EEVblog

[@FranLab]

Oh, about the letter - I forgot to add that the camera should be returned in original condition. Good luck!

[@josephbeasley3856]

lol. might wanna forget about that one

[@ricky_pigeon]

+Fran Blanche Fran thanks for sending the camera in :D

[@MrGopiii]

+Fran Blanche hahah fun

[@gamccoy]

+Fran Blanche well since it was ORIGINALLY in discrete components, I'd say he did a fair job.

[@peleniv3598]

+Fran Blanche lol

[@BrentBlueAllen]

In the 22nd century when humans are undoubtedly still watching Dave's videos, the viewers won't detect a hint of sarcasm.

[@BrentBlueAllen]

+dprohorova And the '24-image memory card' and 'single-use sensor' didn't raise any flags?

[@ajar1000]

Lol the sarcasm was amazing He didn't mention the word film once haah

[@foxman105]

It a neat camera though. Must have cost a lot of money.

[@WouterWeggelaar]

I keep a film camera in my office, and when someone asks if they can borrow my camera (they mean the digital one) I hand them the film camera. After the young players go away with it, they are usually back in some minutes to ask how to view the pictures ;) Then pop open the back and tell them you forgot to put in the film. Look on their faces: priceless. I do keep a new film cannister in case they really want to have a go ;)

[@bac302]

+Wouter Weggelaar i remember i tell my friend he can't see the photo he just took , he go a ' brilliant idea ,he just open the back saying he can see it directly in the film and burn all those photo

[@TechnocraticBushman]

+Wouter Weggelaar And now I feel old. I remember buying my first digital camera when I was 18. telecommander.com/pics/links/cameras/logitechquickcamtraveler/logitechquickcamtraveler.htm I remember when my mom first saw it, it took her 2 days to realize the fact that it was basically free to take as many pictures as she liked. You could tell as pictures of feet, hands and stupid objects started appearing and she bragged about it as well. I think the shock and awe goes both ways.

[@WouterWeggelaar]

+TechnocraticBushman Same here, except is was a Sony Mavica with a floppy drive in it and I had to borrow it because I could not afford one. The first one that I could afford already had a whopping 1,3 Megapixels and 4 megabytes storage instead of the 1,44Mb floppies!

[@WouterWeggelaar]

+Wouter Weggelaar Oh, I still have that camera and it still works. Took a picture with it last month for fun

[@WouterWeggelaar]

+Wouter Weggelaar Oh, I still have that camera and it still works. Took a picture with it last month for fun

[@LazerLord10]

3:03 So it's not an SLR, but it's just like an SLR? Both use a single lens, and isn't that the requirement for it to be considered an SLR viewfinder? My guess would be that the distinction would be that SLR's can have the lenses removed.

[@February54]

+LazerLord10 Yup. The difference between SLR and "ZLR" is the removable lenses.

[@RobertSzasz]

it's just a viewfinder camera. If the lens system is fixed, and the viewfinder doesn't refocus along with the main lens then its as simple as the short name with no acronyms suggests.

[@davidburton79]

+Robert Szasz The point of acronyms is to be specific. ZLR stands for Zoom Lens Reflex. It describes the lens, and the mechanism involved with exposing film. With the name "viewfinder camera" a disposable camera fits the same description. The lens is fixed and the viewfinder doesn't focus.

[@RobertSzasz]

I misunderstood looking at the camera, I thought it wasn't a reflex. and was a viewfinder model.. shouldn't have posted before I stopped giggling at the way the film camera was joked about. Derp....

[@DOGMA1138]

+LazerLord10 ZLR was used by Olympus as a marketing term it didn't really mean anything they function exactly like an SLR camera just the lens isn't replaceable. It's pretty much what marketing would commonly refer to as "dSLR-Style" camera today, it's single lens reflex alright but you are stuck with what every lens they decided to go with...

[@lampman1337]

at 15:20 I think that was a leaf shutter, not an iris. I did not see a curtain shutter behind the mirror that typically belongs on an SLR.

[@koraypekericli]

Exactly, but I wonder where the iris (diaphragm) is?

[@cogsinister100]

+T. Z. I think the mirror was working as the shutter, the same way as was used on Exa cameras in the late 50's to save money.

[@ElmerFuddGun]

+Neil Robinson - I don't think so. While it might be OK to use it for very slow shutter speeds, at higher speeds it would have a noticeable affect on the exposure between the top and bottom of the frame. The shutter appears to be part of the aperture.

