Walkabout Cameras

Argus Super Seventy Five

Type: Faux TLR (The viewfinder lens is not connected to the camera lens) Lens: Lumar 8-16 65mm Shutter: B + 1/50 ASA: N/A Manufactured: 1954 - 1958 (May 1954 this Camera) Battery: None. The Super Seventy Five had several advantages over the regular Seventy Five which had a production run from 1949 to 1964. These included a focusing lens and a choice of 3 F stops 8, 11 & 16. One other advantage of this camera is that while it needs a 620 take up spool you can load a regular 120 film into the camera making respooling unnecessary. This is the only 620 film camera that I own as it's pretty easy to use 120 film in it. The date stamp on the inside 0554 meaning May 1954. The person I purchased it off on ebay said he had purchased it from the Original owner who had taken it on the Maiden Voyage of the QEII in 1969 from Southampton to New York. Of course there is no documentation of this but it's a fun story! More Info

Canon A1

Canonet GIII QL

Type: Rangefinder Lens: Canon 1:1.7-16 40mm Shutter: B + 1/4 - 1/500 ASA: 25 - 800 Manufactured: 1972 - 1982? Battery: PX625 Needed for the meter only. This is the big brother to the Canonet 28 fully manual as well as automictic. Unlike the 28 it can be used without the battery. The Canon equivalent pf the Olympus 35SP Photos | More Info

Canonet 28

Type: Rangefinder Lens: Canon 1:2.8-16 40mm Shutter: 1/30 - 1/600 ASA: 25 - 400 Manufactured: 1971 - 1972? Battery: PX625 Needed for proper use, without the battery the only available shutter speed is 1/30th of a second. If the Canonet QL17 GIII is often called the poor man’s Leica then the Canonet 28 (1971 to 1976) would be the poor man’s GIII! The cameras are quite similar in appearance and very close in size. About 70 grams lighter, the 28 is, a cheaper, simpler consumer version that still takes good photos. It’s an all auto camera which means it won't work without a battery and there is no ability to use in manual mode selecting your own speed and aperture. Apertures can be chosen in flash mode but then the shutter is locked at 1/30th. Light Meters are the first thing to go bad on old cameras so with cameras that are dependent on them to work make sure the camera is working properly before you buy! On the plus side these cameras can be found on the used market for much less money than the GIII. There is definitely a place for this rangefinder. It's great when out and about and you just want to point, focus & shoot. For this reason I often find myself taking this camera rather than the GIII out on hikes with me. Photos | More Info

Canon Demi

Type: Zone Focus Half Frame Lens: Canon 1:2.8-22 28mm Shutter: 1/30 - 1/250 ASA: 10 - 400 Manufactured: 1963 - 1964? Battery: Selenium Powered. Canon's first Half Frame Camera had a sleek modern design and an uncoupled selenium powered light meter. One disadvantage though was that the shutter speed and F stop are locked in pairs that cant be changed. Specific F stops can be chosen in the Flash & B modes but then the shutter is locked at 1/30th. The shutter - F stop combinations are: F2.8 1/30 F4.0 1/45 F5.6 1/60 F8.0 1/90 F11 1/125 F16 1/190 F22 1/250

Konica Autoreflex T3

Type: SLR Lens: Konica Hexanon F1.7-16 50mm Shutter: B + 1 - 1/1000 ASA: 12 - 3200 Manufatured: 1973 - 1975 Battery: PX625 Needed for metering only, the camera is fully mechanical. A well constructed tank of a camera, it sertaily is not flimsy or light, it's solid and as heavy as a rock! I've only put a couple of rolls though the camea so far. The meeter works but is off by quite a bit so I've been using sunny 16 or a phone app light meter. Konica SLRs came with some impressive Hexanon Lenses. I have the 50mm F1.7 - 16 & a 35-70mm F3.5-22 More Info

Konica Auto S2

Type: Rangefinder Lens: Konica Hexanon 1:1.8-16 45mm Shutter: B + 1 - 1/500 ASA: 25 - 400 Manufatured: 1965 - 1969? Battery: PX625 Needed for metering only, the camera is fully mechanical. Famous for its dual metering system of center-weighted average & spot metering. Some say it was the best Rangefinder ever made. Certainly one of the best! Everything works well on the camera even the light meter and all the auto settings. I have found the camera a little difficult to focus for some reason, the rangefinder patch is easy to see it just seems a little harder than other rangefinders to get right! Photos | More Info

