Wallace Koopmans Artlog

Simple is the word I would use to describe the Chinon CM-4s but in no way do I mean that as a (warning bad photography puns) negative rather it’s quite the positive. The shutter and aperture are completely mechanical and require the photographer to set them. The exposure meter display consists of three LEDs red ones for over and under exposure and one green one for correct exposure. What could be simpler this side of automatic exposure? In operation you can choose a shutter speed or an aperture and vary the other one to get the correct exposure, that’s when the green light comes on, or you can disregard the exposure as you like.
In addition I took many of the pictures on this roll using a simple flash, the Pentax AF160 for fill light. Some results where better than others. With this and other simple auto flashes you set them for a certain auto range and look on the chart to see what aperture you should use for the film speed. If you want to balance the flash to ambient light you can select a shutter speed anywhere from the minimum up to the cameras flash sync speed which is 1/60 sec for the Chinon.

The CM-4s uses the same K-mount as manual focus Pentax SLRs and mine has the Chinon 50mm f1.9 lens on it. The camera operates much like a Pentax K1000 while being smaller and lighter like a Pentax ME.

Here it comes I’m about to tell you how good a performer it is and how much I liked its light weight, …done. Yes I have met a camera I didn’t like its just not this one.

Ever since I acquired a Pentax K-01 I have been looking to prove that its design isn’t as bad as it has been made out to be. I now have physical evidence that it is not the worst camera design in history ( I myself never thought that ). May I present to you the Chinon Handyzoom 5001. If you are a mason or a fan of masonry you will feel right at home with its brick like shape.

As its name suggest its handy to zoom, wait no that’s not right it’s unhandy to zoom even two handy, but that would be a lot harder to advertise. I wonder if the designers thought okay we have designed the worlds first ‘Auto Programmed Zoom Composing system ‘ so let’s hide the zoom buttons. Let me clarify, the camera has two on positions, with one mode the camera automatically zooms to help frame for portraits in the other mode the zoom works normally, if you can locate the buttons. Here is a hint they are underneath on the left.

It has a few other buttons on the top such as Flash mode, spot AF and BLC ( back light compensation) or maybe that’s Bacon Lettuce & Cheese because there isn’t any feedback when you press it. The manual says make sure you press it hard to be certain.

You should also remember that the camera automatically selects bulb mode, keeping the shutter open as long as you press the shutter button, when you have the flash turned off and the red LED in the viewfinder is solid red and not flashing. On second thought don’t remember that just put the brick down before someone gets hurt. Almost every feature of this camera requires memorizing some unrelated thing in order to use it, for this and its terrible ergonomics I crown it the worst camera design ever. Earlier I deposed this blogs monarch and crowned myself Emperor of camera design so I have the authority to do that.

And if you choose to disregard my warning and use one its lens is a
35 mm-70 mm. F/3.7 to F6.8 built with 8 elements in 6 groups built into a brick.