[@lampman1337]

+Mehmet Koray Pekericli maybe right nearby or deeper in the lens. I have several very old mechanical cameras with leaf shutters that have various arrangements.

[@kilrahvp]

+Mehmet Koray Pekericli There seemingly isn't one. The manual actually never mentions one or a way to control it, just the lens' native aperture.

[@Psychlist1972]

I'm always amazed by the number of parts in a camera.

[@ZaphodHarkonnen]

Don't forget those memory cards were only formatted to store images. You couldn't reformat them to use elsewhere. Trap for young players. ;)

[@hannonm]

Thanks Fran.

[@wutzerface77]

Thank you Dave! Nothing's better than coming home from hours of work and just kicking back with some food & a beverage to watch your videos for hours. It's either you, How It's Made or the Grand Tour, but you have THOUSANDS of videos for me to endlessly devour, so big thanks from Philly! P.S. - Come visit sometime and have a real cheesesteak

[@rymannphilippe]

Another brilliant video from Dave. Thanks. I remember the time with the expensive "memory cards", small correction: back in the old days it used a new sensor for every picture and if the loading mechanism is gone faulty it used the sensor for two picture and give some funny pictures.

[@FarnhamJ07]

Wish videos like this were around when I was a kid! Took apart a disposable camera after I used up all the film, and came across the flash cap. Didn't think it'd have high voltage stuff that stayed charged up in it! It blew two big gouges in my hand a couple millimeters across. Probably a good thing that I learned my lesson early, but man, it sure hurt!

[@FraserKillip]

To be honest, I was always disappointed with the number of write cycles available in those analogue memory sticks.... Surely we could have at least 10,000 write cycles like the current day memory cards!!

[@astralbraintentacles1212]

+Fraser Killip Well there were recoatable glass plates!

[@mrlazda]

+Fraser Killip Except that after 5 years you can expect 20% of data corruption on memory card if you just live it in storage, and you will have 75% of data corruption after 10 years.

[@Tommyinoz1971]

Man, I was really slow on the uptake with this one. It wasn't until Dave started showing the compartment for the "memory card", that I finally started to get the joke. Very interesting tear down. Thumbs up!

[@hendrikhendrikson2941]

Now THAT is a proper teardown! Thanks Fran and Dave :)

[@Dragoslav_MD]

Amount of sarcasm in this one has set your personal record.

[@ArcturusTech]

Wow! This brings back some memories. I remember working behind a department store camera counter and selling a crap ton of these things back in the day. Although we were "incentivized" (i.e. bribed) with obscenely high spiffs on Chinons, I pushed the brand hard with a clean conscience because they were actually great cameras. The Genesis was an easy sale and flew off the shelves. A bit pricey and a hitherto unknown brand in America, but it filled a gap in the market between high-end autofocus point-and-shoots and entry level SLR kits. The photo quality was pretty much on par with entry-level SLRs and way better than any of the point-and-shoots of the era. Apparently, they sold well enough that we started seeing all the big name SLR makers release their own bridge cameras. BTW, Chinon marketed another camera around that same time called the "Bellami". It was a nifty little autofocus point-and-shoot that was small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. We sold a lot of those too. Thanks for the cool teardown, Dave. I always imagined the innards concealed some brilliant old-school Japanese engineering.

[@HotForgeChaos]

I have a Minolta Dynax 7000i sitting here from 1988, takes those same film based memory rolls. Works as good now as it did back in '88. Awesome old camera

[@gamccoy]

Awesome tear down. And, thank you, Fran!

[@tripsadelica]

The Chinon Genesis is a bloody good camera and used properly with good film it will create photos that piddle on digital snaps. Such a pity you killed this one in the name of science.

[@metallchips8569]

@ 10:20, Dave holds the lens up and allows all of you tube to peek through. Awesome! You're alright Man

[@Dr.-Smart]

thank you for revealing the video !

[@BrendenJohnFilms]

Now I'd like to see a video of you putting this back together! :-P

[@scottfirman]

state of the art electronics! I still have my Cannon AE1 Program love it! still takes great pictures. Memories!

[@ricky_pigeon]

Hey Dave, I don't know much about electronic's but i really enjoy your videos. Thankyou!

[@whatmattersmost6725]

This was the second model, the Chinon Genesis was the world's first ZSLR made. AWESOME camera!

[@kingsnake545]

Love that focus ring.

[@scurrg]

Love that old school analog thin film memory.

