RETO/Kodak H35 camera
With the rising cost of film and already saving some money by bulk loading film, I thought getting a half-frame camera would help to save a few more pounds after the initial outlay of buy a camera.
So with some Christmas money I purchased the RETO/Kodak H35 half-frame camera. The camera comes in 4 different colours, sage, brown, sand and black, I opted for the sage.
The camera comes with a strap and a nice little bag to store it in. The only things you need to add are a AAA battery to power the flash and some film.
The flash is switched on/off via a dial around the 22mm f9 lens and this is where I encountered the first problem. The dial was really hard to turn on/off, I had to actually use a piece of the rubber anti-slip mat to be able to turn it.
Loading the camera up with some Fomapan 200 with 20 normal frames which would give me 40 images in half-frame.
The idea was to shoot diptychs and this is an ideal camera for this type of photography but you do have to remember that the camera held horizontal gives portrait images and held vertical gives landscape.
The viewfinder is a reasonable size and shows as a half-frame with the sides blanked out. The wind on wheel takes a bit of going use to, as it is on the left and at the bottom of the camera.
With 40 shots to get through it did take some time to get through a roll but this was the idea more frames to play with.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the final images, they look pretty good and the ISO200 film worked OK even on a dull London day.
My biggest gripe with the camera is how cheap it feels, it is very, very plasticy, the rewind knob feels as those it may break at any moment.
If you compare this camera to RETO UWS camera which costs £20 less the build quality of the UWS feels much better.
Though I only put 1 roll through it, I felt that the camera wouldn't stand up to a lot of usage and decided it return it.
Personally I do think it is a shame that the camera is cheaply made as it could of been a nice addition to the analogue family if cameras.