Canon Dial 35 Review

Bell and Howell added their brand to the Dial version 2

The Canon Dial 35 came out in the 1960’s. It is a cool little half-frame 35mm film camera that got even cooler when featured in “The Prisoner”,

Sidenote: If you’ve not watched “The Prisoner” you really should. It could only have been made in the 1960’s.

The Dial uses a clockwork mechanism to wind on the film and cock the shutter. This makes a very satisfying (and spy like) click and whirr after each shot. The gears that transfer power from the external spring into the body of the camera are prone to getting gummed up. So, if you get lucky, you can bring back to life something sold cheap as “for parts only”. I’ve done this a couple of times. Watch this video to find out how.

The bad news is that I’ve also acquired “differently broken” Canon dials which have proved impossible to fix. But I’m hanging onto them because the lens in the Dial is wonderful and I plan to make an adapter so I can use it on other cameras.

If you are feeling brave (or foolish - sometimes you don’t find out which until afterwards) you can find the service manual here. It tells you everything about taking the camera to bits, although it does mention one or two “special tools” which you might have to come up with. However, the service manual does also contain some diagrams that I think would look great on T-shirts.

Anyhoo, enough background. What is the camera like to use? Very nice. The exposure is automatic. You set the shutter speed and the camera displays the selected aperture using a moving needle in the viewfinder. The viewfinder also shows the current focus distance which you adjust with a small control around the lens. And the pictures? Oh yes, the pictures..

These images are from scans made when the film was developed so they don’t really show the sharpness you can get from the lens in this camera. Two versions of the camera were made. The version 2 improves on the original by adding a hot shoe for a flashgun, slightly wider film speed range and some slight viewfinder improvements. But they didn’t tamper with the lovely design and cracking lens.

If you want to be able to pull something out of your pocket and have everyone go “What on earth is that?” then this camera is for you. But if you want a stylish travel companion that can also deliver high quality pictorial memories (with 72 on a single roll of 36 exposure film) then this might be for you too.

Olympus Pen EE-S

Here’s another cracking little camera that you can pick up for around the price of a video game. This one is the Olympus Pen-EES. It shoots half frame pictures on 35mm film, meaning that you can get 72 pictures on a roll . The exposure is automatic. Just set the film speed (with a maximum speed of 200ASA) and press the shutter button. A very clever mechanism uses an internal meter needle to select between two shutter speeds and a range of apertures. If there is not enough light you get a red flag in the viewfinder and can’t take a picture. It’s exactly the same system as the Olympus Trip 35 which I also like a lot.

The camera has a super sharp little F2.8 lens which you have to focus. This is a bit of a pain (it makes possible out of focus shots) but it does mean that you can get blurred backgrounds if you want.

I reckon the camera has got the exposure pretty much perfect here

Blurred backgrounds are possible

You can use it with a flash, but you will need a bracket for the flash gun

If you want to have a film camera with you all the time this would be a great candidate. Things to bear in mind.

• Make sure that the exposure works. The camera has two shutter speeds, ker-lick and click. If you point the camera at a bright scene and press the shutter button you should hear a click sound as the shutter fires. A dimly lit scene should produce ker-lick. A blackout should produce a red flag.

• The camera doesn’t need batteries for the light meter to work, but the selenium cell which it uses can be damaged if it is left in the light for a long time. Cameras that have been kept in a case or have a lens cap have the most chance of still working.

• The EE-S2 is a slightly newer version which can be set for 400ASA speed which might be useful. But it can be slightly more expensive.

• There are other EE and Pen variants, some with fixed focus. These are less likely to take a completely blurred shot, but sometimes you like to add some blur.

• If you half press the shutter button this will lock the exposure. If you want to brighten your shots, point the camera at the ground, half press the shutter, reframe and then take the shot.

• In flash mode you can set the aperture by hand and the shutter speed is a fortieth of a second. This means that you can use it as a manual camera with a slow fixed shutter speed if you wish.

