Rare, but insignificant SLR dee'scovery...

[dee]

My Daughter has won a 1970 Zodel [Cosina] SLR body @£6.00.

It looks fairly rough , with broken mirror but is an example of the camera I agonised over when buying my 1st [budget] SLR .

It was Dixons Prinzflex or Wallace Heaton Zodel , I went for the Prinzflex .

I have watched out for a Zodel , but no luck over the years as Wallace Heaton had just on outlet against many of Dixons.

Has anyone been pleased to find a camera of no 'value' but valued ?

dee

 

[Austerby]

I have an Exa 1a for the sole reason that my father had one and many of my childhood photo's in the late '60s/early '70s were taken on it. He was curiously mysterious about where that camera was (I suspect it got lost in a house move many years ago) so I had to get one for myself.

It's a strange but interesting camera - with waist-level finder and a chunky body that I rather like and am pleased to have.

 

[View Range]

I regularly pick up useless cameras from antiques malls. Contax II with really bad measles, Cornfield Interplan C (back is glued on so I can't even open it), totally frozen-up Contax S badged as Astraflex by Sterling Howard, etc. Every camera, no matter how feeble deserves a good home.

 

[Livesteamer]

Praktica Nova 1b and a Praktica TL. I remember looking at ads for these as they were very affordable at the time. For some reason I saved up and instead bought a Nikkormat FTn which I still have. The Praktica's are not very good but I also got a Zenit B like the one I had long ago and it still works well. I do wish I had bought the Leica IIIc with lens from Wall St. camera back when a nice used one was $49.00. Joe

 

[farlymac]

I like this one, even though I don't shoot it often. It's a nice little exercise in cheap camera design that has decent enough performance, though the output can always use a bit of help in post.

P1080781_2 Continental TXL Profile by P F McFarland, on Flickr

It does have an interesting pedigree though.
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Fujica_ST-F
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Great_Wall_PF-1

PF

 

[zuikologist]

Interesting! Is this a real SLR?

 

[dee]

I had to pay a lot more for a Praktina-my Dad's camera - fascinating , but don't touch !
I love it and it probably led my ASD mind which loves sameness onto Kiev/Contax which seem similar in size .
dee

 

[dee]

Did I not see a GAF camera similar to the Continental with fixed lens and leaf shutter ?
dee

 

[farlymac]

Interesting! Is this a real SLR?

Yep, though it's a fixed mount lens. And only one shutter speed (1/60). It has Over-Under LEDs in the viewfinder similar to a Yashica, and when using the flash, it goes into GN mode, so as you focus, it adjusts the aperture for you.

This is one of eight different brands it was sold under.

PF

 

[dee]

The Zodel has arrive , together with a rough Prinzflex to donate a mirror , if I can get it out without breaking it .
The Prinzflex case is the same but this one needed some painting in of scratched surface vinyl.
However , I am pleased to find a rare sister to my Prinzflex Cosina Hilite Clone !
dee

 

[farlymac]

Did I not see a GAF camera similar to the Continental with fixed lens and leaf shutter ?
dee

This is the linage that I can find info for. It started out life as the Hanimex Reflex 35, then became the Naigai SRF.

At this point, Fuji bought the rights to the camera, and released it as the Fujica ST-F. Fuji sold off the rights to a Chinese manufacturer who made some modifications to the original design to reduce costs, and began marketing it as the Aviva PF-1. Next, it was renamed the Yumica RFX-1, with an obvious change of ownership again. After that, it became the Great Wall PF-1 (there used to be an eBay seller who had a lot of NIB ones, but must have sold them all).

The last two names, Continental TXL, and Bell & Howell RFX-1 I am not sure what order they come in, but I'm thinking that Continental may have been the last one. In fact, just looking at the names, it appears the B&H was done about the same time as the Yumica, and the Great wall may have come after the Aviva. And the redesign may have come immediately after the Hanimex.

Photos of the different known models:
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs...=yhs-mozilla-004&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004

PF