In the history of the 20th century photo industry, there have been countless cameras made by countless companies from countless countries. Of all those cameras, one subset of film photography seems to appeal to a larger number than most, the 35mm half-frame camera. Originally the only size for still photography…
This is a Chaika (ЧАЙКА) 3, a compact 35mm scale focus camera made between the years 1971 and 1973 in Minsk, Belarus during the reign of the Soviet Union by Вelаrusiаn Оpticаl and Mеchaniсаl Аssоciаtiоn or BeLOMO for short. As the name implies, the Chaika 3 was the third model…
This review is part of the Cameras of the Dead series which features dead cameras that I’ve wanted to review that either didn’t work, or was otherwise unable to shoot. This review was originally part of a three camera review published on October 29, 2021 in the 10th edition of…
This is an AGFA Memo, a compact folding camera made in Binghamton, New York by the AGFA ANSCO Corporation starting in 1939. This version of the Memo is a less common variant that shoots 18mm x 24mm single frame images on ANSCO’s Memo film, which is very similar to AGFA’s…
This is a Fuji TW-3, a compact 35mm dual lens point and shoot camera that shoots half-frame 18mm x 24mm images on regular 35mm film. The Fuji TW-3 was produced by Fuji in Japan for a short while starting in 1985 and has a curious feature set of separate wide…
This is a Canon Dial 35-2, a compact scale focus camera made by Canon of Japan which shoots 18mm x 24mm half frame images on regular 35mm film. The Canon Dial has not only a very unique body with a shutter priority automatic exposure metering system shaped like a rotary…
This is an Olympus Pen F, a single lens reflex camera that shoots 18mm x 24mm half-frame on regular 35mm film. The Pen F is part of the Olympus Pen series of half-frame cameras first introduced in 1959. The Pen F, like the original Pen was designed by Maitani Yoshihisa…
This is a Konica Auto-Reflex, a 35mm SLR camera produced by Konica of Japan starting in 1965. This model was the first in Konica’s long lived Autoreflex series and is the only one with a hyphenated name. It is also the only model that can seamlessly switch between shooting full…
This is an ANSCO Memo, a compact 35mm box camera that shoots 18mm x 24mm exposures on double perforated 35mm cinema film. The Memo first went on sale in 1927 and predates Kodak’s type 135 film format, using it’s own proprietary “Memo Cassettes” which can accept bulk 35mm film, but…
This is a Mercury II Model CX half-frame 35mm camera made by the Universal Camera Company out of New York, NY. The Mercury II was an update to the original Mercury Model CC that added support for normal 35mm film rather than the proprietary Univex film used in the original. …
This is a Taron Chic, a vertical half frame 35mm scale focus camera made by Taron Company Limited of Tokyo Japan starting in 1961. The Chic shoots 18mm x 24mm “half-frame” exposures on regular 35mm film. Unlike most half frame 35mm cameras, the film transports vertically, rather than horizontally which…
Imagine a 35mm camera with a high quality (Zeiss Tessar) f/3.5 lens, focusing down to 2 feet, a rising and falling lens board and an all-metal self-capping focal-plane shutter, taking special magazines that allow 750 single-frame (3/4 x 1 inch) exposures, and weighing no more than an 8mm movie camera.…
