 and M-6200. That is not many considering I have 90+ different models!!

There are also 110 and APS format cameras, but nothing in the line-up can compete with models like Minolta 110 SLR or Pentax Auto 110 and APS offerings like Canon IX’s.

Luckily on the SLR front, it is a struggle to pick a bad one - of the 40 models in the collection (some are the some model, but different colour), there is something for everyone. From the brilliant basic mechanical CS all the way through to the equally brilliant electronic CP-9AF.

Five models really stand out to me - the humble CS, the gorgeous DSL, the god tier CE-5, the CP-7m and the electronic CP-9AF.

The little DSL is fully mechanical, but with LED’s set on the side of the viewfinder for metering. These lights are easy to match by adjusting the speed or aperture to get the green light. It is accurate and simple - also it feels really nice in the hand.

The CP-9AF is the most technically advanced camera that Chinon produced with all the exposure modes from full auto to manual, auto focus, auto wind and rewind and the optional S-120 flash. It has two lens options 28-70mm and 70-210mm. It is a chunky camera, but is fairly well made and feels solid - nowhere near the quality of a premium brand though.

It may not be the most advanced, but for me personally the best Chinon to use and own is the CE-5. It just ticks all the boxes. I love the Eighties styling, it is great quality, in aperture priority in rarely misses exposure, and is cheap to buy or replace. My precious cost me around £30, but I have bought them for as little as £5

The more I browse online, the more variations, and models I find… For example this morning I came across an MC-340 with Giant 2 badging! Hmm, one more for the list to buy then! Surely there is not an endless number of different cameras by Chinon? is there?

Back to the point, I wonder if there is a larger collection of Chinon cameras? Surely I am not the only one with this obsession!

Is this the largest Chinon collection?

Cinestill 800T in Finland

Ricoh Hi-Color 35S