Film has been recently making a comeback, coming into vogue for both amateur photographers and big-name filmmakers. So, to get with this trend, a company named Reflex has developed a manual focus SLR on Kickstarter, the 35mm Reflex 1. This makes the Reflex 1 the first newly designed manual SLR in over 25 years.
The Reflex looks like it’s got the classic design of older Nikon and Canon SLRs. It comes with an interchangeable, modular plate which supports a good amount of different lenses like the Nikon F, Olympus OM, Canon FD and universal M42 thread mounts. This is a pretty handy feature if you have a legacy lens.
An Interchangeable film back is integrated into the SLRs back that lets you more easily load roll of 35mm film while out shooting. Likewise, the lens mount can also be swapped out to support lenses from a number of manufacturers.
There isn’t automatic aperture control settings, however there is a button for depth-of-field previews.
The camera said to come with an integrated flash and a continuous LED light source, which both have three intensities. Manual exposure and aperture priority settings are supported with +4 stops of EV, and also has ISO adjustments that run from 25-6400.
The Reflex 1 is currently prices at around $465, and will later be raised to $530 after Reflex ends their Kickstarter campaign. It’s price gives it a slight advantage over the Nikon F6 and FM10 35mm SLRs. It’s about $100 less than the FM10 and it’s a lot less expensive than the $2,700 F6.
This is looks to be a pretty interesting design for a SLR. It’s nice to see that there’s a serious SLR design happening after decades. However, if you are in fact looking for a SLR, there are other SLRs that you can find out there for a smaller investment. If you want to learn more about the Reflex 1, you can visit their Kickstarter page.
