If you’ve been reading this blog these past few months, you would know that I’ve been bitten by the half-frame camera bug. A cherished souvenir from a trip to Japan last year is the gorgeous Olympus Pen EE-S. As much as I love this camera (and I do love it) it does have some serious limitations. I have been able to adjust my shooting style to accommodate the zone focusing system. The biggest hurdle is that the ISO range only goes up to 200. Not really conducive to shooting in every condition. This was especially apparent when I popped off a roll of film on a snowy early morning in the bosque. The camera struggled in the low light. Since I’ve committed to a year long project shooting half-frame, I really wanted to have a solution that would let me shoot a faster film. Enter The Samurai.

The Samurai is a ridiculous looking camera, without a doubt. It looks like a 1980s camcorder. Though it will never win a beauty contest, it is a secret weapon that I immediately appreciated when it finally arrived via an Ebay seller in Japan. Buying it sight unseen was a bit of a risk, but after a quick test roll, I realized I scored a perfectly functioning model. It has tele / wide zoom capability. It has a DX code range that goes up to 3200. It has a clunky but functional auto focus. It has a flash (which I had to figure out how to turn off.) Though it might be hard for me to justify a camera purchase not being a symptom of G.A.S., this little oddball is satisfying a need in my process. If the contact sheet above is any indication, I will most likely be using this gem for more than just my current year-long project.