Graflex 35EL - Point & Shoot Camera

 

It was my son Lachlan who told me about the second hand shop 'Port Pickers' in Wauchope and that they had some cameras on display. Yes, they did have cameras on display but not what I was looking for. I was excited when the shop keeper told me that around the corner, they also had another establishment that was much bigger and had many more cameras!

So, of course, I walked around the corner and down the street to their much larger clearance centre. There were soooo many Cameras! I would think that the majority of them could only be used as a display piece (and there were some lovely vintage cameras!) but, with careful looking I picked out 3 cameras (point and shoot) that I thought were in reasonable condition. They were an Olympus Trip 35, a Nikon L35 AF and, a Graflex 35EL.

I was intrigued by the Graflex. I knew that Graflex in their day had produced some awesome looking cameras used by journalists and media but I never knew that they also produced 35mm point and shoot cameras. I was excited to think that I had found one from this company and, here it was, still in the plastic bag wrapping inside its original box! However, I was soon to be brought back to reality.......

Graflex, that wonderful Camera Company, that had formed in 1905, had ceased making cameras in 1973.

To explain the beginnings of this camera, I have to give a little history about another Camera Company - Hanimex.

Jack Hannes was born in 1923 in Berlin. In 1934, he was sent to England for his education where he remained for 5 years. In 1939, his family fled the Nazis to Australia where Jack studied Electrical & Mechanical Engineering. He did try to enlist for the War but was rejected due to his birthplace. He returned to University where he was studying for an Economics Degree. To help fund his degree, he began to import small things via airmail from England and distributed these from his parents home in Dulwich Hill. He started to take a big interest in Photography and began importing camera equipment. Seeing that there was demand in photography from the public, he formed his own company Hanimex (the first 3 letters of his surname HANnes and the first 2 letters of the words IMport and EXport. Long story short, by the 1960s he had offices and factories all over the world. Hanimex was a huge success but in 1982 a change in share ownership occurred and Jack resigned. Part of the conditions put on him upon his resignation was that he would not be able to engage in competitive activity for 4 years.

In 1986, four years after his resignation, 2 of his sons, Martin and Paul, purchased the rights to the Graflex name and set up a business for point and shoot 35mm cameras. Jack Hannes soon became the Chairman of the company. In 1988, the business was producing a Graflex Quantum 88 with auto exposure, a Quantum AF, a Quantum Tele and, AF 100. They also produces less expensive cameras such as the 35EL, 35B and, Graflex Drive. It doesn't appear that they were very popular cameras and the company folded in 1997.

So, I was a little disappointed when I read that the Graflex I had purchased (it wasn't terribly expensive mind you!) was not from that original company that produced so many of those wonderful journalistic cameras that are iconic in the media industry.

So, the Camera is plastic. It was made in Taiwan, and from the little info I could find, possibly made by the Premier Image Tech Corporation. (which is affiliated with the Premier Instrument Corporation who also made the 'Kardon', an American Leica copy camera).

It has a fixed wide angle lens f3.5 at 34mm with minimal focus distance of 1.2 metres with a rotary diaphragm. It is a fixed focus lens in which the focus is set during the design stage. One disadvantage of the fixed focus lens is that because of the narrower aperture, there is a reduction in light that will reach the film. This is quite obvious I think in some of the photos taken here where some of them are quite dark and grainy. A fixed focus lens is unable to produce sharp close ups and is not suitable for shooting fast moving objects. The advantage of fixed focus lens is that it can be produced cheaply! 

There is an ISO selection switch on the front of the camera giving the options of ISO 100, 200 and, 400 although there is no definitive 'click' when moving the switch into the 200 position. Info found on the web suggests 100/200 and 400 ISO so perhaps the position on the left covers both 100 and 200?

Film advancement is done by turning the horizontal wheel on the back of the camera. Once the film is used up, rewind is via the button on the bottom of the camera and the handle crank on top which, when pulled up, also opens up the back of the camera.

There is an exposure counter on the top of the camera which is automatically reset when opening the back of the camera to remove the film. The Viewfinder shows a square in the middle for the photographer to line up the subject and also a collimated frame which is aligned to maximise light collection without parallax errors. The Viewfinder also displays a red light when there is insufficient exposure.

A built in Flash that is turned on by a switch at the back of the camera. I have to admit that I am guilty of a newby error using that switch; I thought it was the on button for the camera! Hence, about half of the film I used was overexposed and unusable.....sigh..... At least I finally figured it out! There is also a red light at the back of the camera that indicates when the flash is charged and ready to use.

The shutter release button has a hair trigger action so I have to be careful to close the lens cover when not in use.

The 3 cameras together cost me AUD$50! So, this camera came at a cost of about $16.60!

I put through a roll of expired Fuji Superia 100. Now I know that sometimes, expired film will be a lot grainier than a new roll but, this film has been frozen and other rolls from the same box never gave me a problem with extreme grain. I think the under exposure, and the heavy grain, are the result of shooting film inside. I did think there was enough light but, reading about the disadvantage of a fixed focus lens, I believe that I will only use this camera outside or, with the flash. I will try an ISO400 film and do some more shooting outside on a sunny day to see how that transpires. Either way, I reckon that when shooting indoors I have to have the Flash on.

I have always tried to steer away from Lomography but, I think this camera fits the bill for that Genre of Photography; point, shoot and, hope for the best! 

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Very low light in our Motel Room. Quite a few of the photos turned out like this.

With the flash, this one has not turned out too bad. 

You can see here that any photos taken under 1.2 metres will not be focused well.

Low light Motel room again

Once again, too close for sharp focus

Almost enough light!

Outdoor light, albeit in shade.

Full Sun. You can tell that this is a cheaper lens. This is why I believe
that this camera would be good for someone who is into Lomography.

The grain was just so heavy in this photo that I edited it in Photoshop. It has resulted in a smoothing out of the photo
that I am equally unhappy with!