Obviously I love cameras. I take a certain amount of pride in the cameras that I own, and generally tend towards the high quality gear. All of that said, I love this camera. A little on the background, this camera was a gift from my mother, it was her camera she used for years. She now uses her iPhone for the digital simplicity and the ability to immediately share with friends and family. I was unsure if she still had this camera so on my last trip I asked about it. It was quickly pulled out of a drawer and given to me.
So with all my Leicas, Hasselblad, Nikon, Yashica and Olympus professional cameras, how is it that I can possible bring myself to love this little hunk of plastic? The answer is that it is the easiest film camera to throw into my pocket to carry around town. No lens cap, no choice of lenses and a flash is always at hand.
For those of you new to film, please remember that the quality of the capture is determined by the film choice made. Image quality will be dictated by the lens and obviously the quality of the shot will be determined by the photographer. So you should never look despairingly at any film camera...it has amazing potential if used properly.
The camera has a sliding door which protects the lens. It turns on very quickly as soon as the sliding door is opened. The top LCD display shows the number of shots taken and the status of the flash. The ISO is read from the DX cartridge which is important to keep in mind. Since I reload my film I just make sure that the cartridge is of an ISO that I want to use. If the camera cannot read the ISO it will default to ISO 100. It can shoot from ISO 50-3200.
So with all my Leicas, Hasselblad, Nikon, Yashica and Olympus professional cameras, how is it that I can possible bring myself to love this little hunk of plastic? The answer is that it is the easiest film camera to throw into my pocket to carry around town. No lens cap, no choice of lenses and a flash is always at hand.
For those of you new to film, please remember that the quality of the capture is determined by the film choice made. Image quality will be dictated by the lens and obviously the quality of the shot will be determined by the photographer. So you should never look despairingly at any film camera...it has amazing potential if used properly.
The camera has a sliding door which protects the lens. It turns on very quickly as soon as the sliding door is opened. The top LCD display shows the number of shots taken and the status of the flash. The ISO is read from the DX cartridge which is important to keep in mind. Since I reload my film I just make sure that the cartridge is of an ISO that I want to use. If the camera cannot read the ISO it will default to ISO 100. It can shoot from ISO 50-3200.
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As soon as you slide it open, you will see the 35mm lens, two auto focus sensors, a light sensor, flash and a timer light.
The lens is very sharp and has a wonderful coverage area and at f/3.5 it is a fairly fast lens. I would be happier with an f/2 but this is plenty quick for what I like to use this camera for. Loading the film is fool proof, and it will load to the first frame automatically. Once the roll is finished it will auto rewind. There is a button to force it to rewind if needed. The flash is bright and the TTL works well. Stay away from glass which can reflect, keep the subjects at least two feet from any background and the flash is very useful. |
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The viewfinder is fairly large although my eye does search for it. Once found it is very easy to see through. The only information you have is an Autofocus frame (spot focusing) and some lines to correct for any close up shooting. There is a green and red light off to the right as well. The green light tells you that it has locked focus and the red light below it that tells you if the flash is set. There is a timer on the shutter which is set at 12 seconds.
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The Good:
It slips into my coat pocket, is ready in a heartbeat (just slide the cover over) and has a flash as well. This lets me capture images I would NEVER be able to capture with any other camera. Running around with friends, a film camera is ready, out to lunch with the family, a film camera is ready, night, ready, day, ready. It is always in my coat pocket. Ever wish you had a camera with you? I no longer do.
The flash is easy to turn on and off but defaults to a auto flash when turning on. Loading the film is a no-brainer and the lens is tack sharp. You always hear of Leica fans arguing that the Leica gets out of the way and lets you shoot, well this one does as well. Easy, fast and a joy to use.
The flash is amazingly good for something so small! Give it a try it gives a very nice feel to the image!
The Bad:
The viewfinder is bright but my eye struggles to find it. It is in the middle of the camera while I am used to my other rangefinders that have it on the far left. Hence my instinct is to take it there. The camera tends to jump a sprocket hole. This means that when I scan the images it must be done by hand as the scanner assumes the standard sprocket to image relationship.
