Into the world of Chinon I: The Chinon Company was founded in 1948 and in the 60’s & 70’s it was primarily a camera component company, like Cossina they also made lots of cameras for other brands such as Revue, Argus, & Prinz. Though they never became a first tier camera producer during the 1970’s they made some solid well built if bare bones cameras. They stuck with M42 lenses longer than most and that probably didn’t help them. They finally switched to the Pentax K mount in 1979 with the release of their CM-4 (mechanical) & CE-4 (electronic). I have found that tracking down information on Chinon Cameras is a bit harder that it is with some other brands. Firstly because there is just less info out there but also because Chinon has an unusual array of models and release dates. Often releasing models that were less advanced than others released earlier!
This CXII (M42 mount) released in 1976 is the first Chinon that I've used. It was an update to the 1974 CX. It’s a heavy, solidly built camera, all metal with some pretty standard settings. Shutter Speeds range from B + 1s to 1/1000th & ISO from 10 to 1600. A battery is needed only for the match needle light meter. Stop Down metering is achieved by partially depressing the shutter button which closes the aperture blades to the value selected and activates the light meter. Aperture or shutter speed can then be adjusted until the needle shows correct exposure. I shot a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 in the camera along the Klickitat trail out of Wahkiacus
