visualculture

This is a battery-powered point-and-shoot 35mm film camera. It has a maximum aperture of f/1.9 and a focal length of 40mm.

This camera is fully automatic, including automatic focus and automatic exposure. When you hold the shutter button down halfway, an icon will appear in the viewfinder indicating the approximate focal distance calculated by the camera's rangefinder: a head for close up photos, a group of people for middle distance, and a mountain for long distance. If the brightness of the scene is low enough that the long shutter speed may cause the image to blur, a sustained beep will sound. This indicates you should either use a tripod or expect some degree of motion blur in the photo.

When you press the shutter button all the way down, it will take the photo with the calculated exposure and focus settings. The camera will also automatically advance the frame with a built-in motor. Between the motor and the blur beep it's quite a loud camera.

Because of the auto features on this camera I really like using it for quick and spontaneous action shots rather than carefully composed shots. Compared to more manual cameras, you don't really have to take the time to dial in all of the settings, so you can react fast with this camera.

I pretty much always use black and white film with this camera. The lens is threaded so I use a red filter on it to darken blue skies. I also like to "push" the film by setting the ISO setting on the camera higher than the film's actual ISO rating, underexposing the shots. Then I compensate for the underexposure by adjusting the development time. The result is a grittier, higher contrast image that I really like.