And now for something completely different ...
This had to wait for a couple of days, but I'd just like to report a quirky, but overall truely rewarding experience.
I backed the NONS SL660 and wrote about some positive early impressions right after it arrived, but last weekend, I finally had time to put it through its paces.
Something that occurred to me: The camera feels like 80%-the-size, 50%-the-weight version of the Pentacon Six TL; not only are the main controls in very similar places, but the whole setup feels very much alike - down to a viewfinder that only offers a restricted impression of the center of the frame (even though the Pentacon Six TL is a little better at about 71%(!) coverage; the NONS shoots square images but only offers a rectangular crop; I'd put it at roughly 55% coverage ... more on that below). The two cameras also share their shooting pace, with the NONS conveniently offering a built-in light meter that very much works like a handheld one (the display is on the top right shoulder of the camera), but with the added convenience of the controls being the aperture and shutter speed dials of the lens and camera.
View attachment 344461
In use, the similarties are quite striking and pleasing to me (I love the Pentacon Six TL). However, the NONS SL660's wooden grip is a stroke of genius; it's well made and transforms the handling of the camera without increasing the weight too much; furthermore, it allows for something you wouldn't expect to be important on a square format camera, but with this one, it is: "portrait" orientation. See, the slot for film ejection is on the right side of the camera; for the film to work (i.e. the chemicals being released on ejection in order to develop the image), the famous wide bottom border somewhat counter-intuitively ends up on the left side of the image in standard (landscape) orientation; if you choose portrait orientation with the grip on top (with the camera hanging easily from your fingertips, thanks to the grip), the frame will come out as expected. So, the visual clue (rectangle) in the viewfinder actually serves a purpose ... and you get pretty good at guesstimating the actual frame after a short while, anyway.
What's more, the NONS 50mm f/1.8 standard lens, while feeling quite generic (and being strangly oriented when mounted - the usual marks are slightly tilted to the right), is actually a solid performer that suits the camera perfectly. I think they use a formula similar to old Nikon 50mm f/1.8 designs, and at least stopped down a bit and at medium to far distances, results are fine. It's very difficult to focus the lens wide open, especially close up, though, but thanks to the ISO 800 film, at least under normal light, you rarely run out of usable shutter speeds. I went through a whole film, and eight of the ten frames, eight were usable, five of which were really good and among the best I ever created with an instant camera, at least IQ-wise, which is a fantastically high hit rate (I'm usually happy to get five usable frames out of ten). And again, that was achieved with the unassuming kit lens ... I'll scan (at least) the five frames you can see here (the fungus shot is pretty spectacular for an instant image - it's not that obvious in this image, though):
View attachment 344462
The light meter works pretty well for a simple non-TTL affair (the window is above the lens) - I checked it repeatedly against my Sekonic L-208, and the two showed meterings that only differed by a quarter of a stop at the most; the only thing that you need to take into account is a slight delay until the meter auto-refreshes (there's no button to press - the meter's live once you switch on the camera). In certain situations, it meters a little hot, so it usually pays to err on the side of underexposure (by a third to half a stop).
The mirror and shutter need to be cocked - just as with the Pentacon Six TL, there's no auto-return mirror; until you do that, you can neither use the viewfinder nor release the shutter, so you just have to wait with cocking the shutter to avoid losing any of the expensive frames. And since film ejection is manual too, multiple exposure is as simple as it gets. The button for frame ejection on the back of the camera (below the power switch) is very well thought through as well - it needs to be pressed for about two seconds before the frame is ejected, so accidental ejection is basically impossible unless you try something as unwise as holding the camera with just two fingers while placing one on the button ... not that I've tried (with film)
Bottom line: This is the nicest current fully manual instant camera I've handled so far, and I've tried a few; it's big, but still fits into my EDC bag, and it's not at all heavy for its size while at the same time feeling nicely made, in spite of its plastic body. Shooting is straightforward, results are really good even with the inexpensive kit lens, and while the viewfinder was frankly a bit of a head-scratcher at first (I mean, why have a SLR if you can't really see anything approaching the correct framing?), it's actually workable. Furthermore, thanks to two mount adapters (Nikon F and Contax/Yashica), I have access to plenty of interesting lenses. I'm happy.
M.