The last issue is that it is noisy...not that the pictures are noisy....it is a loud camera. Each picture advance is very loud. Everyone in a three block radius will know you took a shot. Forget stealth with this camera, which is a pity because it is small.
Overall:
Buy this camera, throw in some film and toss it into your coat pocket. Full stop you will love this thing! Does it have quirks, yes it does but you will learn them all in the first roll. Look at some of the images below and you will realize that there is no way I could have captured this with any other film camera. It beats my iPhone in terms of speed to be ready to use it.
If you look at the sample images below you will see several images of some massive heads being moved around London. I came up to this on the way to work and was able to quickly pull out the Stylus and capture the images. There is a dark shot of my son drinking from a straw in a restaurant, I just turned off the flash, held the camera still and caught a very moody picture. The image of parliament and Elizabeth Tower, a great image shot in the early morning with amazing detail and sharpness. If I told you this was shot on a Leica with a Zeiss lens no one would challenge me. This little lens is wonderful!
All the portraits were shot with flash (with the drinking stay being the exception) and you can see that it does a fair job. The image of my son sleeping in the rearview mirror again would not have been captured with any other camera because I did not have another one with me!
Price & Value:
A good camera will run you around USD 25 or so. You can get it at half this price. Heck buy two and keep one in the car and one in your coat pocket. Toss it into your camera bag and always be ready for that street shot! It is amazing in terms of quality and will work for years. And if anything does happen, just buy another one! You can move to the Stylus Epic which has a f/2.8 lens but other than that is exactly the same.
Reference Sites:
The manual can be found HERE.
A good review can be found HERE.
It slips into my coat pocket, is ready in a heartbeat (just slide the cover over) and has a flash as well. This lets me capture images I would NEVER be able to capture with any other camera. Running around with friends, a film camera is ready, out to lunch with the family, a film camera is ready, night, ready, day, ready. It is always in my coat pocket. Ever wish you had a camera with you? I no longer do.
The flash is easy to turn on and off but defaults to a auto flash when turning on. Loading the film is a no-brainer and the lens is tack sharp. You always hear of Leica fans arguing that the Leica gets out of the way and lets you shoot, well this one does as well. Easy, fast and a joy to use.
The flash is amazingly good for something so small! Give it a try it gives a very nice feel to the image!
The Bad:
The viewfinder is bright but my eye struggles to find it. It is in the middle of the camera while I am used to my other rangefinders that have it on the far left. Hence my instinct is to take it there. The camera tends to jump a sprocket hole. This means that when I scan the images it must be done by hand as the scanner assumes the standard sprocket to image relationship.
The last issue is that it is noisy...not that the pictures are noisy....it is a loud camera. Each picture advance is very loud. Everyone in a three block radius will know you took a shot. Forget stealth with this camera, which is a pity because it is small.
Overall:
Buy this camera, throw in some film and toss it into your coat pocket. Full stop you will love this thing! Does it have quirks, yes it does but you will learn them all in the first roll. Look at some of the images below and you will realize that there is no way I could have captured this with any other film camera. It beats my iPhone in terms of speed to be ready to use it.
If you look at the sample images below you will see several images of some massive heads being moved around London. I came up to this on the way to work and was able to quickly pull out the Stylus and capture the images. There is a dark shot of my son drinking from a straw in a restaurant, I just turned off the flash, held the camera still and caught a very moody picture. The image of parliament and Elizabeth Tower, a great image shot in the early morning with amazing detail and sharpness. If I told you this was shot on a Leica with a Zeiss lens no one would challenge me. This little lens is wonderful!
All the portraits were shot with flash (with the drinking stay being the exception) and you can see that it does a fair job. The image of my son sleeping in the rearview mirror again would not have been captured with any other camera because I did not have another one with me!
Price & Value:
A good camera will run you around USD 25 or so. You can get it at half this price. Heck buy two and keep one in the car and one in your coat pocket. Toss it into your camera bag and always be ready for that street shot! It is amazing in terms of quality and will work for years. And if anything does happen, just buy another one! You can move to the Stylus Epic which has a f/2.8 lens but other than that is exactly the same.
Reference Sites:
The manual can be found HERE.
A good review can be found HERE.
