You have to admire Vivitar. The company has the cojones to sell an all-manual, 35mm film camera in a world where film is pretty much dead, at least as a mass-market product.
I got mail from the Vivitar PR people earlier this week asking me to take a look the V3800N, a 35mm SLR with manual focus, manual exposure and a manual film winder. In short, a camera much like the one I used to use all through school and beyond. So of course I said yes.
The camera comes in a box with everything you need to start, except the film. Along with the body there is a 50mm lens, a pair of button-cells to power the light meter, a strap, a faux-leather never-ready case, a lens hood and — remarkably — a double exposure mask for blacking out sections of the frame.
Which brings us to the surprisingly high-end specs. I won’t say high-quality until I have run a few films through it, but on paper the features are impressive. The lens is a 50mm ƒ1.7 manual focus model with the once-ubiquitous Pentak K-mount (hint — you’ll find lots of very good cheap used lenses for it). That wide maximum aperture means you can throw backgrounds out of focus with ease, as well as shooting in low-light.
The shutter speed goes up to a good 1/2000th second and down to anything you like as long as you hold the button down. Focusing is done by twisting the lens and matching up the split screen and microprism collar in the viewfinder, a very accurate and fast way to do things once you’re used to it.
But there’s a lot more, which shows that Vivitar is aiming at the creative end of the market. There is a self timer (twist the lever to set it), a depth-of-field preview button to stop the lens down and check just what will be in focus, a multiple-exposure button which disengages the film-winder but lets the lever still cock the shutter, a hotshoe for a flash and a PC socket to fire a flash off camera. Finally, the all-mechanical nature of the camera means that you can use a cheap, standard cable release just by screwing it into the shutter button.
The camera body is pretty cheap feeling, but the extensive use of plastic means it’s very light and it does feel solid enough. Looking through the viewfinder is not such a pleasant experience, though: it is small and cramped and — despite the bright lens — quite dark. There is also a distracting reflection of the image off the bottom floor of the box — think of Apple’s wet-floor effect in Cover Flow view and you’ll know what I mean.
This is a shame, as the advantage of a full-frame camera is that it has a big ‘finder. Vivitar nailed the exposure meter, though — it is a center-weighted design with “traffic light” indicators: a red plus and minus sign guide you to the correct value and the green light in the center tells you when you have it right. Easy and fast, and probably my favorite manual meter design ever (it’s pretty common in older cameras).
I’ll be running some film through this weekend, and I’ll have a full write up on it when I get the pictures back from the lab (I didn’t think I’d ever be saying that again). I’m totally looking forward to getting all old-school, though, and dusting off my Zone System skills. The price for this retro experience? Around $170, plus film and processing every time you use it.
Product page [B&H]
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