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Well, this is interesting. It looks like Pentax isn’t the only one bringing film back. Chinese company Yes!Star is also backing film with a new compact film camera. The Yes!Star S1 appears to be a full-frame 35mm film camera with a 31mm f/11 lens.
It appears that it may only be available in China – for now – although there’s currently no information about pricing. But it looks like a pretty basic mechanical compact with a slow aperture. I can’t expect it’ll be too expensive.
Who is Yes!Star?
You’ll be forgiven for having never heard of Yes!Star before. It appears to be a company that makes X-ray film and devices for medical and dental imaging systems. Transitioning to regular cameras isn’t much of a leap for a company like this. But it does beg the question, why?
Perhaps they’ve spotted a gap in the lower-end film market. Maybe they feel they can satisfy it with this camera. Whatever it is, this definitely looks like an entry-level camera. It looks quite big and clunky for a 35mm compact. And while it looks like aesthetics or ergonomics didn’t enter the design conversation, it does have a little grip on the side.
Yes!Star S1 35mm film camera
There isn’t a massive information out there about the camera yet. There’s nothing on the Yes!Star website and it doesn’t look to be available to buy online anywhere – certainly not outside of China. But there are some things we can pick up from the image.
It sports a 31mm f/11 lens, which isn’t particularly bright, but it is quite a wide-angle field of view. This makes it great for shooting outdoors, for events, street photography, etc. It’s not going to be amazing for indoor stuff, but if you shoot ISO400, especially if you choose to push the film, it won’t be too terrible.
After all, it features a built-in flash. While generally undesirable in photography, the built-in flash look was pretty standard with this type of camera back in the day. The viewfinder, obviously, isn’t through-the-lens like an SLR. Instead, it’s a separate window that gives you an approximation of what the camera sees.
Oddly it’s said to be made out of metal, with a weight of around 280g. So, while it might look like it’s made from cheap plastic, apparently, it’s actually cheap aluminium. It’s nice to see more new film cameras coming out, even if they look like they were actually designed in the 1960s.
Price and Availability
At the moment, there doesn’t appear to have been a price published for the Yes!Star S1 camera. There also appears to be no news of a release outside China yet, so it may be a China-only release.
It does look quite awkward and clunky, a bit like a Fisher-Price toy with a boring colour scheme. So, I don’t think we’d be missing out on much if this isn’t released worldwide.
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