Rare Chinon’s…

I’m sure most film camera users have heard of Chinon, with the likes of the Memotron series and scores of 90’s point & shoots, but as a Collector of the brand there are some much rarer ones out there…

Chinon started releasing cameras in 1968 with the Chinonflex TTL SLR all the way through to the early 2000’s with the M9500-D compact (plus a couple of digitals).

As a collector, you tend to notice when a new (to you) model appears on an auction site that is different to the usual. Here are a few examples of Chinon cameras that have little to no information about them online…

Chinon LED Promaster

The LED Promaster appears to be a CM-1 that has been re-badged for the US photographic distributor Photographic Research Organisation from the late 1970’s.

It is an M42 mount solid camera with LED stop down metering on the side of the viewfinder. My example is in full working order, but unfortunately didn’t come with a matching lens, but the matching Promaster Winder softens the blow somewhat ;-)

Chinon 1000 S

The 1000 S shares many similarities the the CS, but with quite a lot of changes, almost a luxury looking CS!.

The top plate, with it’s striking black inlayed panels is unique to this model, as is the shutter button. This model doesn’t have any information (that I could find), only a very few mentions online. It seems strange to redesign many components for one model that doesn’t appear to have been widely distributed. There are different badged versions such as the Revueflex 1000S and Mirageflex 1000S, so I can only assume Chinon made this model for distributors and produced a small number under their own name.

My example came from a website in Poland, it took a bit of organisation between a few people to get it to me as the seller did not sell to the UK.

Chinon 'No Name!'

This is the real odd one of the list… What even do you call it!

When I bought it, I thought maybe the lettering had worn off, but no, there is no model designation anywhere! It shares recognisable components with other models, but is different to every other model. As frustrating as these rarer cameras are to identify and research, the more difficult - the better! This camera does have some cosmetic issues, but that doesn’t matter when you may never see another one.