Film gear junkie, that’s me. I love the aesthetics of cameras and lenses. Especially vintage cameras are of my liking. My main interest still remains in taking actual photos. In the future, this blog will combine the gear junkie and the photo lover sides of me. The aim is to test old film cameras, mainly cheap-ass compact cameras and provide some example photos for each camera. More specifically the testing concept will consist of shooting a roll of film with each camera. “One Roll, One Camera”.

I will still have my main film cameras which I’ll use for the most part, but occasionally I’ll take a small, weird or straight up ugly camera and take it for a spin. In the process I hope to enhance my photo skills.

In this post, I’ll run you through a few of my film cameras.

The Canon 300V SLR film camera

First off, there is the Canon 300V, which is a dirt cheap consumer SLR camera from the early 2000s. It has pretty good selection of features and it eats common batteries. Battery-related problems are surprisingly common with old cameras. This is a pretty ugly and IMO pretty underrated camera. Mounted is the helios 44-2 lens (with an m42-eos -adapter). My second lens for this camera is a Yongnuo 50mm f1.8. This camera supports auto focusing and all modern Canon EF lenses. That’s a big plus!

The Cosina CS-3 SLR film camera

Second camera on my set is the Cosina CS-3 with Cosinon MC Auto f1.7 50mm lens. There isn’t much information on the internet about this camera. They started to manufacture it in 1973 and it is made by Cosina. Cosina is a known manufacturer of cheap copy cameras. It has a Pentax K mount, so a great amount of lenses are available for it. I think this camera is a great piece, it is built like a tank and it feels really good to shoot with it. It has a split focusing screen, which is not very good. In low contract scenes it is kinda hard to nail focus with it. This camera is actually from my workplace, where it was used for journalistic purposes. No one had had any use for it for a long time, so I received it. I really like the bright viewfinder in this camera. I think it is better than the Canon’s VF. The lens is pretty bright and it yields some nice pictures. Below are some examples.

The Canon Canonet QL17 G-III rangefinder

Last but not least, the poor man’s Leica, Canon Canonet QL17 G-III. It sports a fixed f1.7 40mm lens with an unconventional 48mm filter thread. I like using orange filter in it for a bit more contrasty skies and more pleasing skin tonality. I like this rangefinder, it is a gorgeous camera with a very solid build quality and attention to details. There is a ton of information about this camera on the net, so I won’t go on about it. If you can find one in good condition, you won’t regret getting one. Below a couple of pics taken with it.

The Pentax PC35AF compact

A bonus camera is a Pentax PC35AF compact camera, which will be the first camera to be featured in my “One roll, One camera” blog series. This camera is made of plastic and it features a crude autofocus system. I think it was made in the early 80’s. The lens is a pretty standard 35mm f2.8. Usually lenses this bright are not seen in the cheapest tier of compact film cameras, so there is hope of decent IQ. I am really unsure how the images will turn out, because the camera is making a really funky shutter sound. I think it might not be working properly, but we’ll see. If I can manage it, I’d like to go to the darkroom next sunday. Maybe I’ll make a darkroom post as well!

p.s. In the future, I’ll blog only in english. Film enthusiasts is such a niche group, so I’ll aim for international audience straight away. It’s also good to hone my english skills.