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My first 35mm slr.

Bob Peters 61

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I just got an old Chinon SLR (yes, that's the brand and model names printed on the camera body.) that looks like it came from the 1970s. Just the type of camera I want to get serious about film with rather than automatic stuff. Hoping it'll force me to develop a "seat of the pants feel for" exposure settings and have my camera ready to go in the lighting I'm using.

When I got it, there was a bad mess of dust the consistency of cardboard accumulated below the body inside the lens, in front of the mirror. Knocking that down, and cleaning it off, I got some on the mirror and made the mistake of cleaning off the mirror and focus glass with a an old t-shirt dampened with window cleaner. I think I took some of the silver off because the viewfinder which was slightly dim in a nice way is now slightly dimmer than it was. I can deal with this but I wonder one thing:

The only place I can figure out for the light meter sensors to be would be using that mirror, so will this dimness affect the over-under metering of the camera? Seems to me like it might start calling for over-exposure.
 
Yes to the light meter question. 1970 era on-board light meters are not nearly as good as today's digital camera on-board light meters.

Chinon is considered by many as a cheaper, not-very-robust, consumer grade 35mm camera. As a learning tool, it should be fine, but learning manual on a dSLR would be much much cheaper and more immediate than learning manual on a film camera.
 
My first 35mm SLR was a Zeiss Contaflex with a 45mm f2.8 lens. If I remember right I got it in 1962.
 
Learning photography with a digital camera is IMHO much faster because you get instant feedback and can correct your errors right after you made them.
 
I think i may have a Chinon lens somewhere... Anyway I'd just try it out. You already have the camera, see how it seems to be working. Go out on a nice sunny day and assuming you put fresh batteries in for the meter, see what the meter does. Try it without film first, just look thru the viewfinder and frame shots and see what happens.

If you set it at sync speed, that's usually 1/125 (or on some older cameras it's 1/60) and marked in red on the shutter speed dial. Sync speed is where you'd set it to use a flash but I often find that to be a good starting point. Maybe set the aperture at f8 or larger. If it's sunny out that needle ought to move! In bright light if it doesn't snap to, there might be a problem. Then if the needle zings up to the top telling you that's way too much light, start setting the aperture at smaller settings and/or the shutter speed to faster settings and see what the needle does and what the meter shows as you adjust settings.

Then maybe try it in the shade and see if it's showing underexposure (compared to being in the sun) and open the lens up more and/or reset the shutter speed to a slower setting and see if the needle reacts.

You might need to shoot a test roll. Try 'bracketing' - I sometimes do this shooting B&W film to get a frame that's the best exposure I can get (so the frame of film will not be too dense [overexposed] and definitely so it's not too thin [underexposed]). Or I do this if the light's changing and the meter is fluctuating (the needle is in between settings). Shoot one frame for example at 1/125 and f8, then another adjusting one setting (say f11) then again for the next frame you shoot (f5.6). Write down what you did and see how it turns out.

To find film try Film Photography Project | An Internet Radio Show & On-Line Resource for Film Shooters Worldwide , they often have specials, or look up Lomography and see if they have any on sale.
 
Learning photography with a digital camera is IMHO much faster because you get instant feedback and can correct your errors right after you made them.
No doubt about that.
 
Did you look at the mirror? Obviously you don't want to use that type cleaner again and basically should leave the mirror alone as much as possible (but the camera was so gunked up you didn't have much choice but to clean it).

I'm just wondering if the viewfinder could have gotten a little fogged in the cleaning process. If you want to try any more cleaning ask for suggestions on FPP's Flickr page. I usually just give it a breath and gently use a microfiber cloth - IF I absolutely need to clean something off the mirror - otherwise leave well enough alone.

Maybe try Rick Oleson's website, although I don't know if it addresses cleaning/maintenance and he kind of wanders off topic (or in other words has all kinds of other oddities on his site! lol). But he knows camera repair.
rick's page .
 
But then again, relying on a digital camera people seem to not be learning how to frame shots well, or to 'see'/visualize photos, or how to get proper exposures. Seriously, exposure is the biggest mistake I see people making. With a film camera, I think you're going to learn it or go find another hobby! lol
 
Thanks for the information, everyone.

I see the "Film Vs. Digital" rivalry is going on here same as elsewhere. But my "semi-professional" class of Olympus compact mirrorless is as advanced as I plan on getting with digital.

My interest in photography was recently renewed by a TV discussion group of all things when a thread talked about a character's camera on a show from the '70s, and it got me thinking of the cameras I used as a kid: my mother's old Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash and the Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic II she got me instead when she took back her camera to put back into disuse.

Now, I have used cameras in both models and even a couple of other vintage cameras I thought were cool even though I knew before I ordered it that the instamatic was completely useless other than as a keepsake since a difference in the shutter reset mechanism means that it isn't even good for the 35mm sprocket hole hack that lomography geeks do with old 126 instamatics, and having grown up shooting one I knew that about it

So my intentions with amateur photography are solidly film-oriented.

