The Common Pencil

Analog photography: My experience & adventures

May 2023 – I dropped everything when the WeinCell arrived in the post. I inserted the battery, pressed the test button and.. a light appeared! It actually worked!
Unfortunately, life happened. Medical reasons forced me to put hobbies aside for a few months. My beloved Chinon had to return to the darkness of an old cabinet.

Fasting forward, December 2023. Life allowed for a little break and I picked up the Chinon again. (should I give it a new name?) All I needed to start taking pictures was a 35 mm film roll. I got the Fujifilm color 200. Pretty standard and affordable.
I nervously placed the film inside the camera while asking all the analog gods to “please help me do this right.”
It was finally time to start shooting! But.. the light meter did not do anything. Pushing the test-button on the Chinon camera body did not trigger the little test-light either. Curses, I had put a special battery in there that worked only a few months ago! Dealing with the unknown can be so frustrating sometimes!

Turns out that the battery starts depleting immediately after removing the protective foil, even when not in use. I had never thought of that. It almost seems like an idea to make an instruction manual for millennials (I am from 1992) and younger. I mean, how do people younger than me feel when dealing with all this? 

Stubborn-mode kicked in. I started thinking, before build-in light-meters were a thing, people used external light-meters: Little boxes that would accurately tell you which camera settings were good for your light-circumstances. “Could someone have made an app that does this for you?” I wondered. And you know what, they have!
The app that I downloaded on my phone (and paid a little bit for), seemed just as accurate as my somewhat modern Canon R. Awesome! Now, finally, I could start taking pictures with my Chinon CX II. Let’s figure out if this thing works!  

You’ve just read part 3 of my blog series: Analog Adventures with the Chinon CX II. Let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment, or by sending an e-mail to heleen@commonpencil.com. Thank you for reading!

Can you keep a little secret? I have just received the pictures and the results are stunning! More about that in part 4. See you next time!