Brand new Chinon Bellami

H

Huss

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New never used. Made in 1980. I already tried the batteries - they still activate the shutter but do not trigger the battery check light, so I tossed them. With new batteries everything looks good. Light seals are shot.
Surprisingly nicely made, looking forward to trying it out.







Oh yeah, I know I mentioned surprisingly well made... the first thing that happened when I opened the camera/extended the lens is the decorative trim strip around the lens came flying off! Guess age did a number on the glue. Easy to glue back on.
:)
 
Enjoy, but I'd be surprised if the camera works. I won one in the late 80's at a company picnic, didn't work out of the box. A great looking neat little camera with a very poor reputation.
 
Beemermark said:
Enjoy, but I'd be surprised if the camera works. I won one in the late 80's at a company picnic, didn't work out of the box. A great looking neat little camera with a very poor reputation.
Click to expand...

Well the shutter works and it times differently in different lighting conditions.
The examples I found online showed a surprisingly sharp lens.
 
And the flash finally charged! Took about 10 minutes. Flashed when took a pic. Next recharge took about 30 seconds. So it works, just needed a wake from a 40 year slumber!
 
The large main capacitor C1 has probably gone bad, as 30-year-old electrolytic caps will do.
It should be quite easy to find a replacement, should you decide to want to do the repair.

Chris
 
The long recharge time is the capacitor "reforming". Not necessary bad but will take a few charging cycles to find out. I've heard the lens was very good. Chinon made some very good M42 screw mount cameras. Hope yours works out, nice little camera.
 
I remember seeing somewhere, a lens review from the 1980's, where dozens of SLR lenses were compared and a Chinon 1.9/50 outperformed whatever Leica's kit SLR lens was at the time for center sharpness (corners however, were no contest, hands down in favor of Leica).
 
I agree that the build and design are decent. With luck, your Bellami will be better than mine. Left side of images are over-dark, and lacking resolution -- hard to mitigate with editing (though the following have been worked on). Barn door opening of left side is as designed. Bad enough that I don't expect to ever run more film through it. Overall lens sharpness is good, though.


Covered bridge by wwfloyd, on Flickr


North Highlands Dam crossing by wwfloyd, on Flickr


My favorite from the roll is the dump truck illusion shot:


Dump truck illusion by wwfloyd, on Flickr
 
Looks like odd Minox 35.

It is hard not to have lens sharp at 2.8 maximum. My $7 Industar 69 was just as sharp as Elmarit 28 2.8.
 
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Ok, I just received my sheet of light seal material from Hugostudios and replaced the gross, greasy, sticky goop that was there. Man I hate doing this stuff (been through this process with way too many kameras!) but my local shop that 2 weeks ago charged me $20 to do this on my Minolta AF-C, wanted $60!
Anyway, new seals in, Fuji C200 loaded. Let's see how this lump works.
 
The shutter release is super soft and smooth. Very nice!
The film advance mechanism feels, well, not very smooth. But ok.
 
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