Introduction: When “Vintage” Meets “Wait, This Is Actually Good?”
Let’s get one thing straight: the Phoenix 205-A isn’t just a camera. It’s a cultural artifact, a relic from a time when “vintage” wasn’t a hipster buzzword but a way of life. This little gem, with its Leica-esque looks and budget-friendly price tag, is proof that you don’t need to sell a kidney to enjoy photography.
Is it perfect? No. Is it charming? Absolutely. Is it cheaper than a single Leica UV filter? You bet.
In a world of orchestral SLRs and pixel-perfect symphonies, the Leica Z2X hums along like a forgotten jazz standard—unpretentious, effortless, and steeped in analog soul. Priced between 300–300–600 (2024 USD), this 250g plastic-and-glass relic is the paperback novel of film cameras: lightweight, understated, and surprisingly profound. Think of it as the companion you’d find in a dimly lit café, scribbling haikus while sipping lukewarm coffee.
Body: Curved plastic in black, silver, or “Jaguar Green”—sleeker than a ’90s Nokia, lighter than a croissant. Slides into a jacket pocket like a love letter you’ll never send.
Buttons: Four controls—power, zoom, shutter, mode. Simplicity so pure, it feels like a Zen koan.
The Leica Touch
Lens: 35-70mm f/4.5-6.5 Vario-Elmar—German-engineered glass wrapped in Japanese pragmatism.
Flash Ritual: Press the mode button seven times to kill the flash—a secret handshake for purists.
Optical Alchemy: Warmth in a Plastic Shell
Aspect
Leica Z2X
Contax TVS III
Sharpness
Hemingway’s prose—direct yet forgiving
Spreadsheet precision
Color Rendering
Honey-drizzled toast at sunrise
Lab-calibrated RGB
Stealth Factor
Cat padding through a library
Fireworks at a funeral
Soul
🎷🎷🎷🎷🎷
🎻
35mm Wide: Captures street scenes like a haiku—brief, vivid, lingering.
70mm Zoom: Tightens frames like a noir novelist trimming adjectives.
The “Three Rituals”
Morning Coffee: Load Kodak Gold 200, power on, and let the Z2X’s autofocus hum to life—a meditation before the first sip.
Golden Hour: Shoot without flash, trusting the Vario-Elmar to paint light like a Tang dynasty ink wash.
Chinese Proverb Footnote:“大道至简” (“The greatest truths are the simplest”) A nod to how this plastic marvel channels Leica’s ethos through minimalist design.
Film vs Digital: Analog’s Quiet Rebellion
Film Romance: On Fuji Superia 400, it’s Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas meets a Polaroid found in a thrift shop—grainy, warm, and unapologetically flawed.
Flashback Fuel: The Z2X feels like a mixtape from your first road trip—nostalgic, slightly scratchy, and irreplaceable.
Who Needs This Camera?
✓ Jazz Soloists: Who prefer improvisation over sheet music ✓ Minimalist Nomads: Seeking “less gear, more life” in a Fuji-dominated world ✓ Contrarians: Who’d choose a vinyl crackle over Spotify’s silence
Avoid If: You crave manual controls, pixel-peep, or think “plastic” means “cheap.”
Final Verdict: The Sparrow’s Song
The Z2X isn’t just a camera—it’s a quiet revolution. For the price of a weekend in Prague, you gain:
A passport to ’90s analog nostalgia
Proof that “simple” and “soulful” aren’t mutually exclusive
“A camera that whispers: ‘Sometimes, the simplest melody holds the deepest truth.’”
Pro Tips:
Battery Hack: Use lithium CR2—avoid the dreaded mid-roll blackout.
Film Pairing: Kodak Portra 160—its pastel palette harmonizes with the Z2X’s golden-hour glow.
Zen Mantra: “The best camera is the one you forget you’re carrying.”
Epilogue: The Blue-and-White Whisper Leica’s Z2X scoffs at modern gigapixel arms races, whispering: “True artistry thrives in simplicity.” Like the delicate elegance of a plum blossom in winter (寒梅傲雪), its beauty lies in its understated grace—a silent challenge to extravagance. Now slip it into your pocket and chase light, one unplanned frame at a time. 📸
In 1961, Leica unleashed the world’s first 35mm f/1.4 lens—the Steel Rim. Not merely a tool, but a manifesto in brass and glass. This 300g unicorn (1961-1966) redefined “luxury” in optics, its nickel-plated steel lens hood locking into milled grooves with Swiss watch precision. Today, surviving specimens trade for 8,000–8,000–15,000, not for their optics, but as mechanical haikus from an era when lenses were forged, not assembled.
For those who enjoy shooting with Leica lenses at wide apertures, ISO 100 film remains a popular choice that offers greater convenience than ISO 400, particularly when using large apertures like f/0.95 or f/1.4. Furthermore, ISO 100 film can produce much finer image quality than ISO 400 film. The Rollei RPX film boasts a remarkably flat base, which allows for easy scanning without the need for flattening. This is a feature that I personally love.
