The GAF L-17 is an SLR camera made in Japan by Chinon. This is the first SLR used for this blog!
I picked this camera up for $7 on eBay (without a lens). It's an M42 screw mount so lenses are aplenty. I paid twice as much for the Chinon lens after winning the camera. I bought the 55mm/f1.7 lens because that's what's mounted on the camera in the original manual. I also have a 28mm/f2.8 lens. I like that focal length but it's hard for me to judge the focus on that lens. It's just not as obvious as the focus on the 55mm. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I wear glasses. I swapped lenses back and forth throughout the month just for fun.
It wasn't until the end of the month that I went back and read the manual for this camera. There were a couple of features that I wasn't too sure about so I wanted to read up on them. One feature is a slide/switch near the winding lever. This switch disengages the film transport and allows you to use the winder to cock the shutter without advancing the film so you can do a double exposure. There's another button on the other side of the top deck but I figured that one out pretty easily--it's a battery check button. Push it down and look for the green light in the viewfinder.
One thing I read in the manual that I didn't realize is that you can run this camera in manual or auto mode. I used it in manual mode all month but it's nice to know that auto mode is there if you want it. In auto mode, the camera works as a shutter priority camera. The top shutter speed on this camera is 1/1000 of a second.
The light meter is switched on by pressing down on the switch next to the lens. It falls under your right index finger when holding the camera. What I like about this camera is that it disengages the light meter after each picture taken. This is a nice feature that definitely extends the life of the battery as the circuit is disengaged after each shutter release.
As you can see in the picture, my example is missing its self-timer arm. I rarely use the self-timer so this isn't a big deal but maybe I'll hunt one down just to make the camera look nice.
Film: Kodak T-Max 100
Developer: R5 Monobath Developer
Scanner: Epson V550
Next month's camera: Konica Auto S Rangefinder
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