I need to clear the air before I begin my post: I purchased my Chuzhao camera from AliExpress and not the Chuzhao website. There are claims that while the camera looks the same, only the cameras sold by Chuzhao themselves are of any quality. I understand that there are a lot of issues surrounding copyright law and the lack there of in China but I don’t know the full extent of the problem in regards to this little camera. Unfortunately, for someone like me, cost is a huge factor in any purchase which is why I chose to purchase my camera from AliExpress.
Earlier this year, I started seeing adds for an adorable little camera. It reminded me of the medium format film TLR cameras that we had in the Graphic Arts lab in high school. After a bit of digging, I found out that these were smaller and digital. I Looked at the company website but $173 CND was a bit much for me to spend on a toy so I ignored it and moved on.
Well, I tried to move on. I kept seeing ads with cool photos reminiscent of the film days of old, full of lens flares and grain. It was really starting to tug at me so I started searching the internet again to see if anyone was selling them cheaper and sure enough, AliExpress had several stores selling them for $55 to $70 CND.
The camera in question is made by Chuzhao and is a TLR which stands for ‘twin reflex lens’. In a traditional ‘single lens reflex’ camera, or SLR, the shutter opens and closes in front of that single lens meaning that if your subject moves in anyway while the photo is being taken, you wouldn’t know until you develop the film or in digital cameras, until you pull up the photo on a screen. A TLR allows you to keep your eye on your subject at all times. Of course, the old TLR film cameras also used much bigger film. The film size most people are familiar with is the old 35 mm which had an image size of about 24 mm X 36 mm giving it a 3:2 ratio. The TLR’s typically used what was called 120 film which has the dimensions of 6 cm X 6 cm square; considerably bigger than ordinary film!
So, what about the new digital Chuzhao TLR? Not the same at all but they don’t advertise it as being like the film cameras. These are small toys meant for fun and nostalgia; for people like me who loved the originals and want to play with something that brings back the same wonder and excitement that we used have when we first started learning photography. And, it’s also a great little camera for children who are maybe a bit too used to cell phone photography and need to learn to think outside the box.
Let me give you a quick overview of the specifications before I share my journey so far with this little toy. The camera itself is about 8.5 cm tall and 5.5 cm wide. It came packed in a box with a 16 GB microSD card, a charging cable, and a strap. It also came with a small instruction guide too however, it was all Chinese so I had to turn to the internet, specifically to Reddit, to figure out how to turn the camera on an take pictures. It feels very plastic-y but there is definitely some in metal there. The camera resolution is listed as 12MP with a 1/4 inch CMOS sensor. If you turn the crank on the side of the camera, it activates video mode at a 1080P resolution.
The first place I went to with the Chuzhao was Crocus Prairie for a little sunset walk with my dog. Needless to say, this is definitely a camera that needs good lighting. This wasn’t a surprise considering the size of the lens but it was a good first run. The advantage of knowing that you won’t get fashion magazine quality images is that you can take chances and play around more both at the camera and at the photo editing stage.
My next outing with the Chuzhao came a week later when I went to Canadian Tire with my mom to pick something up before the sale ended. As we wandered the store, I had fun shooting random things around me. The store lighting definitely made the photos better in sharpness and overall quality but movement was still slightly blurred.
I did shoot a little bit of video but as that’s generally not my focus – no pun intended – I can’t really comment much on the quality.
As you can see from my photos, I had way too much fun editing them in Lightroom. Again, because the photos didn’t come out technically ‘correct’ by modern standards, it was hard not to take bold chances. People often assume that artists need perfect conditions to create their art but it’s actually those boundaries and problems that get our minds working.
Needless to say, I have a lot more work to do with this little beast. I found the auto focus to be a bit frustrating and slow but that could just be one of those things that improve with practice. Overall though, it’s not a bad little toy and I’m really looking forward to taking it around town with me this summer to capture more fun, nostalgic images.
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