About 18 months ago I made a nice pick and bought 5 compact cameras and two expired rolls of film for 20 euros. One of those cameras was the Pentax Espio Mini, 75 years jubilee edition in perfect working condition with the cover bag. It is worth like 200 euros now so it was a bargain. To my defence, I didn’t know that it was worth so much, so you can’t blame me for using the seller…
The lens is 32 mm f/3.5 and pretty sharp for a point & shoot camera. The look and design of the camera is very good and it is pleasing and easy to use. The build quality is a bit flimsy since it is made of plastic. If this camera had been made out of metal, it would be incredible. The camera is so fun to use, you just flip the cover open and it is ready. And it fits inside a mans hand.
I must confess though that I didn’t fully focus to the task in hand, which is taking good pictures. I was more just experienting but still the results blew me away. I didn’t notice that much difference in some shots to my beloved Minolta X-700, which is considered to be pretty good film SLR camera atleast when used with a fast lens. And the more poor low light performance was the main difference when compared the two.
Here is the camera, picture taken with iPhone.
So as you can see, I was just snapping with the camera while going to work or to lunch break or to the market etc. I didn’t have a specific project in mind, just taking pictures like it was 1989 again. But I will try put the pics here to groups like people, buildings etc.
This WWII era firebomb from the soviets reminded me of the current situation in Ukraine.
What makes a good film camera? I think it is the weird combination of grain and sharpness in perfect proportion.
You know the song I’m a window snapper… by 50 lens. Sheeesh… I’ll get mi coat.
I really like this pic of Cool Mr. P.
A bit of sunny arhitecture flicks never hurt anybody and this cam really shines in daylight + warm tones. I used Fujifilm Superia 400 as a film. I think I must try Kodak Gold 200 closer to summer…
It is a little miracle that this once the biggest mural in Scandinavia has stayed on this long. Graceful aging since 1995.
These two were the best film flicks of the Church of Ball Wax (see last post).
Few shopping mall insides. Top two are from different place than bottom two.
Outside on the streets.
Some leftovers.
S getting freaky at the poop show. Yes, there is an animal poop show here.
Few drive by’s and dark woods.
Evening light at the secret spot.
The conclusion… is that I will surely use this camera a lot! I mean it is so perfect in size that you can easily carry it everywhere. Also the image quality in daylight is really good for a point and shoot. I will probably continue this lomo-style shooting and try out different film stocks and styles.
Cheers!
