Oof.. close yet so very far (initial impressions)
I’ve had my Rewindpix for a few days now and it I had my expectations low, given this is a novelty camera, but first impressions are… pretty rough.
First, the good: I love the form factor, super lightweight. The feel of shooting and not being able to review the photos immediately is liberating. Connectivity is pretty easy and has been reliable. Transferring photos to phone is fast. The app is useable, nothing amazing but does the job. The film sims are neat and don’t look half bad.
Now, the bad: The viewfinder is dogshit and the frame lines are laughably inaccurate. It doesn’t even matter that they’re barely visible in standard lighting conditions because they’re not anywhere close to representing the framing, either through centre position or through overall FOV. It’s almost comical how inaccurate they are. And setting aside the frame lines, the focal length of the lens isn’t close enough matched with the viewfinder that you can even comfortably ballpark it from just the coverage of the viewfinder itself. I’ve used a bunch of rangefinders over the years, so I’m quite used to having an offset viewfinder and I wasn’t expecting miracles given the price point, but you may as well not even look through the viewfinder for how inaccurate it is. Do not buy this camera if you have even the slightest care for how your photos are composed, it’ll just be an exercise in continuous disappointment. I might try set up some reference shots just so people who are on the fence know what they’re in for if they take the plunge.
As for the QC, I’m already running into issues with the “film advance” wheel. It feels way too crunchy / coarse and extremely cheap. It also has a tendency to jam, which locks up the shutter button, so then you have to wiggle the wheel stiffly until it releases.
Metering is also an issue. I shot 36 photos on a walk this afternoon and about a quarter of them were unusably overexposed. I’d understand if the shooting conditions weren’t ideal or the type of light that would confuse your average meter, but it was almost perfect late afternoon light, not harsh, not dramatic light and shade, and there was no pattern as to which shots were overexposed or properly exposed.
I knew this was a gamble, and I wasn’t expecting the world based on the relatively reasonable price, but sadly this is barely even usable as a novelty.