Dial35 test (3): Al's Breakfast doorway
Bell & Howell (Canon) Dial 35 (this one)
4 year expired Kodak gold 400
Shutter priority (1/125), focus distance approx 7-10', aperture ?
Camera thoughts:
The camera meter is accurate enough for flatly lit subjects but is unsurprisingly fooled by backlit subjects or large bright spots. This image was made to see how a high dynamic range subject might look as the underexposed areas fall apart. Noise in the dark, underexposed areas is expected to be bad and is unpleasant. My older noise reduction software cannot deal with it without heavy detail smudging.
The second problem, distortion of nearby objects due to a (relatively) tilted focal plane, is also obvious. Here, the distance is 10-15 feet.
I suspect B&W film would be more pleasing, to my eye, when using the built in light meter to judge a scene. A straightened version with Agfa APX 25 BW filter applied in DXO filmpack is below for comparison.
Conclusion: This camera is quite limited in features. There are only four shutter speeds (1/30, 1/80, 1/125, 1/250) but these are paired with an aperture covering f2.8-f22 on 28mm lens. Fast film on bright days can be overexposed and slow film in dark situations can be underexposed with these limitations. But I found it was actually fun to carry and use this camera, much like the Canon IXUS/Elph and I got some photos I might otherwise have missed - along with several I will never look at again. Learning to accurately judge distance in low light situations will be a bit of a problem, so I imagine my common use will be in daylight with a fine grained BW film. It will be fun to eventually add a flash and explore the possibilities.
Several people have reviewed this re-badged camera, or the Canon original, online. I'd suggest Mike Eckman for one who does it better than me:
Dial35 test (3): Al's Breakfast doorway
Bell & Howell (Canon) Dial 35 (this one)
4 year expired Kodak gold 400
Shutter priority (1/125), focus distance approx 7-10', aperture ?
Camera thoughts:
The camera meter is accurate enough for flatly lit subjects but is unsurprisingly fooled by backlit subjects or large bright spots. This image was made to see how a high dynamic range subject might look as the underexposed areas fall apart. Noise in the dark, underexposed areas is expected to be bad and is unpleasant. My older noise reduction software cannot deal with it without heavy detail smudging.
The second problem, distortion of nearby objects due to a (relatively) tilted focal plane, is also obvious. Here, the distance is 10-15 feet.
I suspect B&W film would be more pleasing, to my eye, when using the built in light meter to judge a scene. A straightened version with Agfa APX 25 BW filter applied in DXO filmpack is below for comparison.
Conclusion: This camera is quite limited in features. There are only four shutter speeds (1/30, 1/80, 1/125, 1/250) but these are paired with an aperture covering f2.8-f22 on 28mm lens. Fast film on bright days can be overexposed and slow film in dark situations can be underexposed with these limitations. But I found it was actually fun to carry and use this camera, much like the Canon IXUS/Elph and I got some photos I might otherwise have missed - along with several I will never look at again. Learning to accurately judge distance in low light situations will be a bit of a problem, so I imagine my common use will be in daylight with a fine grained BW film. It will be fun to eventually add a flash and explore the possibilities.
Several people have reviewed this re-badged camera, or the Canon original, online. I'd suggest Mike Eckman for one who does it better than me: