So... who's got some of them? I have four* - five if two Trip 35s count as two seperate ones - and I bet I know who has a Vito B... Personally I was delighted to see the Ricoh 500ME - very plastic, until you get it up to your eye, when you really appreciate that lightness - and I'd never seen that clockwork winder before!

* though the Retinette has snuffed it

 

Are we counting non-auto-everythings here?

S

 

Well, the suggestion in the article was "take the battery out", so I think you are OK...

 

To me, the last series of folding Retinas were the ultimate compacts. I was very fond of my 1B (019) which was a very pleasant camera to use.

 

I've bought, repaired and sold a couple of Trip 35s - they sell for silly money here. Does a Werra 1e class as a compact?

 

A couple of Canon, a Vito II or several, a Petri Colour 35, Retina II & III, Pentax Q,

Wouldn't class the Werra ss a compact, just a cracking little series.

S

 

Hard to say with the Werra - the flat-top Werra 1 is *very* compact, the later ones, especially with interchangeable lenses, less so - but, as Steve says, great cameras whatever you call them.

Trip 35s make silly money everywhere now - I think my two both cost less than £10, and needed sticky apertures sorting, but that was 10-12 years ago.

The other one I have is the Oly35RC.

 

^^^^ The one with the rangefinder, sort of a proto XA ?
If so a fine camera, but so too were the similar cameras from Yashica, Minolta, Canon etc.

 

This is my only properly compact film camera.


Rollei B35 by Zou san, on Flickr


Rollei B35 by Zou san, on Flickr

 

Can't get much smaller - and disconcertingly like a Werra that's been washed too hot! I was looking at the first pic trying to work out why the Werra looked wrong...

 

Minox?

 

I thought " Oh a Leica CL"

 

True - the Minox 35 was *really* pushing the limits of 35mm film
(waits for someone to come up with something smaller)

 

I don't give the B35 as much use as it deserves, but what I do love is that it is perfectly suited to a left eye shooter. Would prefer metric distances above the lens rather than beneath but hey-ho.

 

What I'm doing wrong is I always stick the wrong film in. Should really use a faster film enabling a wider aperture/more DoF and use more like a snapper. Got a few frames of Provia 100 to use up and then it'll be HP5+ methinks.

 

My XA still sees a bit of action, last outing for it was this morning.

 

Great camera. My XA cost £20 (IIRC) about 15 years ago, when film was (supposedly ) dead in the water. These days, they seem to fetch well over £100.

I also have the XA2, which - in many ways - I actually prefer.

 

[Helpful - but perhaps slightly pedantic - alert ] I think you meant "narrower aperture".

 

Serves me right for changing my phrase mid-sentence, meant wider DoF but edited it poorly.

 

Easily done!