ChinonBellami

Place the Chinon Bellami in context and you land in the first wave of motorised, beeping, infrared-focusing pocket cameras that made parents finally retire their rangefinders. Catalogued as a folding compact, it pairs the Chinon 35mm f/2.8 with a 35mm film path. Worth knowing up front: the cute 'barn doors' on the front open to reveal the lens.

Format

35mm

Year

1980

Lens

Chinon 35mm f/2.8

Min. focus

0.9 m (zone)

Flash

Hot shoe

Battery

2× LR44

The Chinon 35mm f/2.8 is the everyday-light specialist — not a low-light hero, but contrasty, sharp and honest at every aperture. Film supply is a non-issue: any 35mm cassette from any lab works. Power comes from button cells (LR44 / SR44) — keep a spare in the bag, they're easy to forget until the shutter locks up. There's no built-in flash, but the hot shoe accepts any auto-thyristor unit; a small Vivitar or Sunpak is the period-correct pick. Minimum focus is 0.9 m (zone), close enough for a coffee cup or a face but stops short of true macro. Worth knowing in the field: oEM-rebadged as Revue 35CC and others. The 35mm field of view sits halfway between observer and participant; it suits anything where you want the viewer to feel in the scene.

Quietly underrated, the Chinon Bellami is the kind of camera people brag about owning five years from now and ten times the price.

• §1The cute 'barn doors' on the front open to reveal the lens.
• §2OEM-rebadged as Revue 35CC and others.