Olympus ON1n

Type: SLR Lens: Multiple OM system lenses. Shutter: B + 1 - 1/1000 ASA: 25 - 1600 Manufactured: 1979 - 1987 (This camera has a date stamp behing the pressure plate of SOX this would translate to October 1980) Battery: PX625 Needed for metering only, the camera is fully mechanical. This is one of my favorite cameras, the original Olympus OM1 was introduced in 1972 the updated OM1n was introduced in 1979. I've become a huge fan of these old Olympus cameras & I think the OM1n is right at the top of the pack. More Info

Olympus OM10

Type: SLR Lens: Multiple OM system lenses. Shutter: B+ 1 - 1/1000 ASA: 25 - 1600 Manufactured: 1979 - 1987 (This camera has a date stamp behind the pressure plate of EIY this would translate to November 1981) Battery: LR44 The camera will not operate without a battery. The OM10 was introduced in 1979 as a cheaper alternative to the professional OM single digit cameras. They could accept all OM system lenses. The OM10 ia an aperture priority camera, the user picks the aperture and the camera picks the appropriate shutter speed. A manual adapter accessory (seen on this camera) could be purchased to allow full manual control of both shutter and aperture. It's a fun and easy camera to use, though you loose some of the control that you have with an OM1 you gain speed and simplicity. There are times when I'll choose to take my OM10 with me rather than my OM1. The biggest More Info

Olympus 35SP

Type: Rangefinder Lens: Olympus Zuiko 1:1.7-16 42mm lens (F22 in Auto Mode only) Shutter: B + 1 - 1/500 ASA: 25 - 800 Manufatured: 1969 - 1976 Battery: PX625 Needed for metering only, the camera is fully mechanical. Famous for its dual metering system of center-weighted average & spot metering. Some say it was the best Rangefinder ever made. Certainly one of the best! More Info

Olympus 35RC

Type: Rangefinder Lens: Olympus Zuiko 1:2.8-22 42mm lens Shutter: B + 1/15 to 1/500 ASA: 25 - 800 Battery: PX625 (For metering only) Manufactured: 1970 - 1979 While the SP was the top of the line in these rangefinders the RC was the smallest. At the time it was reported to be the smallest all auto or all manual rangefinder camera on the market. It's form and function are simple, easy & quick to use. This one has a pressure plate code of 七79 which if it follows the same convention as the other Olympus range finders of the time was made at the factory coded 七in September 1970. The Serial number seems a bit high for this though so I'm wondering if its July (七) 1979. I either have an early model or one of the last models!

Olympus Trip 35

Type: P&S Lens: Olympus Zuiko 1:2.8-22 40mm lens Shutter: Only 1/40 or 1/200 ASA: 25 - 400 Manufactured: 1967 - 1984 This is a simple zone focus auto only camera with only 2 shutter speeds but one that experienced great success with over 10 million being sold over it's 17 year production run from 1967 to 1984. This was probably due to it's excellent Zuiko lens and innovative Selenium solar cell power so no battery is needed. A date code behind the pressure plate in the back of the camera of R.O.Y. tells me that this camera was made in November 1970. So 50 years old this month as is still working! More info

Olympus Pen (Original - Model 3)

Type: Half Frame Zone Focus Lens: Olympus Zuiko 1:3.5-22 28mm Shutter: 25, 50, 100, 200 & B ASA: N/A Manufactured: 1960 This was a lucky ebay find! An original Single Lug Olympus Pen (Model 3) made in 1960. The model 1's were contracted out to Sanko Shoji Co. in October 1959. These can be identified by the work "flash" being written on the aperture ring. The Model 2's existed for only a few months as Olympus took over production using a mix of their new parts and Sanko Shoji's old parts. The Model 3's were the first Pens made with all Olympus parts and can be identified by their single strap lug. In December 1960 the design changed slightly again as a second strap lug was added. This final design then continued until 1964.

Olympus Pen S

Type: Half Frame Zone Focus Lens: Olympus Zuiko 1:2.8-22 30mm Shutter: 1/8th to 250th & B ASA: N/A Manufactured: 1960 - 1964 This was the second of the revolutionary half frame cameras designed by legendary Olympus Camera designer Yoshihisa Maitani. The all manual no meter no electronics camera was very similar to the original Pen introduced in 1959 but with a faster F2.8 lens and a greater choice of shutter speeds. Maitani was given the task of producing a small but quality camera that would fit in your pocket (like a pen) and sell for 6000 yen approximately 4 times cheaper than any other Olympus camera being sold at the time. The design took him two years to achieve. The Pen S had a continual production run of 55 months with approximately 300,000 being made. It was succeeded by the very similar Pen S 3.5 with had a production run of 32 months (01/1965 to 08/1967) with approximately 78,000 being made.

