Thrift store Finds

Maybe finds is the wrong word to use. Thrift store moment of weakness might be more appropriate.  While cleaning out the house and dropping off some items at the local thrift store, I (as I always do) went to peruse the camera section. By camera section I mean a large area with junk ranging from old vic-20 games to telephone cables, and usually one or two cameras.

On this day there was a plethora of cameras. Mostly junky point and shoot cameras, although one pink “safari” model did tempt me.  It’s always good to have a pink camera while on safari, helps you blend in…  As I perused the section, two cameras jumped out at me, one was a Keystone 66, the other a Yamasheta.  The cost? $4 and $8 respectively. In hindsight, overpriced…

As I got in the car, I realized that there were many loose pieces in the Keystone.  Luckily, after a quick take-apart, I was able to get all the lenses in the viewfinder back into place and also fix the zoom mechanism (oh yes, this camera zooms!)  So the Keystone is a 110 camera with a zoom and hot shoe. It also has several aperture settings (simplified to sunny, not so sunny, and clouds of death).  The focus distances are in feet and metres, or for the numerically challenged, there is the one person, 3 people, and mountain setting.  I think the mountain setting will work nicely on some upcoming hikes I plan on doing…  How much does it zoom? Who knows, I’d say for sure “a bit” but nothing huge.  It also came with a wrist strap. I’ve since discovered that 110 is only available over the internet, and I’m still searching for somewhere to have it processed.

Now for the Yamasheta.  As far as I can tell, this is the typical “let’s give it a Japanese sounding name so people think it’s got some quality to it”.  The camera is plastic, all plastic.  The lens boasts that is the “optical” version. Not sure what kind of non-optical lens I could have had on this camera…  The camera does have some weight to it, which seems to be some metal that is glued into the grip on the camera.  Overall it’s a bit like a 35mm holga, and probably overpriced at $8.

I have yet to take pictures with either as I have far too many cameras currently loaded up with film.  I usually hold off on such purchases, preferring to save my money for slightly more expensive cameras, but what can I say, I was caught at a weak moment.