The Fujica GW690 Professional 6×9 120/220 roll film camera – 1970s tech never looked so good!
This beast will eat through film like it’s candy! 8 exposures from a roll of film but oh how pretty the pics are!
Thanks for stopping by! A big thanks to the City of Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, Florida for hardly changing since 1890!
Chris
From 1983, Fuji’s Auto Mate DL-20. The first ever drop-in loading feature. For more, visit here.
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Chris
A new Pentamatic joins the family – this one was made in September of 1960.
Seldom seen in the wild, Yashica’s “Phantom” camera – the P2
The Pentamatic II was fitted with a limited production lens made by Zunow Optical – a 5.8cm f1.7 Auto Yashinon with 10 aperture blades. It’s a massive camera with a ton (1,028 grams) of brass and glass.
It’s a distinctive design – very modern but classic at the same time. A clean pentaprism without the cold shoe mounted on it – in fact, the cold shoe (accessory shoe) is mounted on the camera’s left shoulder just above the hidden rewind knob.
The serial number (NO. 96000944) indicates the “when” of this camera. The “9” is for September and the next digits, “60” is for 1960. The last 5 digits are the sequence number or production number. This one is the 944th made since production began in August 1960.
A rather unique lens for its time – I feel that the lens was made by Zunow Optical for Yashica and was only produced in an extremely limited number for the short run of the Pentamatic II (about 6 months). This is one of Yashica’s hardest cameras to acquire – there may only be less than 500 of these (if that much) left in the wild.
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Chris
Take note of the camera store’s stamp in the lower right corner. Our translation app isn’t doing a good job at translation at the moment so we’re not quite sure which camera shop this is from.
Carol and I love to collect vintage sales brochures for the cameras in our collection. This one came to us recently from a collector in Japan. The date of publication is 0569 which we assume is May 1969. The young man’s clothing certainly screams the 1960s!
The Olympus 35 SP is considered by many to be a nearly “perfect” 35mm rangefinder camera – with a host of automatic exposure controls plus full manual shooting. The 42mm lens is considered to be the perfect focal length for 35mm photography as it closely matches the field of view of the human eye.
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For more “good stuff” please stop by our online store at http://www.ccstudio2380.com
Chris
It’s far from my best ever studio shots of my camera collection but I bet that the popularity of this image has something to do with the popularity of the camera.
“This camera is actually quite famous – back in its day it was considered a groundbreaker in the 35mm SLR autofocus “world”. This one has led a very gentle life – I’ve fully tested it with film and the thing that impressed me the most was how quickly the autofocus locked on to my subjects. The lens is a Minolta AF Zoom 35-70mm f4 and is sharp as a tack!
The camera, lens, and 4 (AAA) batteries weigh in at 847 grams (1 lb 14 oz)!”
My caption that accompanied the picture on Flickr.
Have a great day – thanks for stopping by!
Chris
Thanks for stopping by!
Be sure to visit our online store at https://www.ccstudio2380.com for bunches of stuff!
Chris and Carol
It was a combat camera having flown with him on several missions aboard a helicopter over the Mekong Delta region. He told me that he purchased it almost as soon as he arrived in country at a Post Exchange in Saigon. Despite its exciting beginnings, it’s made it to today with no dents and only a few bright spots in the satin chrome finish. It’s a fully mechanical camera – the shutter operates independently of a battery from Bulb to 1/1000 of a second. A battery is only needed to operate the TTL meter.
This good-looking Minolta has received a complete inspection and has been meticulously cleaned inside and out by me. I tested it with a fresh 1.5v alkaline battery and the light meter works just fine. It will be off by about 1/2 to 1 full stop but when shooting with negative film the wide exposure latitude of film usually makes any exposure differences unnoticeable.
That’s a “fresh” roll of expired Fujicolor film (from 2010) and the original soft body cap from Minolta. For more details and to see additional pictures of it, visit our online store at https://www.ccstudio.com
Or you can purchase it directly from here – I’ll ship nearly worldwide. Please drop me a line for a shipping quote to your country. In the USA, I will ship it USPS Priority Mail for only $6.00 Just click on the “Pay with PayPal” button below.
Many thanks for stopping by! Chris
Minolta SR-T 101 35mm Film Camera
Vintage (100% fully working) 35mm SLR from Minolta - the SR-T 101
$49.00
This unique version of Sailor Boy – complete with his Yashica Electro 35 camera. He was introduced in 1966 to promote the new camera release. He’s based on the Scottish nursery rhyme ‘Wee Willie Winkie’.
Cousins, not brothers. The only thing missing on our little guy is his green decal which should be on the front of his hat.
Sailor Boy convention. The new guy cleaned up nicely. A little bit of warm soapy water and a soft brush and he’s good as new!
Made in Japan is about all we know at this point. We’re not even sure about when he was made.
Cool shoes – but are they really Wee Willie Winkie’s shoes? Yep as best as I can tell. Yashica didn’t leave a paper trail for history to discover his true identity.
More about the history and variations of Yashica’s advertising figurine soon. As always, feel free to share your Sailor Boys with us – we’re looking to add to our collection with new versions of this cute guy.
Thanks
Chris and Carol
This wonderful lens was made to some very high standards in Japan during the late 1970s. This manual focus telephoto is set up to mount to Canon (FD mount) film body cameras such as the AE-1, F-1, A-1 and the T Series of 35mm SLRs. This heavyweight lens (almost 2 pounds worth) of glass and brass was designed to compete with the best optics out there but at a reasonable price. This one owner lens is in mint new condition and functions like it too!
It’s easily adapted to most any digital camera body – this one is set to use on my Fujifilm X-A10. Of course, it’s able to use straight up on any Canon FD mount film body and most any vintage 35mm film cameras with an adapter.
It’s available for purchase from our online shop at https://www.ccstudio2380.com for a very reasonable price.
Thanks for stopping by!
Chris
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Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris 