The Camera Site

Chinon CM-4 (1980)

Chinon is a town and commune of the Indre-et-Loire département in France.
Chinon Industries, a Japanese camera manufacturer was established in 1948. Today it is engaged in research, development, and manufacturing of digital cameras, computer CD-ROM drives, floppy drives and scanners. In January 2004 Chinon Industries was taken to full control of Kodak Company by a corporate acquisition and thus it is now a subsidiary company of a Kodak Japan Limited.
The most significant feature in CM-4 is, that it lacks almost any features except those which are necessary for a camera. It has no self timer, not any kind of priorities neither compensations or depth of field preview. It is totally manual but it has an exposure meter with three LED's to indikate a proper exposure settings. LEDs are outside of the viewfinder thus resulting an unique clear and large view. The viewfinder has an ordinary split image with microprism collar which is surrounded by ground glass. We can say, that It is a basic manual exposure camera similar to any needle match except you have to match the lights.
Battery (Two 1,5V alkaline, LR-44 or equiv.) is only needed for an exposure meter.

Film Format : 24mm x 36mm
Type: :TTL, LED type light measuring system.
Lens mount :Chinon Universal Bayonet Mount.(K-mount)
Shutter : Vertically moving Seiko MFC focal plane shutter. Shutter speeds from 1sec. to 1/1000 sec. "B" and "X" /1/90 sec.).
Synchronization : X type contact for electronic flash at "B" and "X" (1/60sec.) and 4sec. Hot shoe.
Exposure meter: TTL, Center weighted full aperture system employing one silicon blue photo cell, 3 steps exposure indicator with 3 LEDs.
Meter ON/OFF Switch: Meter switch is activated when shutter release button is pressed, meter remains on for several seconds after finger is lifted off release button.
Exposure range: EV+2 (F/1.9, 1 sec.) to EV+18 (F/16, 1/1000 sec.) - ASA 100 F/1.9 lens.
ASA Range: 25-1600 (DIN 15-33) with safety lock.

Chinon CEII Memotron (1977)

Even a revered Alpa of Swizerland "loaned" Chinon CEII Memotron design with minor external modifications to their Alpa SI 2000 the first of the Japanese-made Alpa cameras.

CEII has an electronically controlled metal focal plane shutter. Stepless automatic-speeds from 2 to 1/2000 sec. plus B (1/90 sec flash sync.) Manual mode has 12 mechanical speeds, (1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000 and 1/2000sec.

Exposure control by an automatic aperture preferred exposure system... simply set aperture by turning f-stop ring and the camera sets the shutter speed automatically.

Depressing the shutter release button halfway activates meter. Memory exposure control switch lets you take a meter reading for a subject and lock it in so, that exstreme contrast or strong back light will not misguide exposure system.
Multiple exposure button allows double or multiple exposures on one frame.

There is no leatherette on the sides of the prism housing. The pieces are waiting until I get a proper glue / tape to fix it. Using glue is OK in this case, because there is no screws etc. on this area. Unfortunately Chinon uses rather thick and tough vinyl, which seems to be hard to fix. A proper tape would be Industrial Specialty Adhesive (3M) and a good glue for this purpose is Pliobond. Because of the flat surfaces most of the one component contact glues will do.

Type: :35mm (24mm x 36mm) Single Lens Reflex Camera with electronically controlled exposure system, fully automatic aperture-priority type
Lens mount : M42, Pentax/Praktica mount.
Shutter : Metal focal plane, Auto 2 - 1/2000 sec (stepless) Manual B,1 sec-1/2000 sec, and "X"., electromagnetically controlled.
Synchronization : FP and X (1/90sec). Hot shoe.
Exposure meter: TTL center weighted measuring system. Two Silicon cells.
Exposure range:Automatic exposure range of EV 0-19 with ASA 100 (2 secs at f/1.4 to 1/2000 sec at f/16).
ASA Range: 25-3200

Mirror: Large, Quick return, shockless system.
Viewfinder: Fixed eye-level pentaprism, central split image with microprism collar and ground glass. Built in viewfinder blind
Viewfinder Visibility: 92%.
Film Advance: Single stroke in an arc of 134° with 20° play. .
Film Counter: Automatically indicates number of exposures and resets to zero when the camera back is opened.
Film Rewind: Folding crank type
Self-Timer: Built-in, 6-10 seconds
Power Source: 6V silver oxide battery (Eveready No. 544 or equivalent).
Battery Test: Built-in with a green signal lamp.
Dimensions: (Body only) 145mm (W) x 97mm (H) x 54.5mm (D).
Weight; (Body only) 760 gr.