Arguably the least-popular Canonet, the 1963 Canonet Junior isn’t even that much smaller than its bigger Canonet brother. This despite its name!
It’s also the only Canonet that isn’t a rangefiner. You guess focus on the Junior.
I found a roll of film in mine, half shot. So I finished shooting it, had it processed and scanned, Photoshopped the hell out of the images to make them marginally usable, and shared them with you in a review. See it here.
I’ve owned two Minolta Maxxum 7000 bodies and both suffered from the same fatal flaw: a failed aperture-control magnet that made the camera operate only at the mounted lens’s smallest aperture.
It’s a shame, really, because this camera is otherwise a pleasure to use, and the common lenses are quite capable.
I’ve updated my review of this camera; read it here.
I’ve extensively updated my review of a classic twin-lens-reflex camera, the Yashica-12.
This wonderful box offers a pair of 80mm Yashinon lenses that do great work. Although this camera is heavy and a little unwieldy to carry, its controls all work with jeweled precision and are a delight. Read my updated review here.
Here are two more reviews of film cameras from my collection, revised and improved.
The first is of my Zeiss Ikon Contessa LK, a wonderful viewfinder camera with a built-in exposure meter. It’s a great camera to use, and its lens is wonderful. Read the review here.
Next up is my Nikon F2A, the F2 with the match-needle A viewfinder head. Mine needs its meter fixed; it works but is jumpy. But it’s a solid camera nevertheless. See the review here.
The 1968 Yashica Lynx 14e is a fixed-lens rangefinder camera that packs an incredible lens — 45mm at a whopping f/1.4.
I first shot the Lynx 14e on a road trip with Kodak T-Max 400 inside. The results blew me away. Just look at those creamy tones, that crisp detail! Even four years after making this photo, looking at it still floods my brain with pleasure hormones.
Here’s one more past photo from this camera, which adores being shot inside on fast black-and-white film. This time I used Arista Premium 400 (discontinued; I miss it). I photographed this Auburn Model 654 at the factory museum in Auburn, Indiana. Just look at this excellence. Look. At. It. So good!
All is not perfect with my Lynx 14e: it underexposes by a stop. It’s not the end of the world, because I just set exposure a stop lower (say, EI 200 when shooting ISO 400 film) and all is well. But if I keep the camera, I’ll send it for CLA and have the meter calibrated.
Its meter is powered by two PX640 batteries, of the mercury type that has been banned for years. I own no other camera that uses this battery. Fortunately, you can buy alkaline batteries of this size on Amazon for a few dollars. The voltage is slightly different but if you’re shooting negative film it shouldn’t matter.
Since I wanted to see how this lens likes color film, I loaded some Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Also, it was the dead of winter and the gray days called for fast film. I started shooting stuff around my house.
This lens finds whatever’s interesting about the light, and enhances it.
These images are short on shadow detail. I tried to bring it out in Photoshop but it just wasn’t present.
We got a rare day of full sun in early February so I took the Lynx into town to make a few photos. I dropped the camera’s ISO setting another stop for these photos, for two reasons: this film loves to be overexposed, and I wanted a little exposure flexibility as otherwise every shot would have been at 1/500 sec. and f/16.
I’ve never seen Superia X-tra 400 look this good. I got Portra-like color from it.
Other reviews of this camera have panned how you activate the camera’s meter: you press the amusingly named “Switch” button on the front of the camera. The consensus is that it’s awkward. But I’ve never had any trouble.
What I did have trouble with, on this full-sun day, was reading the red OVER and UNDER indicators in the viewfinder window. They light when exposure is wrong; you adjust aperture and shutter speed until they disappear. They blaze bright in muted or inside light. Direct sunlight washes them out.
See more photos from this camera in my Yashica Lynx 14e gallery.
When I evaluate a camera, I like to take it on a solid photographic assignment so I have a chance to bond with it. Unfortunately, cold and snowy February is the worst month of an Indiana year for photography. It took me weeks to get through the roll, sneaking in a shot here and there as I could. It didn’t create the best experience with this heavy camera.
Moreover, even after thinning my herd as far as I have, I still own more cameras than I can shoot regularly. It is just a flat shame to own a good camera I seldom or never use. I’m not sure how often I’ll get around to shoothing my Yashica Lynx 14e.
Still, I continue to be bowled over by the sharpness, detail, and tonal range this lens delivers. This camera deserves more of my time.
Verdict: Keep
If you like old film cameras, check out all of my reviews here!
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I’m back with two more refreshed reviews of cameras from my collection.
Up first is the Nikon N2000, from early in the plastic-body era. The N2000 is a fabulous bargain among Nikon bodies. It doesn’t have the solid all-metal construction of earlier Nikon SLRs but it is still a robust and capable camera. I’ve shot mine a great deal and it just works. See my updated review here.
This camera might say Sears on it, but it’s really built by Ricoh — and it’s a solid performer. I got some lovely photographs through those Sears/Ricoh lenses. These are serious bargains on the used market — if you want an inexpensive SLR to knock around with do look at these Ricohs in Sears clothing. See my review here.
