Yesterday, while waiting to pick up Alexis from school, I took a little stroll downtown Fredericksburg. Anyone that's been downtown knows that it is not short of antique stores. Not being one for antiques, I never have gone in any of them. Well, after reading blogs of people that go out to these strange stores and find great deals on old/weird/fun/cool cameras, I had to try it myself. Well, the second store that I went into had an entire case full of old Kodak cameras (brownies, instamatics, etc) as cheap as $3 each and were in great condition. Well, I'm really not into buying cameras when the film is nearly impossible to find (i.e. 620, 126, 127, 110), so I passed them all up. Well, there was this one very oddly named camera that looked like a very small SLR. So, I asked to see it. It was, in fact, a 35mm plastic camera called a Yunon YN500 from Taiwan. I've never heard of one and I've not found any good info online. Well, this one is perfectly clean, with strap, case, & instructions. The coolest thing about it is that there are 4 apertures on the lens with the pretty pictures (clouds, partial clouds, "shiny", bright sun) that correspond to the following numbers on the other side of the lens (6,8,11,16). There is only one shutter speed, however, and no bulb. There was already a roll a film in it that I can't wait to finish and see what surprises this holds. Oh, and it was only $6.40 after the 20% Valentine's sale! :)
Isn't she a beauty???
5 comments:
I've had to slow down on my camera buying - I almost pulled the trigger on a Yashica Electro rangefinder, but I need to get more use out of my 120 cameras before I add a 35mm camera to the arsenal.
Can't wait to see what you get off that roll of film that was in there!
What fun! Keep us "posted!"
im looking at buying one of these. whats your opinion? is it worth $5
Abel - Nearly any camera is worth $5, especially if it works! :) Honestly, I haven't finished a fresh roll, yet. It had a 20 year old roll of film in it when I bought it, but it came back black. I hope to finish this roll soon, if the sun ever comes back!
I was doing some thrift shopping yesterday on my snow day. I came upon a Polaroid 430, you know, the typical pack film 'roid with the front that opens and then you pull out the bellows lens. I have a nice one somewhere which I bought about 20 years ago. It's odd that they still show up regularly even now. They use pack film, and I always used to shoot the 107c which is iso 3000 B/W that was really nice. anyway, this thing still had film in it! And many shots still left. First thing I always checked on these cameras was the battery which is usually all corroded and often it would destroy the battery connectors and even the wiring. This one looked perfect in the battery compartment.
Hmmm, I decided to give it a try in the goodwill store. It had color film, which is only iso 75, so I pointed it toward the lights. I could tell the battery must have been dead because it gave the default shutter speed like it does in that situation. It should have been a looooong exposure in there. I pulled the tab and the photo, and everything seemed good. Waited a minute and peeled it. Must have lost all it's chemistry over the years. Only 1 corner had any goo on it, and it was not an image, just a reaction. I continue to peruse the thrift cameras, can't help it.
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