[Mikheil88]

Mikheil...the price must be something local. I bagged mine off a charity shop and she was very cheap. I have seen a few go theough ebay recentky that looked nice a CM4 went off ebay uk recently at £13 and that was with the motor drive and lens...think it had an extra lens as well. Web pricing does seem country specific and I do see people offering dreadful kit at stupid prices....and getting it.

I completely agree, I had good luck on UK ebay in the past, like getting Pentax K-x (digital) with strap and lens for 60 pounds, only 9000 actuations!, pristine Olympus Zuiko 28 mm f/3.5 with box, caps and hood for 25 pounds and Zuiko 50 mm f/1.4 for only 20. Not to mention some good films. But it all depends on patience of the buyer as well and I don't really have that trait.

[Astro-Baby]

ahhhh patience is a virtue with ebay. I watch lots but seldom buy. Only last week after a 6 month wait and see I managed to bag off a Nikon F301 complete with a very good Nikon zoom both in mint condition for £50 plus a very clean Chinon CE5 complete with motor drive for £20.

[Mikheil88]

I always fancied F301 and F501, there's so much eighties and nostalgia in those two. But I never went for either of them because I have F80 and hardly ever use even that.

[Astro-Baby]

Well heres the couple I bagged off - The Nikon is immaculate and it was easily one of my favourite cameras back in the day. The internal auto winder is very fast, the metering was always right on the money and it was tough as old boots despite its plastic appearance. The seller let it go at £50 and it was complete with a boxed and pristine Nikon 35-105 zoom. Back in the day mine usually had a 28-80 zoom on it as my 'keep at my side' camera.

The Chinon was filthy when it arrived but a clean up and plugging on an old lens I have had for some time and it really looks the bomb ! I just put new seals in her as the old ones were on their way out. The CE5 I was a bit disappointed in originally as its VERY plastic but its really grown on me - it handles really well and its stop down lever/button is much better placed than almost anything I have ever used. Its match LEDs for metering are pretty solid and the metering seems accurate.

The downer with Chinons is they were meant to ever be taken apart- so if you have muck on the top of the focus screen/prism etc its a nightmare to get at and you have to risk busting the camera. On the upside they don't seem to have used half so much degradable foam as the folk at Fujica so gunk on the internal less of a possibility.

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Last edited by Astro-Baby; 01-05-2020 at 05:56 AM.

[pres589]

What lens is that you've mounted to the CE-5? I really like the feel of my CE-5 as well and wouldn't care that it's got some plastic in the build. If only they had made the top deck out of something more rugged... Mine has two cracks in it which are made easier to see as mine is gray and not black like most CE-5's.

I've wondered about taking the top deck off of mine, cleaning out the penta-prism and focusing screen, and then trying to refinish / de-crack the top deck while it's off. Your post makes me wonder if that should even be attempted. There's a bunch of lint and dirt in the viewfinder of mine and it would be nice if that wasn't the case.

I really like the feel of the film winder on my CE-5 and how the film doesn't seem to need to be re-tensioned with the rewind knob while going through a roll. Also a nice touch that rewinder knob is metal and won't crack like the knob on my Ricoh XR7. Overall it seems like a nice camera with just a poorly thought out top deck to detract from it. Only an MX or LX would interest me as an upgrade (and the MX may not be much of an upgrade at all).

[Astro-Baby]

To get at the CE5s internals the tough bit is to get the shutter speed dial off without busting anything. You need to get the ring that contains the shutter speeds (the disc with the printed numbers on) away from the camera - they were glued on so you need a really fine edge to get under it. The speed ring is wafer thin so the chances of doing it without wrecking it are super slim. I tried something similar years ago with an Olympus flash and it was a non-runner - with the flash it didn't matter it was just a logo but losing the speed markings on the cameras shutter selector would be a serious headache.

On some other stuff I have worked on you could whap it with a heat gun and hope the glue gives up the ghost and lets go but with the Chinon being all plastic it would be a high risk way of doing things. At some point I will get an old CE5 to mess with and have a go and see how possible it is. Other than that its just a case of a conventional top plate removal - at least in theory - not having gotten the top plate off I don't know whats underneath - it could be a hell of electronics under there.

The lens is an old Sigma Zoom - its a weird thing with a 39mm to 80mm zoom and a real oddball. One of the first 'budget' zooms in the early 80s. Its quite a nice looking thing and is reported to work well. its festooned with rings - aperture, zoom, focus plus an extra ring which you push in a small slider to move to handle macro. Its bloody heavy as its all made out of metal and there are (I think) 16 elements inside. Sadly the one on the Chinon has picked up a flutter - I thought it was mould but its starting to look like an oil leak. I can't find any strip down guides on this one and after a recent baaaaad experience taking a Fujinon to bits I am loathe to risk it without some guide to work from. Luckily a friendly camera tech has promised to have a look at it and see if it can be sorted out at a reasonable price. I know its completely mad but I kind of like the lens and don't want to trash it - they are supposed to come up on eBay but I have yet to see one - mine came with a Pentax camera I bought waaaaaaaay back and its just been sat around until I go back into film.

On the CE5 I think they suddenly went plastic because it was all the vogue back then - get the weight down, make it all look hi-tech etc. Minolta started it up with the wretched Dynax 7000 and then they all followed suite. Even Nikon eventually with the F301 but at least the 301 was very rugged - the Chinon seems quite fragile and frangible.

[pres589]

I can't tell which I'd rather have in a motorcycle tank bag for 10k miles; the CE-5 or my XR7. Obviously the smart answer would be something more like a K2 or K1000 but I like to make things even more difficult...