Oh yes, what a camera, the Canon Photura. Came out in June of 1990, and was priced at around $250 according to jollinger.com's review of the camera. Looks like a video camera when you hold it up and use it (or a rocket according to Canon's literature). I'm sure that's what other people are thinking when I take pictures with this camera, that I'm taking video. I got it at Savers (a thrift store) for about $7. Strangely enough, they had two of these cameras on the shelf for sale. The other one had a different name, I think it was Epoca, but other than the name difference, it was the same camera.
It's basically a point and shoot film camera, a lens with a camera built around it. It has a nice zoom, some different flash modes, self timer, and a tripod mount. The zoom lever on this camera is iffy, and sometimes doesn't engage, which is very frustrating. It's like the camera isn't even on. It's lightweight, but bulky, mostly a giant piece of plastic, tubular in shape, with no manual aperture or shutter controls. The film drops in and auto loads, and also rewinds when you use the last exposure. It took me probably four times to load this black and white film, not sure why. It's as if the film wouldn't catch on a sprocket to load.
So after loading the roll of Kentmere 100 in it, 36 exposures, I forcefully took images in about two weeks, as I didn't want to waste the film, but then again, I didn't want to take forever to finish this roll either. I always end up taking pictures of nonsense, like I'm doing test shots (which I really am), and shoot many boring images. If it was 12 or 24 images, I think I would spend more time planning my shots. With digital, no one really thinks about planning the shots, as they are all free...
Other than the frustrations with zooming, the camera was easy to use, took sharp images (90% of the time), and transported the film mechanically without issue, with the exception of the initial loading. I recommend buying this camera and using it at least once, as the image quality outweighs the money spent on this camera. It's a win-win. And if you develop your own black and white film like me, it is a cheap hobby.
Here's some images that I took with this camera. Pretty pleased with the results. I did develop the film myself, then scanned the images, and slightly adjusted in Photoshop, mostly the levels, with a little bit of sharpening. I shot only one roll with this camera, thinking I will be selling this, as it is too finicky for my liking. But it was fun to at least try a roll, and I am impressed with the results.
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| Back yard. |
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| Back yard. |
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| Neighbors |
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| Neighbors |
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| Tree growing in our backyard. |
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| Our broken spoon holder from Holland. |
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| Trash day. |
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| Plastic clock that never runs. |
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