Prior to heading off to college, I noticed a small, fully automatic 35mm pocket-camera with a fixed 30mm Zeiss lens in the far reaches of a dust-laden closet containing troves of childhood photographs.
Upon realizing that the camera in front of me was actually responsible more than half of the childhood photos snapped by my parents (seen below is a photograph of one of my first haircuts via the T4), I quickly adopted the camera into my own photographic repertoire.
Little did I know, however, that the camera had taken on new relevance in pop-culture for its producing high-quality photos with virtually no set-up required (the camera is completely automatic) and its small build. It was briefly re-popularized by controversial fashion photographer Terry Richardson, who claimed the camera was perfect for him as he himself bizarrely had trouble focusing with SLR cameras due to his “bad eyes” (http://bit.ly/2kiayxC).
After shooting for more than a year with the T4, I can easily say that – while sometimes frustrating (its auto-focus and shallow depth of field can yield for some pretty wonky photos) – the camera’s crispness (courtesy of its Carl Zeiss Tessar lens), portability, and casualness in social settings (leading to greater / freer coverage of a subject) have made it one of my all-time favorite 35mm film cameras. Below are a few photos I’ve recently taken with the camera.
