Finally found something at the thrift store – Photography, Images and Cameras

There are three Goodwill stores in the vicinity. From time to time I visit them. I’ve only once bought a camera: a Yashica FX2 with, as it turns out, a lens stuck wide open and non functioning 1/1000 speed. I’ve described the story behind this in an earlier post. Usually they have a selection of cheap, plasticky point and shoot cameras often with obvious damage. The selection never seems to change. This time, however, it was different. The usual suspects had all disappeared and the shelf was empty apart from one camera. I walked over to take a look and lo and behold there was a black Olympus Stylus Epic in pretty good condition price less than $10.00. I couldn’t resist even though I already have the silver version (quartz date), I had always wanted the black. Cosmetically it’s in better condition than the silver one, but would it work? I took it home and put in a battery. Everything seemed to be working fine, but of course I wouldn’t really know until I put a roll through.

It’s a bit disturbing to have a camera that gives you no feedback other than a green light to tell you that it’s found focus. No sense of shutter speed. No idea what aperture has been selected and, of course, no digital image to show you how you did. You just get the film processed and wait to see the results.

The conditions were not ideal. It was late in the afternoon and getting dark very quickly. Most of the pictures had snow in them making exposure difficult and a number of them were backlit. Some of the pictures came out blurred. I noticed that these were all towards the end of the roll and taken when it was getting dark. I imagine the camera selected a long shutter speed. My hands are not too steady at the best of times so it wouldn’t take a very long speed before camera shake set in. Some of the backlit pictures didn’t come out too well. I would probably had done better if I’d use the spot mode.

All things considered I’m very pleased with my new acquisition. Can’t wait to try it when the light is better.