Well I guess it was £5 well spent after all. No, the camera doesn’t work, but I’ve had a fun few hours working out how it would if it did. Let me talk you through what (I think) each bit does.

Disclaimer: I know NOTHING about cameras. Everything written here is simply observation from what I have sat in front  of me.

The Shutter Button

Before you get all sarcastic with me, yes, I know, this opens the shutter (or would do if the mechanism wasn’t broken and the plastic ring holding it together wasn’t jammed). When the shutter button is pressed down, as well as firing off the mechanism to make the shutter open (oh if only it did) it presses down a lever in the main camera, releasing it. This lever is what allows the film winder to work. I Turn the lever to wind the film onwards and the lever is pushed back to its original position. The winder won’t work again until another picture has been taken. When the winder is moved, it also moves a gear in the top of the camera, which fits onto the lens half of the camera and appears to “reset” the shutter. My assumption for this is to prevent accidentally double exposing a film if you have forgotten to wind the film on, as the shutter does not move at all (not that it moves much anyway, but there is a difference) when the shutter button is pressed, until the film has been wound on.

All in all, though far more basic than any of today’s fancy cameras, I think this is pretty good (and practical) technology. It serves it’s purpose (can’t wind on a blank film and can’t double expose one) without having too many fancy breakable things attached (just a shame about the shutter).

I should probably mention at this point that I suspect the film winder doesn’t actually work properly. At best it’s temperamental. But it’s the thought that counts

The Aperture Dial

Can’t say much about this as it’s behind the bit I can’t open. Turning the dial makes the aperture either shrink or expand (f/2.8 being fully open, f/16 being very very small). I’m not entirely sure how this works, but I spent a few minutes opening and closing it, and consider it time well spent.

The Focus

Aside from the shutter, this impressed me the most, probably because I hadn’t actually realised that there were mirrors in the top until I pulled the top off. As well as the basic “turn it and it moves in or out to focus the image) turning it also allows a rod inside the camera to move forwards or backwards, relative to which way the focus thing has moved. This rod has a sprung lever pressed against it, so moving the focus dial moves the rod which increases or decreases how far the lever is pressed down. This lever, along with a series of metal rods, moves a mirror inside the top of the camera, increasing the angle of the incident rays as the lever is pressed down, and decreasing it as the lever is released. This adjusts the image in the viewfinder.

I thought it was pretty cool

The Shutter Speed Dial

The shutter is broken and I can’t get to this, so I haven’t a clue how it works. Sucks eh?

And Some Good News

After attacking the lever on the side and forcing it, with a lot of noise and apparently against its wishes, to go back to the other side. The shutter works again, I put the camera back together, and I’m all ready to go out and take pictures!