• The camera takes “portrait” orientation pictures (see above). These are all the rage in SnapTock and TickChat.

If you are looking for something bomb-proof to start your photography journey I’d recommend a Pen EES. I think they are super stylish, they seem to be coming down in price a bit at the moment (that’s how I got mine) and they tend to be reliable.

Hasselblad H1

I now have a new favourite camera. It weights a ton. Two tons if you don’t use the “stock” lens and switch to the super-heavy wide angle or telephoto. It is over 20 years old. The shutter sounds like a small mechanical explosion. It can’t take video. On a good day you can take one shot every few seconds. It has no image stabilisation. In poor light the results can get grainy. In bad light you have to fetch the tripod. But the pictures it produces are some of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s a Hasselblad H1.

I took the above pictures in York. Admittedly the light was lovely and I could have got vaguely similar results with my phone. Except that everything would have been in focus and artificially crisp. Phone cameras are amazing. But they do lots of things to your pictures that you might not want. They add dynamic range. They sharpen everything. They tweak the colours. They add digital blur to separate foreground and background elements. And their images look unreally good.

The Hasselblad has super sharp lenses, so no need to sharpen the image. These lenses are a long way from the sensor, so you get your out of focus effects from physics. It takes real effort to cart the camera around and you have to work hard to line up shots. The viewfinder is optical and shows you the view straight from the lens. The good news is that this makes taking the pictures super fun. The bad news is that it is very hard to see exactly what the camera has captured. My camera has a tiny screen (also around 20 years old) which shows me what I’ve photographed but I need to view my shots on my computer when I get home to discover what they are really like.

However, it turns out that I really like this way of working. I really feel that I have a hand in the results that I get. At the moment I can’t think of taking any other camera out if I go and take pictures.

The Hasselblad brand is associated with very pricey cameras, but the good news is that the very old ones are not that expensive. And the really good news is that all the lenses for the system are all superb and reasonably cheap (certainly compared with modern ones). My complete setup has cost me less than just a camera body for one of the modern systems.

I realise that I’m running a few risks. A device this old could suddenly fail and turn into a paperweight. But I bought most of the bits from MPB.com who give you a one year warranty. And because the camera is made up of separate bits (body, lens and sensor), failure of one component won’t affect any of the other bits. So if the body fails I’ll simply pick up another one and use it with the lenses and bits I’ve already got.

If you are thinking of getting into photography and want to stretch yourself a bit I would strongly advise taking a look at the Hasselblad H system. The older H models (H1 and H2) don’t cost that much and the Phase One digital backs that work with them are not that pricey. The newer versions can be scary expensive but are completely awesome (and you can use all your old lenses with them). The cameras have large sensors which makes for a lovely look to your pictures. And they help you build upper body strength too.

Polaroid Impulse AF

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I’ve bought a new camera. This one only cost ten quid though. The film for it cost more than that (which reminds me a bit of ink-jet printers).

Anyhoo, the camera in question is a Polaroid Impulse AF which has a sonar based autofocus system. The gold thing in the picture underneath the flash window produces high frequency sound pulses. The camera listens for the echo and then adjusts the lens based on the time it took for the sound to come back. I’ve had a quick go with it and it seems to work quite well.

If you fancy having a go at instant photography I’d strongly advise you get a machine like the one above. I think they have a certain brutalist style which the newer devices lack, and they are available at very low prices. They are good at making the best of instant film, particularly the ones with flashes which also have the “electronic flash” look that everyone likes at the moment.

Fujifilm X-Half Not for me

It looks cute, but it is very plastic

Today I did something that I don’t do very often. I got rid of a camera. I’d read a few breathless reviews of the Fujifilm X-Half and these had convinced me that a less serious photographic device would make for a great picture taking experience. Well, yes and no. But mainly no.