Olympus Pen EE-S EL

Type: Half Frame Zone Focus Lens: Olympus Zuiko 1:2.8-22 30mm Shutter: 1/40th & 1/200th only ASA: 10 - 200 Manufactured: 1965 - 1967 The EE Series of Pen Cameras followed in original Pen from 1959 & Pen S from 1960. There were many variants running from 1961 to the early 1980's. The EES was launched in 1962 and was made until 1967. In 1966 is was slightly modified to make it easier to load these are the EE-S EL models. The camera was designed to be used by amateur photographers with few manual control options. There are only two 2 shutter speeds 1/40th and 1/200th. The selenium powered camera meter decided which of the 2 shutter speeds to use in conjunction with the aperture chosen by the camera. It is possible to manually choose the aperture but the shutter speed is then locked at 1/40th.

Olympus XA

Type: Rangefinder Lens: Olympus Zuiko 1:2.8-22 35mm lens Shutter: 10s - 1/500 ASA: 25 - 800 Manufactured: 1979 - 1985 Battery: SR44 (The Silver Oxide version of LR44) Will not work without the battery. The XA was the first and by far the best of the Olympus XA series. It was the last camera designed by the legendary Olympus designer Yoshihisa Maitani. In his 40 year career at Olympus he was the chief designer of both the Pen & OM camera series. I found this camera difficult to use at first because it's so small and the shutter is so sensitive it's easy to take photos you did not mean to! That being said after shooting a few rolls with the camera it's now one of my favorites to use especially when out hiking. More Info | Photos

Olympus Quick Flash AFL

The first Olympus Auto Focus Point Shoot Camera was the Olympus AFL introduced in 1983. It’s reported to have the same F2.8 lens as the ground breaking Olympus XA introduced in 1979. The camera became a favorite of Andy Warhol and was nicknamed "Picasso" derived from the Japanese word for flash “Pika”. The camera had one huge flaw though, a hard wired battery that you had to send back to Olympus to be replaced. Olympus first thought these batteries would last 10 years in reality they lasted about 3! Consequently there are thousands of these cameras in near mint condition that were never used again after the first battery died! Getting these cameras to work again though seems to be near impossible but I had to give it a try. There are instructions online of alternate batteries that can be used. But few people are successful! I’m now at the stage where a lot of other people have also failed. I disconnected & removed the old battery (mine was a 1984 original) then temporarily connected a 6V Duracell 223 lithium. I can get the camera to fire up and work but the only way it will wind on the film is to disconnect & reconnect the battery after each shot! If anyone knows a solution for this I’d love to hear it! It’s been reported by many who did the same thing but I’ve never seen a fix reported! Otherwise I’ll struggle to put at least one roll of film through it the way it is just to say I have!

View-Master Personal Stereo Camera

Type: Stereoscopic Shutter: B +1/10 or 1/100 Lens: F3.5 - 16 ASA: 5 - 100 Manufactured: 1952 - ?? by Sawyer The camera can take 69 pairs of stereoscopic images on one roll of 35mm film. This is accomplished by a clever "lens shift" mechanism which starts out in the "A" position to expose the bottom half of the film while the film is wound out of the canister and then in the "B" position the top half of the film is exposed while it is wound back into the canister. During the late 90's I made a few Viewmaster disks with this camera. The last time I used it was in 2000 when I hauled it to the summit of Mt. Hood and made a Viewmaster disk of the climb.

Pentax 110 auto

Type: SLR One of only 2 or 3 110 film SLR cameras ever made. A marvel of camera engineering in 1978 this was the only 110 camera made with a selection of interchangeable lenses 18mm, 24mm 50mm, 70mm & a 20-40mm Zoom lens. All are fixed F2.8 with the aperture control being part of the camera and not the lens. The camera is all auto and warns you of exposure problems with 2 LCD lights in the viewfinder (green OK Amber Low Light). "I don't shoot 110 very much but when I do I use the Pentax Auto" ☺

Petri 7S

Type: Coupled range finder. Lens: Petri 45mm F1.8 or F2.8 - F16 Shutter: 1 - 1/500th & B ASA: 10 - 400 Manufactured: 1962 - 1973 Petri 7S II: 1973 - 1976 I don’t think anyone would say that the Petri 7S is in the same league as the Canonet GIII but in reality it has many of the same abilities including the ability to be used in fully manual mode without the need of a battery. For me there is also 1 plus. I find the simple light meter on top of the camera convenient and easier to use than the “through the viewfinder” meter of the GIII & Canonet 28. If you are just thinking about giving film photography a try for the first time you could do a lot worse than buy a Petri 7S especially as they can be had in working order for around 20 dollars! I liked my F2.8 version of the camera (below) so much I splashed out another 20 bucks on the F1.8 version (above). Sometime soon here I'll give them a side by side test.