A few images from a CRYSTAR hit type camers

[Ray Morgenweck]

Yeah the little thing Does work, it takes pictures, and they’re not too Bad!

 

[Kino]

That's pretty cool!

I have a Crystar medium format camera on display that I have never given much thought to using; it came in a trade.

Maybe I should run a roll through it!

 

[Donald Qualls]

I'd be pretty upset if I got photos like that from any sort of full size camera, but knowing what a HIT type has for a lens and the size of the image (14x14 mm), those don't seem terrible. What film did you use?

 

[BobD]

My very first camera was one of these. I was about 7 years old. I paid $1 for it. After I finished the roll of film it came with I couldn't find anyone who could develop it so I never saw the result.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I paid $1 for it.

I used to see these in those plastic capsule vending machines when I was a kid (in those days, they were two or four quarters, as I recall). Pretty sure those were the bottom end versions of the HIT, and they came with a mailer to send the film for processing (and get a "free" roll back -- this was long before the color labs that did that to lock in customers). My mom would never let me have the quarters to try to get one (they were about one in ten capsules in the machine, and you couldn't see what was sitting on the exit hole).

The film for most of them was 17.5 mm wide with paper backing, with 12 exposures, as I recall. You could cut unperfed 35 mm (or get three strips, each about three reloads long, from 120) and cut strips from 120 backing paper to make up rolls, if you have two spools.

 

[xkaes]

That particular Crystar shows a lot of vignetting. Most don't, but Crystar is a cry away from being a star in the HIT parade.

By definition -- not mine, see the HIT PROJECT -- Hit-type cameras use 17.5mm film and have one shutter speed and f-stop in a fixed-focus lens. But, in my opinion, there are other very similar cameras that should be included and some create better results -- mainly in terms of exposure because they allow some adjustment such as shutter speed, f-stop or both. A few had focusing lenses, and others had a Tele lens, etc. And some 17.5mm cameras were high quality cameras, like the GEMFLEX TLR.

For a pretty complete list -- more than you could ever imagine -- see:

http://www.subclub.org/shop/175mm.htm