When it arrived I was a bit taken aback at how plastic the experience was. I’ve used cameras with plastic bodies but most of these have metal controls. Not so with this one. Everything you touch is plastic. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this, but for the price I’d expected something a bit better.

The thinking behind the camera is that less is more. By removing distractions and providing the controls of a film camera the idea is that you focus on the pictures, rather than the mechanics of photography. It works up to a point. Outside in good light the camera takes nice enough pictures and the range of film simulations and special picture effects is quite fun. However, inside in poor light the image quality falls apart quicker than a cheap suit, and the flash is a puny LED which doesn’t really do much. I quite liked the simplicity, but I was irked by the thought that if I’d had a different camera with a few more controls with me I could have done things to make the pictures better.

There’s a special “film roll” mode where you can’t look at the pictures you’ve taken until you’ve finished a “roll”. This is quite fun and even includes the experience of having to wind-on after each shot. However, it also restricts you to the rather poor optical viewfinder and the winding-on business gets tiresome quickly.

To view your “camera roll” pictures you’ve taken you have to “develop” them on your phone. You get to watch each image appear as it is copied from camera to phone, and the camera makes a nifty “contact print” of all shots on the roll, but it isn’t really worth the hassle. Other observations:

• Battery life is great (it uses a proper sized battery) and the camera takes full-sized SD cards which is nice - although there isn’t a memory card in the box. You charge the battery in the camera via the camera’s usb port. No charger is supplied.

• You can manually set the aperture and have the camera set the shutter speed. You can also manually focus the lens, but good luck with that on the tiny oled screen (which is hard to see in bright sunlight).

• The camera has a rubber lens cap which is a pain to take on and off. The lens underneath is nice and sharp in good light though.

• There is a little inset “film window” on the back next to the display which pretends to show the back of the film cassette in use. This seems quite nifty until you realise that the rear screens are crops of a larger panel that they could have made completely visible for a much larger view.

• There are hardly any buttons on the back. Everything is controlled by touching and swiping which doesn’t work very well (at least for me).

• The camera only produces compressed JPEG images (and quite ropey ones too when you look close). You have no chance of fiddling with RAW sensor images.

• You can’t combine film simulations and special camera modes, unlike on the far superior Instax wide Evo (which also takes instant pictures)

If you need to be on the cutting edge of Fuji-fashion the camera is nice enough, and if it was half the price it would be a lot more compelling. Me, I’m swapping my tiny ex X-Half for a great big Hasselblad lens which I think I’ll have much more fun with.

If you want a fun little camera to carry about which takes amazing pictures, provides support for RAW images, is made of metal, has a proper viewfinder and costs a lot less you should get yourself a second hand Lumix LX100 It doesn’t have a built-in flash, which is sad, but it does come with a tiny electronic flash you can fit on the top which works really well.

Olympus Trip 35

Rabbit’s artists impression….

My Great Aunt Anne had an Olympus Trip 35 back in the 1970’s. She took it all around the world and then, when she got back, we’d take a look at the pictures and slides she’d taken. They were all nicely exposed and usually in focus. I’ve always fancied one myself and six months or so ago one popped up for sale at my local camera shop. It’s in lovely condition and the light meter works fine.

The camera is self powered. The light meter is uses a selenium cell which generates a voltage. the more light, the more volts. This moves a tiny needle on a meter inside the camera which selects between two shutter speeds and then picks the correct aperture setting. All this happens as you press the button down to take a shot. Amazing engineering. The lens is nice and sharp, but you have to make sure to set the distance to the subject before taking a shot. It uses 35mm film. I loaded mine with Kodak Gold 200 which works well.

I took it along when we went to Florida a while back. The snaps all came back in fine form, despite the camera having been through several X-Ray machines on its travels.

I really should learn to hold the camera straight.

