Before you read on: If you like photography, you might like my other hobby, Traditional Wet Shaving. Check out my other site: Grown Man Shave where I have been pouring most of my creatively as of late and post my photography. If you don’t know where to start try The Beginner’s Guide to Straight Razors.

I was looking around online last week and found a Leica C1 for $90. The condition of this little camera is absolutely amazing. It is mint. I even have the cool little plastic weather proof case it comes with. The C1 was one of Leica's first compact cameras that came out in 1999. It is a 100% automatic point and shoot film camera with a Vario 38-105mm zoom. Leica made 60,000 of these in 4 productions of 15,000. Mine is from the second production. It is a great little pocket camera weighting only 260 grams.

While searching the web for a photo of a C1 I stumbled upon a very cool blog from Cindy Loughridge with some fantastic film pictures. I quickly added it to my Feedly. Make sure you check it out. Anyways, after picking up my Contax T3 a few months ago I am enjoying looking for and finding little compact cameras. They are a fun addition to my camera collecting.

Whenever I get a new camera I have a little route I walk in my neighborhood where I shoot some familiar scenes to test out the new camera. I find it easier to shoot a place I know well so I can focus on using the camera vs. looking for something to shoot. With this camera there really isn't much thinking. Just point and shoot. I was a little surprised as it zooms in and out when it focuses.

The one thing I have a question about is the viewfinder. Mine seems like it is zoomed in a little bit where I think I am only viewing 70-80% of what ends up being captured on film. I'm not sure if this something that is controlled in the setting somewhere. I can't find a manual online. Does anyone else have this camera and can shed some light? Help!

The other setting I didn't know about was the date stamping on pictures. Let's call this mistake an artistic decision to add some retro quality to the pictures... It reminded me of piles of pictures we had in my house as a kid with the date stamped on them.

Jiyugaoka shot on a Portra 160 with a Leica C1

A very yummy Yakitori place. One thing about Japan....when it is all the place does they are very good at it. It is amazing what can be accomplished with focus.

I think they are watching the illegally parked bikes to make sure no one steals them...

Popeye Camera. I'm glad they don't have more compact film cameras. It would be a dangerous place for me to walk by. They do have a few lovely Hasselblads that I keep eyeing.

The new Popeye 2. They have a very cool 2nd floor gallery but need to figure out a more reasonable pricing structure. It is 80,000 yen ($800USD) to rent for a week. They don't provide frames and you can't have an opening partying in the evening. You have to figure with framing and printing it would cost you 200,000 yen ($2,000 USD) to do a showing for a week. That is very expensive. They let you sell things like books or ShootTokyo T-Shirts but take 30%. It seems like an overly expensive way to show your work.

"Dog with" is OK...

I just love this scene. I should do a series on it. Shoot it every Saturday for a year. I think it would be interesting to see the different people and how the scene evolves over the year. It is a great example of how condensed Tokyo can be in places...

Bob's Big Boy...

I never got the little dog thing. One I get but I saw this guy with three and another guy with seven!

Italy in Tokyo...

I love how they convert things in Tokyo. Cars become coffee shops, vans become pizza shops and this cargo container becomes a store.

Hara Donuts in Jiyugaoka shot on a Portra 160 with a Leica C1

Parking...

I read lots of reviews on this little camera. Some pretty funny complaining about this or that. It is a $100 point and shoot film camera and it's a ton of fun to shoot. I suggest picking one up if you have a chance.

Thanks for stopping by today...