The Canon CNx30 is an interesting 35mm film camera. I received mine on eBay for roughly $30. It looked really cool and like a fun camera to help dip my toes into a more traditional build quality to help me move away from my Ektar.
When I first got this out of the box, I could not believe how unique this camera was. It had a viewing lens and while it may be difficult to angle properly and use, gives it a neat flare that I enjoy. On top of that, it also has a rangefinder view which is effective.
Loading film was rather simple too. I had to take a few tries for the film to catch, but once it was in it ran smooth and was easy to understand. I have actually put two rolls of film through this camera. One Kodak 200 roll and one expired roll that was gifted to me. Since my inventory has grown since this purchase, I would not consider it my favorite. But, pulling it back out to write this review makes me want to try taking photos on it again.
Although I typically will not choose to write about this, I could not find any spec information on this camera when I purchased it and I still can’t. It is such an odd but cool camera.
This camera was fun, but I just couldn’t get photos that were at a standard I wanted. With the Kodak Gold roll, I took it out on a slightly dreary day and took a couple photos around my house. I only got a handful of photos that I could be proud of. This is clearly the lighting that I chose to take photos in. At the time I had not been educated on what lighting films worked best in, especially a 200 ISO film.
The expired roll was interesting as well. I cannot remember the name of the film that was used but it was a 200 speed film from what I can recall. I believe that again, the lighting was what killed the photos on this. While I like the look of these photos more than the first roll, I believe that a lot of them would have been really cool had I been educated on what lighting works better with film.
I will absolutely take more photos on this camera. While I will not recommend it highly for someone that may have a large collection, for a beginner it is cheap, simple, and fun. I have no issues with this camera. I think it sits nicely in my collection and if there is ever a time that I am bored and want to shoot some photos on a roll of film that I have not used, I would do so gladly.
