Comments by "Brad Griffin" (@BradGryphonn) on "This 1960's camera is powered by light and completely automatic" video.

In the early 80s I bought a Hanimex (Haminex?) SLR with a 'digital' exposure meter. It consisted of three tiny LEDs in the viewfinder. Correct exposure was a centre green light. Under or over had red lights. However, you could also do aperture preview by pressing a button so you could fine-tune your exposure. It was a brilliant little 35mm SLR. I took thousands of photos with that camera, even selling A2 posters of my work. I had no studio, but had a very good pharmacist who would ensure my film was looked after went sent off for processing (I used slide film exclusively for a long time). He'd also contact the enlargers to ensure they did the best job possible. Sadly, I have lost all my slides, all my negatives, and all of my father's slides that documented our life in the 60s and 70s. Natural disasters can wipe memories pretty fast.
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In the late 80s I went through a bit of a phase. A neighbour gave me an old Russian SLR wirth a 200mm zoom lens in a case that was about 40cm long, and an early Praktica. I ended up going to garage sales and buying cheap, old cameras. I picked up one of these Olympus Pens for 5 bucks. A few years later I did some 'nightclub photos' work for a local photographer. He had a contract with a number of restaurants and nightclubs where I'd go in and offer free photos to patrons. They'd get a ticket for the photos I took and could go to his small studio to look at the photos and buy them if they chose a few days later. He used half-frame Olympus-Pen cameras to maximise his use of film stock. 36 frames becomes 72 photos. He had half a dozen of them laying around for when there were festivals or shows in town and he could employ more people to take pics. Usually, it was just him and me wandering around. He earned a great income from this lurk because it was pre-digital cameras, mobile phones, and pre-fast internet and social media. I think my old Praktica had a built-in solar light meter with a needle through the viewfinder to see the light level so you could adjust shutter speed and aperture.
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