The Mystery Cupboard

I am a big fan of steampunk, retro analogue gadgets and chunky Soviet tech. So I was overjoyed to find this beaut for a mere 300yen in a junk shop recently. It’s a Nikon… something or other video camera. There’s no model number. The guy in the shop reliably informed me that it didn’t work (oh really). He said it was about 30 or 40 years old.

I love it! There are switches, levers, triggers and buttons galore and they all make a satisfying *click* when pressed. It also weighs a ton and could probably survive a house falling on it. It’s such a shame it doesn’t work. Certainly something I can look into fixing up in the future, although the film for it would probably cost more than just buying a new camera.

There’s also this light sensor that my friend Bruce gave me in a massive box of stuff when he left Japan.  It was made in Russia somewhere almost 20 years ago (according to the print inside the leather carry case). It’s called a Leningrad 8 and features a bewildering array of numbers and dials for the simple purpose of determining what kind of… erm, lens to use in your 15-ton directive-issued propaganda camera, I think.

Coaster juxtaposition entirely intentional.