I am always thrifting and looking for cameras. I've gone out a couple times this week and made a few good finds.
Last Saturday I picked up a nice Polaroid Pronto in pretty good shape, with sort of a white plastic on the front. There was another Pronto at the same store but all black, however it was in slightly rougher shape so I decided to pass on it. When I was checking out, I asked to see another little camera they had in the front display case. It ended up being a cool little Agfa Silette (the original type 1 style from 1953) in good shape. I tested the shutter, aperture, film transport, and focus and it all checked out. It is a really solid little camera, about the same size as a compact rangefinder from the 70s (a la Canonet QL17 GIII) but it is scale focus only. I ended up shooting a roll through it and it was really fun to use. Perhaps I will review it soon.
Today, I went out again since I had a couple other errands, and ended up finding a Polaroid Sun 660 at a Goodwill. I don't normally pick up 600 style Polaroids because they are fairly common and not particularly noteworthy. The Sun 660 however is an exception. Because it has sonar autofocus, it tends to get sharper pictures than your average Polaroid 600 camera, which are normally of a fixed focus design.
This camera actually appeared to have some film in it, as when I popped open the top a little LED lit up indicating the flash was charging up. Unfortunately, it couldn't cycle up all the way because the battery in the film pack is probably too old (for those unaware, Polaroid integral films have the battery built into the film pack). When I got it home, I stuck it in a changing back along with an empty Impossible Project film cartridge which still had a good battery in it. In the changing bag I carefully removed the unused exposures from the old film pack and transplanted them to the Impossible pack, and stuck it in the camera. So now, in theory I have 3 shots of expired Polaroid film to use. Hopefully it comes out good, but if not that is ok.
Lastly, I made a stop at a Value Village, and I think it helped that I went in on a weekday morning, because in the bagged electronics section I found an absolutely mint looking Olympus XA!!! I love the XA, it is definitely one of my all time favorite cameras. It came with the A11 flash, which is great because all the other XA models currently in my possession have broken flashes. It didn't come with a strap but I just snagged one off one of the other models I have.
So that's that, a pretty good little round up of fun film cameras. I'll be posting more stuff soon!
