Bargain Find #2

It's not uncommon to see plenty of old cameras in Charity or Secondhand Shops, there's usually baskets filled with generic, no-named 35mm rubbish that shouldn't be bought for 50p never mind what must have been payed new.

My most recent find was one of few that are made where I actually recognise the name of the brand. Nestled amongst the bric-a-brac was a gray pouch reading 'Ilford', a name I associate more with the manufacturing of film. Inside the pouch was a grubby looking Ilford Sprite 35, a strikingly angular camera produced in the mid to late '60s.

 This simplistic camera has only one form of control over exposure , three aperture settings. Using the 'Sunny 16' rule you can choose from f/8, f/11 or f/16 with what I read to be a 1/100 shutter speed in an attempt to make a correct exposure. There was an option of external flash, which probably would have helped, unfortunately there were none to be seen at the recycling centre. 

My Sprite, as can be seen above, does not seem to be fully functioning. The film advance lever seems to have no effect but to cock the shutter. My hopes of running film through it appear to have already been thwarted until further notice.

Hopefully I'll find a way to get it up and working! Until then.