The 1964 Kowa SE is a fixed lens 35mm SLR camera with a notoriously unreliable leaf shutter - this is my third or fourth example I’ve owned, and the only one that actually worked! The internet is full of ‘untested’ copies for not a lot of money, inevitably the vast majority are flawed. Imagine my shock when this £5 eBay purchase arrived and was fully functional including the light meter.

The shutter and mirror slap sound is rather satisfying, viewfinder clean and clear making focusing a breeze. All of the controls are on the lens barrel making the shooting experience different from your regular SLR.

With the knowledge that it could fail at any second, I quickly cleaned it and loaded with some fresh Ilford HP5. With no real plans, it simply accompanied me for a few weeks to shoot when the conditions suited the HP5.

First frame, and Wow! It does actually work, and I really like the look of the scans. Obviously the image is helped by the very cool Lada - a car that in it’s day would have been mocked, but this one seems to be a survivor and now has that cool retro vibe.

Quite the opposite though…

The stance and look of this Maclaren is seriously mean, and the Kowa captured it perfectly. I love the tones of the HP5, and as with the first image the highlights are slightly dreamy as it there is some slight lens haze. There is nothing obviously that I can see inside the lens.

Wanting to test the Kowa in different scenarios to see how it performed I found this scene whilst driving, and had to capture it.

I did shoot this composition on a few cameras, and the Kowa created the best image - the exposure is spot on, the details are excellent, and the tones are fantastic. Another win for the SE - this is turning out to be a very good camera!

The last couple are of a neighbourhood in a local town, that to me at least, has a certain appeal in black & white. It is not deprived by any means, but is a bit rough around the edges

The biggest downfall of this, and the other cameras in the line-up - the E, SE, SET and SER is the quality of the shutter. My new (to me) SE has proved that Kowa could have made this a real contender if it wasn’t for it’s reliability.

It feels good, sounds good, and produces really good images - it is such a shame there are so many broken ones out there.

So if you do find a working one, definitely give it a go.

The working Kowa SE - a rarity!

OM-5 MkII inspired CE-5