And especially thanks, again to Gary for answering my metering question. Still good information for me all around in this thread.
 
Thanks for the information, everyone.

I see the "Film Vs. Digital" rivalry is going on here same as elsewhere. But my "semi-professional" class of Olympus compact mirrorless is as advanced as I plan on getting with digital.

My interest in photography was recently renewed by a TV discussion group of all things when a thread talked about a character's camera on a show from the '70s, and it got me thinking of the cameras I used as a kid: my mother's old Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash and the Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic II she got me instead when she took back her camera to put back into disuse.

Now, I have used cameras in both models and even a couple of other vintage cameras I thought were cool even though I knew before I ordered it that the instamatic was completely useless other than as a keepsake since a difference in the shutter reset mechanism means that it isn't even good for the 35mm sprocket hole hack that lomography geeks do with old 126 instamatics, and having grown up shooting one I knew that about it

So my intentions with amateur photography are solidly film-oriented.

And especially thanks, again to Gary for answering my metering question. Still good information for me all around in this thread.

Indeed, the dead horse continues to be beaten here, as in other places. Feel free to ignore it :)

As you've figured out, you need to be very careful with mirrors and it may affect metering, though also note that old cameras might not have super accurate shutter speeds as well. It would be best for your first roll to be a test roll. I suggest choosing a few scenes with different kind of lighting, and take several exposures of each scene with different settings. If you have a smart phone, download this app: LightMeter Free - Android Apps on Google Play (Android) or myLightMeter Free on the App Store (iPhone)

Meter the scene and write down the settings. Also take note of what your camera's light meter says. Then take the picture. Then change settings for the same exposure and take the picture again. Lather, rinse, repeat for a few more pictures. Try different scenes with lower or brighter light so you can test the range of shutter speeds you have. This should give you a sense of a) how your camera meter is performing, and b) how your shutter speeds are performing.

Also, if you want to get better at the "seat of your pants" exposures, read up on the Sunny 16 system. I find it quite useful. I don't know how technical you are willing/able to get into, but this is a great site: Ultimate Exposure Computer It gets quite detailed and can be overwhelming, so I suggest taking in as much as you can, then bookmarking the site so you can go back to it to re-read and absorb a bit more each time. I find the charts towards the end of the page useful.

If the Chinon doesn't work out, you can always go for a Pentax K1000. All manual so you can accomplish your goal of cutting your teeth on a bare-bones 35mm slr. Also a tank. Also has options for really great lenses. I bought mine in 1993 and have been shooting it continuously ever since.

Whatever you shoot with, show us some pictures when you have 'em!

Oh yeah, and welcome! :)
 
My first 35mm SLR was a Zeiss Contaflex with a 45mm f2.8 lens. If I remember right I got it in 1962.

Whoaaaaa! MY first 35mm SLR was a Zeiss Contaflex (model SE? maybe) with 45mm f/2.8 Pantar lens and a built-in selenium match-needle (external meter cell) light meter. I bought it used in '77 or '78 as I recall.
 
If we look back over the range of topics of the threads over the years, pretty much everything these days is dead horse beating.

One nice thing about the Chinon is that most of them use the Pentax K mount lenses. Lots of good glass there and quite plentiful. The old CM-1's were a very popular fully manual camera that was cheaper than the K1000. One nice thing about the CM-1 over the K1000 at the time the CM-1 had a self timer, where the K1000 didn't.
 
As a kid back in the day, I almost bought a mid-1970's GAF-branded 35mm SLR that used the m42 or "Universal Thread" aka "Pentax thread mount"--and as I recall, that camera was manufactured by Chinon, and was sold under their name, and the name of others. The company offered potential buyers a reprinted copy of the Popular Photography magazine or Modern Photography magazine review of the camera as an inducement to buying one!

I think a Chinon 35mm SLR of that vintage has a decent chance of being a working film camera; perhaps more so than later, "commodity" cameras like the AE-1 and AE-1 Program, which can have electonically-timed shutter issues.Some of the older, lower-cost 35mm film slrs used simpler mechanisms, like horizontal-travel, rubberized cloth focal plane shutters; lower X-synch speed than say a metal, Copal shutter, sure, but very long life and high reliablilty.

If the ole' Chinon works, I say load 'er up and shoot!
 
So you could probably ignore much of our blathering on... lol Most people who come on asking about shooting film are starting from scratch and don't know much of anything about it.

And welcome!
 
My first 35mm SLR was a Zeiss Contaflex with a 45mm f2.8 lens. If I remember right I got it in 1962.

Whoaaaaa! MY first 35mm SLR was a Zeiss Contaflex (model SE? maybe) with 45mm f/2.8 Pantar lens and a built-in selenium match-needle (external meter cell) light meter. I bought it used in '77 or '78 as I recall.

Mine didn't have a meter so I had a hand held light meter. Remember those? I still use one for incident readings.
 

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