It's not often that one acquires a free camera. When it does occur, one feels compelled to try it out as soon as possible. And of course this is my entry into the #monomad contest.
My stepson brought home a mysterious tub from his great grandma's house, telling me that he had a gift for me. I had no idea what to expect, but of course I hoped it was something camera related. Stories of random cameras found in grandparent's attics are a pretty common thread among film photography buffs, so of course it was in my mind.
So I opened the tub and I was pleasantly surprised to find not just one camera, but two. Of course one was digital, and completely unusable. The battery door is missing and the corroded batteries still clung to the inside of the battery compartment. It seems twenty years in a hot and humid Florida garage wasn't too kind to the digital wonder.
But the other camera piqued my interest immediately. "Yashica! Ooooo." said I. My Yashica Mat is my baby, so another Yashica to keep it company was truly exciting. I delicately pulled it out of it's case and met a camera I had never heard of, the Electro 35.
I quickly did all the research necessary to know what I was dealing with. A battery was necessary to take advantage of all of the functions of the camera so I ordered one from B&H along with a roll of film. The battery came first and I decided that I didn't want to wait for the film so I loaded up a roll of Five Below film which had ten shots, perfect for a test run.
It appeared to be working, at least for a few shots. Then the lights indicating over or under exposure stopped working. Then I noticed I had shot eleven frames, then twelve. I had loaded the film incorrectly! Oh well. I figured that I had the infamous "pad of death" anyway so the camera was restricted to 1/500th of a second shutter speed. I decided to reload and at least test the focus and aperture settings. I developed everything in Caffenol as always, and then scanned the negatives with multiple settings and picked what I liked. These are the results.
You can tell they weren't the best exposures, even in bright sunlight 1/500 isn't the easiest to work with. But as usual I still like them. Maybe I'm just arrogant but it's hard not to appreciate my own work.
I have repaired the "pad of death" but the camera is still not functioning properly. I'm beginning to think it's a battery issue as the compartment door was badly damaged by corroded batteries. So now I'm considering buying another Electro to use or to cannibalize since I enjoyed using this one so much.
Or should I just wait and buy something else? Hmmmm....
Camera: Yashica Electro 35
Film: Five Below film (400 ISO, I think it's kentmere honestly)
Developed in Caffenol as always.
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