My dad brings a lot of used cameras from time to time – he works at a thrift shop, where they don’t sell old electronic stuff – and one day this little gem, was hiding among the lot. And I just could stand for the design, it kind of looks like an old television made out of wood, but of course it’s all plastic.
Apparently it was made in France in the seventies by a company called FEX. It uses 126 cartridge film (28×28), has a fixed focus lens.
The only features on this camera are the possibility to choose between a “Flash” and a “Sun” setting, on the front of the camera. And you then can use a flash cube with it as well. I think it needs a battery for flash to work, I didn’t test that.
I was gladly surprised that there was anything on the film at all, because I was pretty sure that the shutter wasn’t working. There is close to no sound when you press it, and the whole feel to it, just felt off, it felt broken.
And the film winder wasn’t to good either.
But the gallery below showed me wrong, the film I used was an expired Konica Super SR200 film. And I’m a little impressed with the results – especially because I thought, I would get nothing on the film at all.
Of course, they are nowhere near sharp – and the expired film don’t help that in any way – but I was expecting that, and I still think that some photos, especially the first one with the bike, the one with the donkey and the one with my mother, came out OK, all things considered.
Would I recommend this camera? Properly not.
I got it for free, and it was fun shooting with it. I might run another film through it sometime in the future, but it’s not a camera I’m going to use that much.
Useful links
- Info on Camera-wiki
- More about FEX on camera-wiki
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The Looks
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The Quality
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The Handling
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The Price
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The Output
In short!
Special looking 126 film – point and shoot camera.
Pros
- The look.
- 126 film.
Cons
- All plastic.
- 126 film.
Photo Gallery
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2 Comments
Hello, greetings from El Salvador, I hope you are in good health. I would like to consult you about this camera. I just got one in relatively good condition. The shutter release seems to me to be damaged since after pressing it it does not return to its position. I would like to disassemble the body of the camera and see if it is possible to repair it but apparently they used some material to seal the screws that join the front and the back of the camera, I cannot remove them. Could you help me? Do you have photos to disassemble the camera step by step? I’m sorry if I’ve caused any inconvenience but thank you for taking the time to read this
Hi Francisco
Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with repairing the camera, never had to mine was working when I got it. And I don’t have any photos of how to do it.
Sorry I wasn’t able to help you out – I hope you get the camera fixed.
Cheers
Bo