Nice and sharo

It’s not a scratch, it’s a radio aerial

Universal studios looking good

A very imposing souvenir shop

All of my pictures came out with the correct exposure and plenty of detail. I had some prints made and these look lovely. If you’ve always fancied having a go with a film camera, but don’t want to break the bank, I can strongly recommend the Olympus Trip 35.

It’s a solid and stylish cameras with an all metal body. It is easy to load and use and the design was produced for many years, so there are lots out there. I’d rate it much more highly than the the few “new” 35mm cameras that you can buy which have cheap plastic lenses and not much going for them. The Olympus is great for street photography and travel stuff. You can put it on a tripod and it also works with an electronic flash. It has a lovely look to it (I think) and should prove reliable. If you can pick one up for around the price of a video game you could do a lot worse.

If you go to buy one, make sure to do the “Red Flag Test” before parting with your cash. Wind on the film, put the lens cap on (or cover the entire lens with your hand) and try to press the shutter button. If the light meter is working it will refuse to let you take a picture, with a red flag appearing in the viewfinder. Then, remove your hand (or take the lens cap off), point the camera at some light and press the button again. This time the shutter should spring into action. If it does, there is a good chance that the light meter is working OK. You can still take pictures if the light meter is broken, but you will have to select the aperture by hand and use the slower, 40th of a second shutter speed all the time.

Film photography is great fun. It was rather nice to get the pictures processed several weeks after we got back. And I love the colours.

Instax Evo Wide Walk in the Park

I took the Instax Wide Evo for a walk this morning. It’s fast becoming one of my favourite cameras. Not for the absolute quality of the output, but for what it does with the images it captures. There are 10 different lenses and colour filters. The shots above were taken with the radial black and white blur, summer colour profile and collodion process (which I rather like).

One thing I don’t like about the camera though is the “official” case I bought with it. This is a triumph of miss-design. It is hard to put on, easy to put on the wrong way, hard to take off and the leather finish feels far too easy to scratch. What’s more, it’s difficult to use the camera with the case on, and you have to take the case off (which is hard - see above) to charge the battery, get at the microSD card or put a new film in. I’ve just invested in a rather nice clear transparent one.

This looks like it will do a great job of protecting the camera from scratches while it is in a bag (although I need to get a screen protector for the back of the camera) but I do worry that the case might shatter if I drop the camera.

The Instax Wide Evo itself is a really engaging proposition. You don’t need to print your pictures (although they do look good when you do) and you can transfer them to your computer if you are prepared to fiddle around with the MicroSD card. It’s pricey for an instant camera, but as a creative device it is a much more enticing device.

Mamiya Press 23

They say it is ugly, but I like the quirky charm it has. This one has the extra viewfinder on top for the wide angle lens.

If you were a photographer working for a Japanese newspaper in the 1960’s you’d probably spend a big chunk of your life carrying round a Mamiya Press camera. The camera is actually a whole ecosystem of film backs, lenses and other bits and bobs. The one above is a setup with a nice wide angle lens which will make a good job of the kind of scene setting pictures the editors of the day wanted.

The camera is big and heavy but the hand grip, which also incorporates a trigger shutter release, makes it quite easy to wield. It can take enormous 6x9 cm images on 120 roll film. You get loads of detail in every shot, which must have been greatly appreciated at the time.

The viewfinder is bright and clear and has a rangefinder spot in the middle which is coupled to the lens. This makes focusing very easy and accurate, as long as your lens and camera body have both been properly calibrated. The lenses are lovely and very sharp. The Mamiya 23 above has been in the wars. Some of the screws are missing and it could do with a good clean up. But it still turns out really nice pictures.

However, it is a nightmare to use. Taking a picture involves a sequence of steps which must be followed precisely if you want to get a result. And you only find out if you’ve missed a step when you develop the film and find you have empty frames, two frames on top of each other, blurry images and whatnot.