However, while ISO 100 film is generally considered to be fine-grained, the grain may still be noticeable to some extent. Established brands such as Kodak, Ilford, and Fuji have invested considerable efforts in fine-grain technology. Nevertheless, the RPX film has several advantages: it is affordable, easy to develop, and has good tolerance. By contrast, many ISO 100 films have poor tolerance, particularly the Fuji Acros 135 and Ilford Pan 100. Rollei RPX, on the other hand, has a level of tolerance that is more commonly associated with ISO 400 films. The contrast of RPX 100 is also medium to high.
So why has Rollei resumed film production, offering various types of film including ISO 25, ISO 50, and ISO 100, all produced in Europe? According to the packaging of MACO PHOTO PRODUCTS, the company is located in Stapelfeld, Germany and is a subsidiary of Hans O. Mahn Gmbh & Co. KG, with a 36-year history of producing film. Interestingly, it comes from the same factory as Ilford and Kentmere in the UK, with only different formulations.
Rollei RPX 100 is a traditional medium-speed black and white film.
This film is suitable for a wide range of photographic and scientific applications.
Particularly portrait and landscape photography, architecture and product photography.
The popularity of this film confirms its high quality.
It is a fine grain film that enables good sharpness and a broad tonal range with good contrast.
Overall, the film base is slightly thinner, with high transparency and is easy to scan. However, one drawback is that the frame numbers on the film edges are marked based on half-frame cameras, which means that Fomapan has over 70 frame markings, whereas the standard 135 format film has only 36. Nevertheless, this film from the Czech Republic performs quite well in actual use.
Grain
Fomapan ISO 100 is not particularly fine-grained, and some even say that it is the roughest among all 100 speed films. However, I don’t completely agree with this. The grains of Fomapan often appear in highlight areas, but if the metering is reduced to darken the image, the grain is not very noticeable.
Mood
Although the tolerance of this film is high, large grains can easily appear in highlights, making it less suitable for shooting fresh and light style photos. If you prefer a bright and delicate feeling, Fuji’s Acros 100 is a better choice.
Cost-effectiveness
Many people consider this film to be good, with high tolerance and sharpness, despite the grains not being particularly fine. It bears some resemblance to Ilford Pan 100, but with higher contrast. Overall, it is slightly inferior to Ilford Pan 100.
Conclusion
Fomapan 100 is an excellent film for street photography, with surprising tolerance and unbeatable cost-effectiveness.
fomapan 100
FOMAPAN 100 Classic is a panchromatically sensitized, black-and-white negative film designed for taking photographs. The film meets high requirements for low granularity, high resolving power and contour sharpness and a wide range of halftones. FOMAPAN 100 Classic has a nominal speed rating of ISO 100/21o, but due to its wide exposure latitude the film gives good results even when overexposed by 1 EV (exposure value) (as ISO 50/18o) or underexposed by 2 EV (as ISO 400/27o) without any change in processing, i.e. without lengthening the development time or increasing the temperature of the developer used.
more info
The packaging box of this Fuji film clearly indicates that it is developed using the CN-16 process, and not C-41. In contrast, Fuji’s other universal film, C200, has both processes printed on its packaging.
The CN-16 process offers a 5% higher contrast than C-41, however, this particular Fuji film is typically processed using C-41 at the developing shop, resulting in a decrease in contrast of approximately 5%. This creates an elegant and gentle feeling that many people prefer for capturing fresh-style portraits. For those looking to capture warm and gentle feeling photos, this film is a great option. Its box, which features white and green colors, gives off a healing effect.
Additionally, Fuji’s APS film uses a finer and thinner emulsion layer that can exhibit the delicate texture of a full frame on a half frame. This special coating appears to have also been applied to this film, resulting in the absence of any obvious rough particles. This makes it superior to Fuji’s Superia X-Tra400.
The ISO 400 film from Fujifilm, also known as Superia X-Tra, was considered a universal high-speed film during the era of film photography. It performed exceptionally well in many compact cameras with smaller apertures, and was versatile for both indoor and outdoor settings, whether for street photography or everyday gatherings. Fujifilm emphasizes that the X-Tra film has an extra layer of light-sensitive emulsion, which greatly improves its latitude and produces more natural color transitions.
Generally, color films have three emulsion layers – cyan, magenta, and yellow. However, the X-Tra film has an additional blue-sensitive layer, which significantly enhances its tolerance and allows for more delicate images in both bright and low-light conditions.
Compared to Fujifilm C200, the Superia X-Tra 400 film has an advantage in latitude and color reproduction, but its overall contrast is not outstanding since it is a high-cost performance film. It is positioned for family use, with a focus on natural skin tone reproduction. Personally, I really like its indoor performance – the colors are especially natural, and the film captures images with great precision.
The Fujifilm Superia X-Tra 400 is a high-speed film that produces fresh and natural-looking images, making it suitable for shooting situations that focus on people. Unfortunately, Fujifilm recently announced that they will stop producing this film, causing its stock prices to increase significantly.
Lens mount - Leica M-bayonet
Number of lenses /groups - 7 /5
F stop range - f/1.4-f/16
Angle of view diagonal - 64 degrees
Filter type - E41 - A46.5
Accessories - Hood: OLLUX 12522
Dimensions length x diameter - 38 x 53 mm / 1.50 x 2.07 in
Weight - 245 g /8.64 oz M3 - 195 g / 6.88 oz
