New (old) camera help - Chinon 723 XL Power Zoom

[Charlie Price]

Greetings enthusiasts, I've got a jumble of questions that I'm hoping for some help with - all revolving around my Chinon 723 XL Power Zoom that was kindly gifted to me. Unfortunately I can't find much useful (to me, at least) information about this particular camera, so was hoping for some general help. I'll try and lay out my queries simply below.

Firstly, some of the potentially useful information I've found:

Specs at 'filmkorn.org'
Some footage from this model camera on Vimeo by 'Joshua Lennon'
A post about this camera on this forum with a quite daunting answer from a user called 'Maurice Leakey.'

Here are some close ups of the camera itself:


1. View through the viewfinder (red square in top left?) 2. Tape connection point 3. Inside the tape loading bay 4. Tape loading side




5. Controls side 6. Top with power zoom and mysterious silver button. 7. Front


and now for the questions:

1. The spec page above lists the camera as having a 'built-in 85A filter, with filter remover screw' - where is said filter remover screw located?

2. There is a red square in the top left through the viewfinder, what does this indicate? (It is there even when a tape is in the camera.)

3. In the only post I've found about a camera close enough to this one in this forum, user Maurice Leakey (not sure how to tag him) mentions that the 722 XL will not run modern tape at the correct speeds: "Unfortunately, the modern films have increased speeds and the camera will not read their speeds correctly. This would result in over exposure of the films. The amount of light entering the camera could be reduced by the use of neutral density filters." Assuming this also applies here, is there a way to work out what strength ND filter to use? This is the film I am hoping to use.

4. Following on from the last question, sort of, can I only use tapes with the ASA specified in the tape loading bay? ASA 25 100 / ASA 40 180 ? (See img. 3)

5. Is there supposed to be an exposure readout in the viewfinder? I can't find a separate place for light meter batteries.

6. What is the mysterious silver button on the top for?!

Thank you thank you thank you in advance for any and all help, or any pointing in the direction of more information. I'm hoping to find out fairly quickly whether this camera is too much of a relic for my intended use or not.

Thanks,

Charlie

[Maurice Leakey]

Charlie
It's me suggesting that you buy a instruction book for your camera from Oldtimer Cameras whom I thoroughly recommend. Your questions should be answered.
Chinon 723 Printed Manual (camera-manual.com)

[Tom Dennis]

Good morning Charlie,

The answer to item 6 is answered in 1. The silver button is not a button but a female thread of 1/4" whitworth [same as standard amateur tripods], screwing one of these into the the socket removes the A-D filter to convert to 3400ish K for indoor [artifical light] filming. The filter is spring loaded so removing the screw lets the filter back to its normal [daylight] position.

Chinon equipment is generally O.K. the problem in the U.K. was the distribution was held by Dixons who would not let any information ie service etc. out to the general trade.

Red flag in viewfinder ---- possibly exposure warning.

N.D. filter values ----- bit of suck it and see--- as these reduce the amount of light transmitted they all have a filter factor. A factor value of 2 means you open up the aperure 1 stop and so on.

Exposure meter battery-------- not sure if you cannot find somewhere to take a button type battery it may well be that the motor batteries act on the exposure system as well. It is important if this is the case to use only top grade batteries

Regards Tom

[Gary Sayers]

My first thought about the red square in the viewfinder was also that it was an exposure warning. My old Sankyo used to have a red triangle in the corner that appeared if there was insufficient light. If you put batteries in and switch the camera on, take it outside and see if the red square disappears from the viewfinder.

If not, it's probably what my second thought was - that it's an indicator to tell you if the A-D filter is screwed in or not. Bit odd that it's there when the screw isn't in place, so could indicate a stuck filter (if that is indeed what the red square is actually for).

[Dave Bickford]

I have a very similar camera (722P XL) I bought as a kid in 1979. As stated, items 1 and 6 are related. One could attach a light source there for shooting indoors. I often put a bolt in there to remove the filter so I could use external and/or ambient lighting indoors. (See pic)

The red flag is indeed an under-exposure warning.

I’m not sure the film stock you referenced will work in that camera. As far as I can recall it would only accept Kodachrome 25 and Ektachrome 160. Having said that, you might want to try the latest version of Ektachrome which is daylight balanced at 100 ISO (ASA). https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...0d_supr_8.html
I’ve seen differing opinions about that, but it’s worth a try. The original Ektachrome was tungsten balanced at 160 ISO, but with the 85A filter out of the equation it might be OK. I haven’t used the camera since 1987 so I can’t really comment on how it works with current film stock. I will defer film stock and exposure answers to the experts.

I wish I still had the user manual. My dumb teen self misplaced it back it in the day.

[Charlie Price]

Thanks everyone for all the help so far, I really appreciate it. I think I'll buy a manual and read up on it, though its helpful to know about the filter button on top and the red flag. When I point the camera at a bright light and lightly pull the trigger the flag disappears so that works at least.

@Dave - when you put the screw in can you see anything move either through the view finder or the lense? Just want to check if I should be seeing the filter move when I put my own screw in, to check if the filter is stuck or not.

Interestingly the guy 'Joshua Lennon' whose footage I linked in my original post got back to me saying he used 'kodak vision3 50d' which is modern film stock and that footage looks alright so might be okay there!

[Dave Bickford]

@Dave - when you put the screw in can you see anything move either through the view finder or the lense? Just want to check if I should be seeing the filter move when I put my own screw in, to check if the filter is stuck or not.

I never really noticed. I just trusted that it worked. I suppose you could look through the lens to see. I just tried that on my camera, but the shutter is between the lens and film gate at the moment. Too lazy to dig out some batteries and run it to test.

If you do end up running some film through that camera I would love to know the results! ❤️