KAPSA RED DOT

This is a fun and very cheap box camera made in Brazil, between the '50s and '60s.

Its bakelite body is well made and follows the old box formula from the early '30s without any surprises or significant technological evolution. It was made to be very cheap and easily usable.

Kapsa Red Dot

It has two waist-level bright viewfinders, for landscape and portrait orientation, like many other similar ones. Those viewfinders are dreadful to use. 

The objective is a 110 mm two-element achromat with a 3 position focus lever (1-2m , 2-8m and 8-infinity). The lens has a very primitive coating. When set at infinity the lens uses just the two main front elements, but when you set it for shorter ranges, a third element is put behind the shutter to set the focus point. Well, sort of...

The shutter is extremely crude. Just two settings: T and 1/100s and also three aperture settings: F8, F11 and F16. I would use it with ISO 100 color film or ISO 400 black and white film if you plan to use filters, like a Yellow or Green one. No idea of the filter size, but it's surely some sort of push-on type.

It takes 120 films and can be used as a 6x9 or 6x4.5 format. You can choose the format by flipping two metal masks.

Kapsa film chamber. Note the masks for 6x4.5 format

Well, don't expect a tack sharp image, of course!

Soft image, lots of chromatic aberration, rather low contrast, but fun to use. I bet it will give better images if used with a black and white film.

Curious about the photos it can make ? Take a look!

Botanical Garden - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Camera: Kapsa Red Dot  Film: Fuji Xtra 400

Cheers !