[@IanTester]

The interesting thing about Chinon is that they ended up making a lot of cameras for other manufacturers. IIRC, many of the last film cameras from Canon and/or Nikon were actually made by Chinon.

[@peshozmiata]

Now put it back together :P

[@cocosloan3748]

That lence at 10:30..So nice fish-eye view..Useful nice wide angle camera

[@shreddz]

AWESOME!! Love these beasts. Picked one up earlier in the year. None of this can't focus in low light garbage, infrared focusing still works where film doesn't! I love the design, it's like the mitsubishi starion of the camera world. I.E. as I said...AWESOME!!

[@thcoura]

Jesus, I cannot imagine the BOM for this puppy

[@EEVblog]

+Thiago Coura It would be incredible!

[@thcoura]

Don't forget of those lovely and fancy pencil CAD printers

[@SONOFAZOMBIE2025]

+Thiago Coura it wouldn't be too special. only cheap parts also.

[@ethanpoole3443]

+simontay1984 3D CAD was available throughout the 80s, and especially by the late 80s, so may well have been used in designing this camera. I even had basic 3D CAD and a digitizing tablet at home by that point in time and was taking both drafting and CAD courses in college around the same years to facilitate my own hobbies.

[@dan110024]

I hear the interchangeable sensors were quite versatile with the ability to opt for B&W or colour, and even choose your ISO!

[@maskddingo1779]

I LOVE those finger switches hanging over the focusing ring. Steam-punk 90's

[@stephenmorrish]

I owned one of these back in the day. Best camera I ever owned.

[@Pow3llMorgan]

Lol. 16.10.89 is my birthdate. This camera is exactly as old as I am.

[@michaelhofmann5091]

+Povl Besser as he said, good year that :P

[@GilZu]

Povl Besser I borned im 11.12.89

[@yucannthahvitt]

That aperture is a sure sign of something built to a low price. Anything decent has more blades.

[@electronicsNmore]

I bet Dave has enough electronic devices stored to do 1 full year of teardown videos. :-)

[@TheEPROM9]

Almost like a rangfinder. Only when in focus rathan a aplit image comeing together. The camera can see the IR signal

[@rwbishop]

Dave.... unless I missed it (it's happened before) there is no link to Fran's channel!

[@seanmcmunn88]

Damn, this looks like a pain in the ass to build! Just imagine a board failure during final test... oh man

[@Designandrew]

I took an old camera apart as a kid (probably a few actually) but one I accidentally shorted out the capacitor (before I even knew what a capacitor was).. man gave me a hell of a shock.. pretty sure it gave me an irregular heartbeat!

[@Xiefux]

+Designandrew did you die?

[@Designandrew]

A Banana yep

[@Xiefux]

Designandrew RIP

[@hereiam2005]

A strip of duck tape that works for 27 years??? That's Japanese engineering for you.

[@wellingtonsanissimo8703]

the design team would be proud to know their Camera got observed and talked about in 2015

[@Zsolt345346]

So this camera is from 1980's? I didn't knew that in the 80's already existed digital cameras, but cameras like this... unbeliveable!

[@ralfschooneveld3186]

Thanks for the video.

[@WafflesASAP]

+EEVblog -- Hey Dave, I know this is an older vid, but quick question: At 6:15, on the handle you use to manually rotate the cylinder and control the zoom, there's what looks like a chunk of neon green fiber optic plastic slotted into the cut-away in the black plastic. Is that for seeing the cylinder better in the dark? Or is it just an aesthetic feature?

[@AltMarc]

I like the other interface of the "memory card", at 1:35 the 4 pairs of contacts in the film compartment, where used to detect what kind of film was inserted.

[@zawzero]

+AltMarc Not exactly what kind, but of which sensibility and tolerance and how many exposures.

[@AmericanLocomotive1]

I think this particular camera actually uses the iris/aperture as the shutter, which may explain the weird shape.

[@paparoysworkshop]

36 shot memory card... that almost killed me laughing so hard.

[@nihonam]

That could be fair and nice to put the link to previous video in description. ;)

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

Why do you figure a ZLR camera isn't also an SLR one? It still uses a single lens for both the image capture and view-finding, does it not?

[@ShlomoAdelman]

Dave do you put the teardowns back together?

[@kristiandawe85]

Awesome the video is up 👍🏻👍🏻

[@twanajester23]

Dave, probably should ask you, what a good smartphone before 2014 to buy used?

[@nychold]

Oh Dave, the bad jokes about film and digital cameras pain me so much. They're funny, but they just hurt. :)

[@userPrehistoricman]

+nychold Hurt your sides because you laugh too much? yeah...

