Found this little gem at the thrift shop across the street from where I work last week. Picked it up for a screaming $5. When I put a test AA battery in it at the shop it immediately started winding and raging and I had no idea why. Turns out there’s a strange rewind switch on the top of it that will engage if the R button on the bottom is engaged, which it was. Not knowing any better, I went back to work empty handed and then realized they’re going for $75 on eBay. So, for $5 I was willing to roll the dice to see if this puppy still worked. The flash was firing, so there was that. Threw in a fresh roll of black and white Ilford HP5 and was off to the races.
Turns out it did work! And not very badly either! No light leaks or any of the more alarming things that old cameras can do. Of course, auto focus always has issues, as you’ll see from some of the later frames. And flash is just generally.. a look. It doesn’t have a long exposure ability, so take it or leave it. But the lens did quite well! Generally the exposure was on point, unless of course using flash from a distance of about 3-4 meters as I was in the group shot at the end. The self-timer is pretty sexy, although self-timer + flash is maybe a bit more than I can bear to look at. My favorite shots are the ones from my commute to work, taken on the fly in a very pretty morning light.
On the whole, it’s nice to have a plastic camera that I don’t care too much about but that can handle a bunch of situations. It obviously isn’t replacing my Leica any time soon, but for skiing or shooting flash at night, it’s not a bad option to have in the bag or around my neck. Will shoot again! Thank you Christ Church Thrift Shop!
