I like to browse thrift stores for cameras, among other things. I try not to buy every camera I come across because most of them are not ones I would pick up and use and it is usually because the film they take is no longer produced. Another rule I have is that if I need to buy into a new lens system to use the camera, I am not interested (I’m a Pentax K-mount, Hasselblad, or Pentacon Six guy at the moment). Both of these rules have saved me a lot of money.
However, earlier this year I came across a small folding camera I had never seen before, a Zenobia. I didn’t know anything about it, but I could tell it was medium format (a quick search confirmed it is and uses 120 film) and the price was right at $15.50. So I picked it up. If memory serves, it is a Japanese clone of a Zeiss Ikonta. I’ve never used one of those, but based off the Zenobia I would guess they’re good cameras to use.
I eagerly loaded it with film and took it to work with me to wander around town on my lunch break. This thing is small, about the same size as my Ricoh XR-7 but it takes 6×4.5 images. There isn’t a way to confirm focus (but I’ll solve that later) and but aside from that everything else you’d expect in a camera is there. I suppose the one “quirk” is that the shutter button is next to the film advance knob on the left side of the camera. Something to note, but nothing that really threw me.
To fix the lack of focusing, I realized that there is a nice scale on the top right of the camera that lets you set your focal distance and it tells you what should be in focus based on your f-stop. Since I had decent light shooting outdoors, I stopped all the way down to f22 and it gave me a nice range from 6 feet to infinity. I left it there for the majority of the roll. The results speak for themselves.
Since buying this, I’ve only put the one roll through the camera but when I laid out all of my cameras to see which I could part with, this one easily was put into the keep pile. Something about its size and the great success I had with taking photos in what felt like an automatic mode had me thinking I’d be happy to pick this camera up again.
What about you? Do you browse thrift stores in search of gems? Or do you grab everything that comes along? Also, if you know of anyone who needs some old cameras I am parting with, let me know.