[@tylerbeadle-follis3338]

I’m about to get the model 3 and i hope it works

[@The-Nil-By-Mouth]

I can't wait for the repair video

[@cemx86]

At 3:27 Dave mentions a "mirror" in the viewfinder's light path. Isn't that a pentaprism? Might be a mirror for cost savings I suppose. Expiring minds want to know.

[@michaeltempsch5282]

+cemx86 IIRC there's prism up by the view finder, but there's definitely a mirror that when viewing is flipped down 45%, deflecting the light coming in through the lens up into the viewfinder. When you press the trigger the mirror moves (typically flips up) out of the path from the objective to the sensor/film, and the shutter opens.

[@curtnichols]

Ah, those sweet planar analog memory tapes... fussy little things, but amazing resolution. Some of them had a massive imaging surface compared to today's CCDs. They came with basic effects that actually predate Instagram (!), from black & white to amazingly vibrant colors. Being single-write as they were was a bit unfortunate, but when one managed to cause multiple writes to a single cell--whether intentional or not--it made for some curious effects. I don't know if Instagram has that sort of feature yet. Think I'll go order some Velvia (up to 160 lines/mm, pretty good resolution).

[@BobbieBees]

What was the resolution of the lcd display on the top of the camera?

[@michaelturner4457]

Did he ever put it back together afterwards?

[@MalcolmCrabbe]

And now Dave's gonna show us how to put it all back together :)

[@jerzyk007]

"could you fix it Dave?" :D

[@pinkdispatcher]

Great stuff! Check this out. The memory card comes with a brand-new one-shot sensor for each photo! It's non-erasable, can be treated to be human-viewable without additional technology, and the memory-card type determines resolution and colour-rendition!

[@zawzero]

+pinkdispatcher It is erasable, just not rewritable. Secondly, additional technology (a lot indeed) is needed to make it human-viewable.

[@pinkdispatcher]

zawzero You are technically correct. The best kind of correct. (Hermes Conrad) What I meant to say was that it can be made human-viewable without electronics. Yes, developing and fixing chemistry is of course technology. But I'm not sure I subscribe to the view that a spool, a tank, two (or three) chemicals and a clock is "a lot of technology".

[@rrgert4]

i just found this in the atty and got some film, gonna test this badboy out!

[@robot797]

i love photo flash board they make great projects

[@petersage5157]

Tempted to send in a completely analog camera for teardown, but pretty sure it would be appropriate for this blog. (If I did it would have to be one without even a light meter or hotshoe.) They used an ingenious biomechanical power supply.

[@Abr3200]

Can you reassemble the camera ?

[@xVoLAnD]

Cool! Thank you!

[@mrnmrn1]

+EEVblog Dave, you forgot to show the date/time 'stamper' on the back with its cute "nano LCD". It would be fun to make a DIY projection clock from it with a laser and some lenses from the camera's viewfinder! I want to do so for years, but haven't done yet. Very interesting teardown, but I always feel sorry about such cool things to be destroyed... OK, It's for entertainment, science and education... but still hurts a bit. Experimenting with that IR focusing assembly would also be fun. I have an (to be precise, two of them) early 80's Panasonic WVP-55E camera with ULTRASONIC (!) focusing. I just call it an 'electric bat' .

[@Steaphany]

Fran has a channel here on youtube ?

[@evanwilson4248]

You didn't know that?

[@Steaphany]

I have sine found her

[@DannyBokma]

wonder if there are any adapters available to convert this old memory standard to SDHC card.

[@aserta]

+Danny Bokma www.olivierduong.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/silicon-film-EFS1.jpg

[@rwbishop]

+Danny Bokma They make 'digital backs' for a few old high end film cameras... Hasselblads for instance. Look them up, just be sure your sitting when you see the prices they want. :)

[@zawzero]

+aserta This is a hoax

[@cokereviewer]

i've had some bad experience with flash condensors, when i was about 10 i dissasembled a camera and fibbled around a bit and all of a sudden i thought someone scared me but i realized i got shocked and it had put a dent in my finger.

[@StateofElectronics]

Love the analogue memory card slot and the realtime display! WYSIWYG Brilliant. Crazy complex build otherwise. Great video dave.

[@adventcontrols]

You've got to reverse engineer the IR focus mechanism... perhaps start with another camera though!

[@zawzero]

+adventcontrols Why would he need that? It's common knowledge

[@OnorexDeixCaduti]

The worst part is that some people will actually thing it was a memory card this thing took instead of film!

