Chinon Auto 3501 – Ugly, Noisy and Quite Capable

A Lucky Find in a Antiques Shop

It is rare for us to be able to get away for a few days break, but we managed to escape to Moffat in South West Scotland and to record the occasion I made a risky decision to try out two compact cameras won in an auction as part of an “untested” job lot.

We checked in at the hotel and then had a walk around the town, discovering a street with a few antique and curio shops. In one I found a cabinet with photographic gear and subsequently purchased a Sekonic Model L6 light meter and a rather ugly Chinon Auto 3501 autofocus compact – total spend £14. I was quite pleased with my purchase, and I had no idea how important a decision this would be as I subsequently found one of the original cameras wouldn’t wind film and the second I dropped, resulting in a bulge along the top edge that made me reluctant to trust it.

So the Chinon became the camera of choice and I was worried that this model made in Taiwan, probably for Dixons Stores who owned the brand when it was manufactured, would produce disappointing soft images. How did it do?

The Chinon does not feel great in the hand, not helped by its not-quite-glossy finish, though the few controls it has are easily reached. The viewfinder requires careful positioning of the eye to avoid it going black and the only indication that you have achieved focus is a little green light, which either flashes when hunting for focus or remains constant when focus is achieved (more on this later). The zoom is powered by a toggle switch controlled by your right thumb, and my goodness it is noisy. Like fingernails being dragged down a blackboard noisy. If you were to use the zoom while trying to grab shots of strangers in the street then all the subjects are going to be looking at the camera with a grimace.

The example photos were taken on a drive to The Grey Mare’s Tail waterfall, St Mary’s Loch, Talla Reservoir, and also an old cemetery in Moffat town. I was quite surprised at the results, shot on Fomapan 400, developed in 510-Pyro and scanned with a plustek 8200.

Conclusion

I think the Chinon Auto 3501 came out in 1990 or 1991 and it was more than likely built to a price specified by the retailer, but at a time when the retailer’s reputation for quality and value was important.

This was a camera designed for recording the family life, holidays and events and the quality of the photographs far exceed the images from earlier consumer cameras such as Instamatics, 110 Compacts and Disc Cameras. There is one important failing with this camera and that is that the green light by the viewfinder does not show you where exactly the focus lies, so shooting at around minimum focus distance is fraught with danger of blurred subjects.

I was actually quite delighted with the results.

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