Chinon Bellami Goes to Hunstanton

Our annual bus trip took us to Hunstanton this year. It's a seaside resort on the Norfolk coast which, because of its position at the head of The Wash, actually faces West. It is properly called New Hunstanton as the original settlement, now called Old Hunstanton, lies a couple of miles further along the coast.

 

I took a camera I haven't used for some years, the Chinon Bellami, a tiny scale focus 35mm compact with a retracting 35mm f'2.8 “Chinonex Color Lens” and barn doors which are opened and closed by the film advance lever. Exposure is automatic, powered by two standard 1.5V batteries, but it's manual focus and film advance are enough to make it a classic manual camera in my opinion. It has a weighty and solid feeling despite its diminutive size, better built that its cousins the XA and Minox types, and seems to be a good performer in its own right.

 

This statue is of Henry Styleman Le Strange, regarded as the founder of New Hunstanton. I was surprised to learn that it was only erected in June 2017.

 

According to Wikipedia, in 1846, Henry Styleman Le Strange decided to develop the area south of Old Hunstanton as a sea-bathing resort. He persuaded investors to fund the construction of a railway from King's Lynn to the town and the Lynn & Hunstanton Railway became one of the most consistently profitable railway companies in the country. By 1862 the line had been built and Hunstanton was ready to take off commercially. However, Le Strange died in the same year at the age of 47 and it was left to his son Hamon to reap the rewards of his efforts.

Edited July 23, 2017 by John Seaman

Most of the buildings are made from the same mellow red stone.

Looking out over the promenade.

 

The tide was in when we were there. When it goes out, it goes back a very long way.

 

Another beach scene. It was a day when the sun only came out in short bursts. The film was out of date, and the colours don't look quire right. It was developed and scanned at a local Max Spielman store.

 

Last one for now, a drinks kiosk. When we used to come here for family holidays many years ago, the railway was still running, and the pier was still there. Now both are long gone, but everything else is much the same.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Great results and a nice looking camera. Thanks for posting.

Thank you John. I envy your photography and the beautiful country you live in.

Tony

Wonderful shots, Sir, and marvelous colors. Now there's yet another vintage camera to be on the lookout for.

Nice results, John. The Bellami looks like a worthy alternative to the Minox 35's. I have always wanted to try one, but thought the "barn doors" looked a bit fragile.

Great images from the Bellami, John.They are an intriguing little camera, obviously not unlike the Minox 35 in many respects, but I no longer have a working example due to failure of electrical components in the two examples I've obtained over the years. That little Chinonex lens is very sharp, as your images demonstrate. A couple of months I just missed out on acquiring a tidy Special Edition finished in red suede with a coaching image in gold leaf, a very posh little camera indeed. Thanks for an interesting and illustrative post.

Great little snapper you have! I remember seeing these maybe back in the very early 80s--and got a kick out of how the doors resembled a number of MUCH older cameras. There is a lot of glass in that little lens--4 elements in 3 groups--and I understand a fair coating. Consider yourself lucky--the flash attachment is somewhat of a rarity. Although I think that it was only sold as a kit, I have yet to see one listed for sale that included the flash.

 

Interestingly, Balda pushed out a similar camera a couple years before the Chinon appeared. Same configuration with side flash--but it had but a single door covering the lens. Both are popular with the Lomo crowd these days... :)

Thanks for posting these, John. I have one of these that I have yet to put film through, and this post is certainly very encouraging! Mine seems to work just fine, including the flash. The little nameplate (or lens surround, not sure what you call it) on the front of the lens was missing prior to my purchase of the camera, so it has a bit of an industrial look to it. Those are very nice shots with beautiful color and excellent sharpness.

Many thanks for all the comments, always appreciated. Unfortunately the flash doesn't work, I can't remember exactly what the issue was. Actually the barn doors seem reasonably robust. I was baffled at first about opening them until I read the manual and found that the film advance does it, now it seems second nature.

 

One advantage over the Minox G* cameras is that the Chinon uses standard batteries. It's easy to adjust the focus from above, although in the event it was mostly just set at 5 metres. My only criticism might be the shutter release which is a little "notchy", unlike the soft release of the XA. Also like most non-SLR's, composing the picture on a poky finder is a little hit and miss, and I had to straighten the horizons when cropping most of these.

 

Here's one more.

 

John, as an electronics tech/ham radio sort, I am going to guess that the trouble involves the electrolytic cap(s) that are in the flash unit. The late 70s and early 80s saw a rash of cheap components that the paste used in caps was quick to crystallize (as part of drying out) and leak out of the cap. Sometimes this is only seen as a slight bulge at the top--sometimes as yellowish crap leaking out the bottom--and sometimes no indication at all. One that is handy with a multimeter and soldering iron can find quick replacement from a supplier like DigiKey or Mouser...

Co-incidentally I pulled out my Bellami to play with the other day, and when I popped open the barn doors the faceplate of the lens flew off!

 

It turns out it's only glued on with brown contact adhesive that had become dry and brittle.

 

A few small dabs of new clear adhesive sorted the problem, but if this happens to yours you should be aware that the lens surround needs fairly careful orientation. There are protruding screw-heads beneath that need to be aligned with matching recesses in the faceplate. Some contact adhesives are unforgiving when it comes to re-positioning.

 

Just a heads up.

 

"Both are popular with the Lomo crowd these days... "

- I can't imagine why. The image quality is far too good! ;)

Edited July 25, 2017 by rodeo_joe|1

PapaTango and Rodeo Joe, many thanks for the advice. I'll bear these points in mind when I get a chance to have another close look at it. Take care.

"Both are popular with the Lomo crowd these days... "

- I can't imagine why. The image quality is far too good! ;)

 

Joe, seems that there has been this terrible collision between the chartered 'lomo' crowd, and the trendies who think film is all that. Coming out of the street level wreckage are those who love to call all of it "analog", and see small, odd looking cameras as the direction of things. The official corporate keepers of Lomo are apparently not having any part of it. However, recently encountered outside the Soulful Cup was a trendy with a fixie cruiser and an Argus C3. He instructs me on the camera--little does he know that when his daddy was a boy this was my first 35mm.

 

Odd little cameras. Analog. Lomo. I feel a tweet coming on, and it ain't got anything to do with a computer... o_O