[@dawnminilla9299]

I have a hard time getting a few component's on a board,that is crazy.

[@donerickson1954]

Those analog ROM cards are cool they are extremely sensitive to light, somewhat like an EPROM. They were wireless as well, but that came at a price as they had to be long and flat all coiled up with a traction feed writing system. The strangest part is you had to use chemicals to read it and only in the dark until the read process was complete. Not just anybody could complete the image type conversion process until it was rewrote to paper disk, then even kids could view the analog JPEG.

[@PIXscotland]

I want to see you rebuild that one.

[@MundoDaEletrica]

My god! That is amazing... although we still use these here in Brazil. just kidding...

[@technodaz]

Oh you had me almost on the floor laughing with "you replaced the sensor every time". My sister still uses an old style camera and gets the printed , but she is half right its nice to get handed a block of 36 printed photos to look threw than a screen with 1000's of the same thing. Least back then you had to think twice before taking a picture.

[@AlexNaanou]

Don't think that the iris/aperture, more likely to either be the shutter or the aperture/shutter combination... simple to find out, if it closes completely then it's definitely a shutter ;)

[@DanielPierce]

You keep saying Bobby Dazler, what is that/what does it mean/where's that from??

[@jharris947]

Bobby-Dazzler...a person or thing considered remarkable or excellent.......Quaint coloquial term from northern England pertaining to someone very special indeed, either through good looks or by simply wearing something fancy. Your daughter on her birthday might be termed a bobby dazzler, maybe even your missus on a night out if she scrubs up well enough. "My, that Cathy bird's a reet bobby dazzler!"

[@17GigaHertz]

As a child I used to discharge these flash capacitors over my finger :D And yes it did hurt but it happened again and again!

[@MrPinknumber]

XD he made me laugh so hard with that 'real time' focusing technology

[@Maadhawk]

Funny hearing him reference the old film technology as if it was digital.

[@MrPmjg]

Hey Dave Can you make a video about the infrared sensor. The measure distance, error of measure, what affect the measure, as the colour of the object. And that type of stuff. For me it look like the same type of sensor of the Sharp used in robotics.

[@saulchmxd]

OMG you broke the circuit board

[@dom1310df]

I didn't read the title of the video - took a while to realise he was trolling. Nice camera

[@Renatodonadio]

Haha, I never realized it was an analog camera until 5:30, at the beginning I thought it was one of those retrofitted cameras with the CCD sensor built somehow in the camera roll bay ;-P

[@smiechu47]

who the hell is Bobby Tesla?

[@Diggnuts]

+CLIn7 l33tW00d www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bobby+dazzler

[@Sainology]

So.. you got a wide angle lanes!!

[@forrest225]

I actually quite enjoy shooting a film SLR. Nothing like getting a fresh sensor every time! lol

[@ethanpoole3443]

It is nice to never have to worry about dust accumulation on your sensor...the one chore I most dislike in digital photography is having to clean the sensor and my 5D's full frame (24x36mm) sensor loves to accumulate dust as there is a lot of surface area to collect dust on.

[@zx8401ztv]

Not a cheap camera in its day, very clever design :-D

[@johnsenchak4169]

The contact ring was a bobby dazzler !

[@josephbeasley3856]

has anybody seen those old cameras that has the time/date signature recorded on the film? how does that work? if there's a clock in the camera, what mechanism does it use to print the time on film?

[@mrnmrn1]

+Joseph Beasley It's a very tiny LCD, backlit usually with a bulb (yes, surprisingly not with LED, even in the late '90s they still used bulbs for that). This model also has that feature, but Dave unfortunately forgot to show that. As I mentioned before, I want to make a DIY projection clock from one of them. But it would be an interesting followup video on that teardown, if Dave also tries that trick :) .

[@josephbeasley3856]

Ahh that makes sense Should've figured.. Lol

[@josephbeasley3856]

So how does the backlight on that lcd get the exposure right? If it were too bright the time would blur. Too dim and you couldn't see it, right?

[@zawzero]

+Joseph Beasley You measure the Display for every ASA step and then couple a dimmer to the ASA setting. Problem solved. And why do you think it would blur?

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

yeah i never understood those spherical memory cards with this tape stuff, i believe they called it film

[@sebastianschmidt566]

@eevblog i see this Iris form before and its only 2 blades

[@scottfirman]

that shutter door might work on a Enterprise Type model. Hmmm!