[mzsaunders]

Can someone recommend a 35mm compact with a zoom range around 35mm to 135mm and reasonably fast lens? Doesn't have to be a Pentax, but has to be available cheaply on eBay. A little control over exposure and film speed would be welcome, but may be asking too much. It can sort its own focusing out.
I have some nice film compacts (none of which are Pentaxes) , but was looking for one to take to a gig this week and realised I have this gap in my armoury (all are fixed focal length around 35mm)
There's an Espio 120 going cheap that might fit, but I don't know whether this is a good model.

[mzsaunders]

update - I bought the Espio 120 for the princely sum of £7.28. I didn't think I could go far wrong at that price.
I looked up some specs and, apart from a very slow lens (balanced somewhat by ability to use 3200 ISO film) it seems to fit most of my requirements.
I'm still open to suggestions.

[mzsaunders]

and also a Yashica Zoomtec 90 for £1.50! Couldn't find a lot about it on the Web, but I have liking for Yashicas and, again, it's so cheap I can't go wrong.

[ChristianRock]

Well, those lenses aren't really fast... I wouldn't buy a film point and shoot zoom for that reason. I'd rather get a 28mm (Nikon has one that's not expensive) and a 40 to 50mm (with a good fast aperture). The lenses will be faster and the IQ will be better.

[mzsaunders]

Thanks Christian. The problem with a wide fixed focal length compact for my purpose is that it will expose for the whole scene which, typically at a gig, will massively overexpose the performers' faces. I reckon the lack of any form of exposure control will be a bigger problem with a film zoom compact for this task than the slow lens. My usual camera for a gig is an SLR with 50mm F1.7 and HP5 or Delta 3200 and I meter manually, or dial in a couple of stops of underexposure. The gig I was at last week didn't permit use of 'professional cameras' (strange really when half the crowd are filming it on their phones) and I've never got good results with a digital compact at a gig, which is how I hit on the zoom compact idea.

I reckon my ideal for this would be a pocketable compact with something like 80 or 100mm fixed focus F3.5 or F4 lens, DX code override and manual exposure control or at least EV compensation, which I'm sure is too precise a spec ever to have been put into production.

I ended up picking up four zoom compacts over the weekend - the 120SW (£7.28), Yashica Zoomtec 90 (£1.50) Zoomtec 90 Super (£0.99) and an Espio 125M (£0.99). I'll be surprised if I run more than one roll of film through more than one of these, but as the lot cost me little more than the price of a film, who cares?

[ChristianRock]

The Yashica will be f/7.8 at 90mm, the 120SW will be f/12.8 at 120mm (yikes!!!), the Espio 125m is probably similar (if not worse).

So I'd get the Olympus IS-30 which sells for about 20 dollars on Ebay. It's got a 28-110mm zoom that is f/4.5-5.6. Much better than the ones you bought, for portraits. f/5.6 is actually pretty useful at 110mm! It should work well on film.

Edit: actually, nevermind on that Olympus. From looking at some pictures taken with it, the bokeh is really weird and distracting. Also, not pocketable at all!

[mzsaunders]

thanks Christian.
The four compacts have all arrived now. The Yashicas are solid and chunky, though far from pocketable. One has a fault, but I reckon the other will perform pretty well, as all my Yashicas have nice optics. I have no real use for it, but will run a film through it to see.
The 125M looks like it was made down to a price. I haven't tried it yet as I don't have a spare CR123 battery around. 120SW is a nice size and looks well made. I had forgotten about the unlikely way the lens extends on these - enough to make a sailor blush. Again, I'll run a (fast) film through it and see what I get.

[mzsaunders]

So, having started looking, I ended up with a small collection of film compacts, of which only the above mentioned Espio 120 (at £7.28) cost more than £3; most were £1, one was free. From memory, they are Espio 120 and 125M. Yashica Zoomtec 90 and Microtec 90 (I actually got two of each of the Yashicas, one of each was a dud), Olympus Mju zoom and Mju III (both of which turned up at the same local charity shop in consecutive weeks) and Samsung Riva 170. For good measure, I also got myself a PC35AFM for £1, but haven't tried it yet.

As predicted, none has had more than one film through it and I didn't bother with the 125M at all. I reckon the best results were with the Espio 120 and Mju Zoom, which I took to a 50th and an 18th birthday party respectively and got some good people shots. I guess this sort of use was pretty much what they were designed for. The only one I tried taking to a gig was the Microzoom 90 and the results weren't too good with Delta 3200.

So, it was a fun exercise, but the lesson was stick with the SLR when lighting is tricky and forget about taking photos at a gig that doesn't allow SLRs. I took a few of T V Smith playing The Railway in Southend last Friday with the Z1-P, 50mm F1.7 and Delta 3200 and was quite pleased with the results. I'll post some later.