Those that know Nicole and I know that we have what appears to be an on going camera acquisition problem. To remedy this but continue to try out ALL of the cameras we have decided to start borrowing cameras from our fellow camera enthusiasts instead of trying to purchase or hoard them all to ourselves. Not all are winners though and some are just easier or more fun to use but you have to shoot with them first to find out! Thus, we decided if we run a roll through every camera we are interested in, not unlike going on a 5 minute date with a bunch of strangers at a singles night, we can quickly see which are worthy of being added to our collection (or put on our list of “must haves.”) Camera speed dating!
Here is most recent camera I had the pleasure of a quick date with…the Chinon CG-5 35mm SLR with Auto Chinon 50mm f/1.9.
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A bit of info about the Chinon CG-5…this lightweight SLR was made by Chinon in Japan and has both aperture priority and manual modes. It is a really fun little SLR that is well made and has everything you’d really need in an everyday SLR, including a self timer (which I rarely, if ever, use but some people appreciate it! It actually seems like it works too…), nice grip, bright split screen viewfinder and even a double exposure function! (Nicole’s favorite!) Best of all, you can use K-Mount Pentax lenses on it, which works for me because I have a slew of Pentax lenses for my K1000. For a tester date though, I shot this camera with the Auto Chinon 50mm f/1.9 lens that was on it when I got it. I enjoyed shooting with this camera alot and appreciate how small it is for tossing in my bag to carry around with me. This little SLR will definitely be a keeper!
I also tested out the reasonably new Ferrania P30 film in this camera and really enjoyed the results. I unfortunately under exposed a bit of the roll, which was too bad because the shots that were exposed properly were awesome with this film. The tone of the P30 is lovely and I will definitely shoot lots more of this film! The sharpness of the Chinon is great too and it was nice having the faster lens with the slower speed film.
