A Valiant effort.

Get it, cuz the camera is called Valiant. Ha. Okay. Well, this camera is called Valiant "620", also known as a Sabre "620", when it has Sabre "620" on the front instead of Valiant "620". On the front. Ummm...anyway.


The camera was made by Shaw-Harrison Corporation, somewhere around 1957-1959. Both the Valiant and Sabre came in many different colors...black, brown, green, blue, red, probably some others. Some have a black handle and knob, some white. The Sabre seems to be more common than the Valiant model, but they are worth about the same: $10 to $30, depending on the condition.
A very basic box camera that takes 620 film (like it says...on the front). The back hooks on only one place, at the bottom. The films winds from bottom to top.



Because of this, the back is a bit loose at the top, allowing for some light leaks. Not much else to say about the camera! It's looks cool. Very 1950s. Has a kitchen quality too it. Other than that, it's so basic that it defies description. Load the film, wind and shoot. It does have a flash mount, but I don't have the flash. I don't use a flash much, anyway. Oh, and the viewfinder is very, very small. I assumed it would show less than what's exposed on the film, but I didn't realize to what extent. I mean, seriously, I would keep something halfway off the bottom of the viewfinder frame, and that object would be 1/3 up from the bottom of the shot on the negative.
It was also kind of a pain to load the film. The spool wouldn't sit properly in the camera, so it kept binding. I just screwed around with it a few times and it eventually slipped into place. I did drop it, too. Slipped on a trail, bashed my knee, scraped the hell out of a Diana. Only a few very minor dings on the Valiant. The Diana...man, the back is all scraped up. I'll talk about that later. Suffice to say, I was looking for a Diana to tear apart...this will probably be the one. Still works (still has a roll in it, in fact). Anyway, some pictures from my Valiant adventure. The film is Kodak Verichrome, expired March 1963. Said it before, I'll say it again: an old camera needs old film. Not sure why the border text is backwards.






I guess it's also worth mentioning that it scratches film. Lots of scratches. But, hey, scratches build character. I really dig the output. Nice amount of blur, nice leaks. Decent vignette. This will most definitely see some more use. My new friend, Valiant "620".


Future posts? Need to talk about the Imperial Mark XII. Also picked up a ЧАЙКА 3. Whatthewhatthehey? A Russian half-frame Belomo camera. If I can manage to shoot 72 shots through it, I'll be blogging all about it. And the Meteor camera. Maybe a few more. Seeya later, tatertot.