Those that know Meghan 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 the most recent camera I had the pleasure of a quick date with…..Soho Pilot 120.
A few quick facts about the Soho Pilot…it was manufactured in 1933 and I read it is made of bakelite, however personally I think it is too light for bakelite. It really is the most beautiful point & shoot I’ve ever seen. It has a fixed focal length and only has one shutter speed, aperture and T mode.
From the moment I laid eyes on this camera I knew I must have it! It was disheartening to find it was broken though. Someone had extended its bellows then not collapsed them all the way into the camera body and tried to fold the camera closed, severely bending the rails. I didn’t hold much hope for it being fixed however Frank came through again! He was able to correct the damage done. I still don’t know how he managed it, but he did. I took it out for a walk on a sunny winter day…..I took photos but collapsed it in between shots. When I scanned my photos I noticed there is definitely no obvious point of focus OR that it is, everything 10-15 feet away is pretty blurry in a non-charming way. However this camera is SO deco I really don’t care and it will happily sit on my shelf. I’ll most likely try it again though just to be sure it wasn’t user error.