When you get everything right though the camera really sings. The good news is that if you fancy getting into large negative photography on the cheap these are a great way in. They are much less expensive than the Pentax 67 and no less capable. They are also much easier to repair. The shutter assembly is part of the lens, making it easy to swap out a broken lens for a working one. And lenses are not expensive. The rangefinder adjustment on the camera body is a bit tricky, but not impossible. And the film backs are all interchangeable too, so if that breaks you can get another. They were built for heavy use by working photographers and that means they are pretty tough. There are a number of different versions. I rather like the simple utilitarian appearance of the earlier models.

Worth a look if you’re prepared to put in the effort and put up with the odd wasted shot.

Fujica Half

It is a stylish little camera

Half frame cameras are having a moment right now. The attraction of getting twice as many shots on your roll of 35mm film is hard to ignore. Pentax have recently launched a new half-frame camera and there are also cheaper (although rather expensive for what they are) half frame offerings out there too.

The Fujica Half dates from 1963. It is a quality lump of metal that looks the part and unlike the new cameras you can buy today it has shiny metal and proper heft. It is quite easy to use. You set the film speed on the back and it sorts out exposure (rather well in my experience) but you have to do the focusing yourself, adjusting the lens to the right distance. The film advance uses a neat little lever.

No batteries are required. The exposure meter uses a light powered selenium cell which lasts for ever, or until it breaks. If the camera has been kept in its case the cell will probably be OK, if not you can set everything manually which is a bit more of a faff, but not a stopper. The viewfinder is nice and bright, and it shows the shutter and aperture settings selected by the camera along with marks that help you frame close up subjects. You can use a flash with it, but you’ll have to plug it into the socket on the front and then set the aperture by hand. The frame counter is hidden on the bottom of the camera. It goes all the way up to 72 shots, which is what you would get from a 36 exposure film.

The camera takes pictures in portrait mode. If you have a film processed you’ll get two images per frame, which is rather nice. The lens is lovely and sharp and I really like the pictures it turns out.

These are two of the first pictures I took with the camera

The Exposure meter coped well with low light. I need to work on holding the camera straight,

I had to tip the camera on its side to take these pictures

The lens doesn’t flare too much

If you are thinking of getting into film photography you could do a lot worse than pick up one of these. And if you are already into photography it’s a nice thing to have around - and you can use the camera in full manual mode and set the shutter and aperture yourself if you want to get creative.

They seem to be nudging up in price at the moment (at least in terms of what folks are asking for them on ebay). If you see a tidy one with a working meter for less than the price of a video game I think it would be worth a punt.

Minolta Vectis-S1

The Minolta Vectis S-1 camera is not particularly pretty. But it is pretty cheap. I picked up the example above for less than ten pounds. It is cheap for two reasons:

1. It uses a type of film which is no longer made.

2. It probably won’t work when you get it.

The camera uses Advanced Photo System film which was launched in the 1990’s and abandoned in 2011. But this is not a huge problem, you can still get film cassettes for it, albeit ones which will be at least 13 years old. The system uses a very complicated film loading mechanism containing many whirring and clicking parts. The first example of this camera I got made a few unhappy sounds too, followed by total lockup. But the sample above was made of sterner stuff and seems to be able to load film and take photos OK. I got hold of some film and took some shots.

I’ve not made the holders that go on top of the film yet.

The system was designed so that the film stayed in the cassette at all times. The processing and printing machinery was clever enough to get the film out of the cassette, print the shots you wanted and then wind it back in again. Of course I don’t have any of that machinery, so instead I designed a little holder which I can load up with film for the scanner. I then pulled the film out of the cassette and cut it into lengths for scanning.

The negatives are 16mm high with a “widescreen” aspect ratio

The results are pretty respectable for a twenty year old camera using fifteen year old film. Above is one of the more interesting ones. There is plenty of detail and the image is sharp enough . The shadows are very grainy though, probably because of the age of the film.

I’m not sure if I’d use this camera and film combination for any pictures that I really care about (although the auto-focus and exposure seem to work well). But it is fun to get out and play with.