The Film Retriever

Back in my teen years, I didn't know much about Chinon. The only model I knew was the CP-9AF and my limited knowledge on it was that it was a cheap alternative AF camera to the more prestigious Nikon/Canon/Minolta's. I never really bothered learning about Chinons, what was the point anyway - Nikon and Canons were producing much better cameras, right? Wrong. What i found out after joining photography forums is that almost all Chinons are fantastic cameras, much better than your average SLR's, with certain models competing directly with offers from the big fives (Nikon/Canon/Minolta/Olympus/ Pentax) but never really achieved any sort of collectible status. One of these cameras is the Chinon CG-5. This camera was produced in 1983 and it was set to compete with cameras such as the Minolta X-700, the Canon AE-1 Programme, Pentax ME-Super and P30 and maybe (or maybe not) the Nikons (FE/FE2). In the heart of the CG-5 we find the Seiko MFC shutter which is found ...

Those who read regularly my blog, will probably have figure out by now that i am not a point & shoot fanatic. I have sold all of my compact cameras to further invest in SLR cameras. So when i came across this little camera, i knew that it was a buy-to-sell buy to finance my next SLR adventure. The seller told me that it works fine, the price was right, so camera and money swapped hands quickly. The T-Zoom ( or T4 Zoom in America), is Kyocera's fifth incarnation of the T-series cameras, all well known to the photographic world for the beautiful Carl Zeiss lenses that they carry. With this model, Yashica pushed the concept one step further, offering a zoom range between 28mm to 70mm. The lens bears Zeiss's famous T* coating which means that we should expect high quality results from this little beauty. Comparing it with Yashica's T4 lens, the lens on the T-Zoom is a full stop slower at 28mm reaching a gloomy f/8 at 70mm. Although this might sound pretty...