Three frames on the Chinon GLX Tele…
With an unnecessarily long name the Chinon Auto GLX Tele-Wide Date is from a long line of 35mm point & shoot cameras from Japanese manufacturer Chinon Industries. Many of which has to be said are rather rubbish. I bought this camera for the huge sum of £4.99, with the seller stated it was tested and working - I think you would struggle to find a better deal then that for a point & shoot these days!
The camera dates from 1988, when styling of cameras changed from the angular designs of the early part of the decade to softer edges and slightly more refined.
It is by no means a premium camera, but doesn’t feel too cheap. The zoom is controlled by a satisfying lever on the front to switch between wide (35mm) and tele (60mm) lenses - the latter turning out to be completely useless! On the tele setting, images are soft and unusable, in contrast to the wide lens which is perfectly fine.
Exposure is very limited with a fixed 1/90th shutter speed, and automatic aperture having only three options f4. f7.5 & f15 meaning you have to be aware of the light when using it. DX coding is helpful bit limited to ISO 100-400.
Chinon Auto GLX Tele-Wide Date
I loaded with a fresh roll of Kodak Colorplus 200, and chucked it in the car.
Chinon Auto GLX Tele - Kodak Colorplus 200
The hit rate of this camera is fairly low, with all the Tele shots being rubbish, and too many mediocre ones - but it did actually produce some nice ones too…
Chinon Auto GLX Tele - Kodak Colorplus 200
The beauty of the Point & Shoot is the ability to just be there all the time - this was an impromptu stop at a secluded pond that I hadn’t visited for several years. There are not many compositions here, so I have always captured this one. It does have the typical Colorplus look to it that I was expecting, and at the end of the day the camera is just the means to capture it.
Chinon Auto GLX Tele - Kodak Colorplus 200
I shot this scene a couple of months ago on another camera, but got bored of it so swapped the film to another and accidentally shot over this frame again.
All of these shots are just stop offs in an average day driving around, reinforcing the notion of always carrying a camera. With life always being full up, finding the time to go out purposely to capture images is difficult.
So, what are my thoughts on this Chinon camera - well it does shoot film and it does works, but is not going to win any awards for image quality or style. It is chunky, doesn’t have the appeal and user experience of countless others, and don’t forget the terrible tele mode. But it was less than £5 so if film was cheap would be fine!
Another one to shove in a box in the cupboard then.