Small is Beautiful!
That’s what Mr Bellini always says and for this post we’re taking that in hand and applying it to 35mm film cameras!
You see, it goes with the turf at Nik & Trick that here is always a requirement for us to have a camera about our personages at all times, we are forever needing to test things to learn and to show off. To try out that new film or a variation on a product a new developer, film / developer combinations and so on and so on.
Most of the time, it’s just not feasible to wonder around with an F5 or LX or FM2 or whatever, thus to lighten the load we have for some years employed nice pocketable equipment.
We need high quality though and thus, by way of experience, we have come to adore what we call “Super Compacts”. Those certain “just so” pocket marvels and they’re shockingly good!
35mm compacts were manufactured in their billions. Not millions, BILLIONS and the vast majority were good, many led the way to what people now expect of a small camera or even mobile phone!
Superb as they can be, these do tend to do much the same sensible things and were built for anyone’s everyday use, and just consider how many trillions of memories recorded on an inexpensive 35mm compact?
As film photography expands in popularity demand for them is back, especially among our younger clients.
So, we keep a stock of them for sale…click the photo to the right to see current stock
When we offered to pen this post the question was raised “Why not do it about the cheaper compacts?” and it’s a very valid thing to ask but, there are SO many of them and there as SO many great brilliant little cameras it would be an article that never has an end!
So we’re going to take a look at some of those ultra special pocket rockets and do so with sample photos that we’ve made with them…and these are our choices:
Compact compromise:
With any photographic kit there’s always a compromise, and these present a few of their own, mainly by virtue of their size and by trying to be ready to deal with as many everyday circumstances as possible.
So here’s a few tips
The lens is often physically tiny so consider that f2.8 is a good fast maximum aperture. Many mainline ones won’t get close to that but hey, no biggies dropping to f3.5 is still good at the super compact level.
Medium speed films, 100asa, 200asa are great but on occasion you might wish to consider that a faster film may be order of the day.
We have found all of them to be great with just about all films but XP2 Super black and white and Portra 800 for example, seem to particularly suit them, that’s in our opinion but you’ll be fine with any film to be honest.
The vast majority of compacts rely on DX coding….DON’T PANIC!!
Using the table here, scratch off or and isolate with paint pen or tape to modify the DX code and tell the camera what asa to believe a roll is…very easy.
If you’re not too confident to do that then we do now stock DX Code stickers that will do the job for you.
Click the picture to the left to go there!
The most important advice we can give you:
We advise to never buy one (unless it’s a calculated punt!) or you are sure that it is fully functional. Any electronic issues can be terminal. One of the more common on a camera just out of the cupboard: the ribbon cable between lens and mainboard breaks rendering the camera useless due to lack of spares and labour costs.
In short, is is fair to say that the spares situation means that you shouldn’t even consider trying to save money by buying one with the intent to repair.
The online auction reassurances: “It worked last time it was used” (yep, back in 1995) or “Can’t test it as I don’t have (or won’t spend £3.00) a battery. “Untested” (why not?) “Easy fix” ( Yeah right! Get the part then!)
Be very sure that 99.9% of the time repairs are just not possible so we feel it is prudent to avoid any that are not proven to be functionally tip top.
Very good article.