[The Chelsea Maika Edition Golden Half Camera]

When is half a camera twice as good? When’s its the Golden Half camera from PowerShovel. Half frame cameras are nothing new, they have been quite popular in Japan for decades, but they are gaining popularity around the world for their small size and unique ability to double the amount of exposures on each roll.

I first came across the Golden Half while perusing eBay for obscure Toy Cameras, one of my biggest weaknesses. It was a charming little black and white camera, and the ads had some cute little photos of the half frames. But I have been weary of purchasing items from China on eBay, as the last few cameras I have ordered never arrived, and getting my money back was quite a hassle. Then one day a few weeks back I was spending my lunch break reading Andrew Kua’s Fuzzyeyeballs blog, and saw that one of his sponsors had a very special limited edition Chelsea Maika Golden Half on sale, and a few clicks later it was on the way.

[Two halves of the Parade Float...]

The first thing I noticed was its size- it was much smaller then I thought is would be. It had a very nice rubberized coating to it- grippy, but soft at the same time. Very easy to hold, and it fit right into my coat pocket. The shipment also contained a canvas bag, one roll of film and a beautifully crafted box with sketches adorned on all sides. This box is one to display- it’s a work of art in itself.

[Those are not light leaks, they are the 1st exposures after loading]

That Saturday morning I noticed signs for a small parade in the little neighborhood north of where we live, so I pack up the Golden Half, Blackbird, Fly and the LC-A+ and drove up early to watch them set up. While the local newspaper man had his Nikon D3 and giant lens, I wandered around with this little blue camera. And you know what? Everyone asked my what it was and where I got it, and nobody bothered with the guy the newspaper sent.. Kids loved the tiny blue camera, and came right up to have their photo taken. This camera makes friends anywhere it goes, it’s charming and has a friendly look that says “Hello, let me take your photo!”

[Nutcrackers, and a Politician speaking with Uncle Sam]

So how well does it work? Much better then even I would have guessed. The plastics are very high quality, it loads and rewinds very smoothly and with your choice of three exposure settings (sunny, cloudy and flash) all you have to do is point and shoot. There is no focus setting; the focus is crisp from a few inches to infinity. Just point, click and wind. The rolls go on forever, as you are only shooting a half frame each time.

When I spoke with Nick Dangerfield of Powershovel, he explained the development of the camera, and the unique limited edition model that I tested:

“The Golden Half was fully designed and conceived in Powershovel, by our art director Mika Sasaki and Hideki Ohmori, the chief. The half-format cameras were indeed very popular in the 80s in Japan. We felt it was an appropriate format to economize in the use of film and somewhat approximate film to digital attitudes (i.e. a certain degree of careless shooting). The other premises were the most compact size and lightness possible. The only thing that doesn’t have quite an explanation in the camera is the tripod holder. As I mentioned before, I personally love the diptychs that are created, sometimes accidental sometimes deliberate. Another aspect we liked about half-format is that the resulting images take the form of two pages in a magazine. The name comes from a J-pop band of the 70s.

We published a book “Life as a Golden Half” which documents the lives of a group of young models in Tokyo. We handed them Golden Half’s to shoot their days. One of the models appeared to have a very special photographic eye, Chelsea Maika, so we published a monograph by her.”

[Interview with Art Director Hideki Ohmori Here]

The work of Chelsea Maika is something you should take the time to check out, both her images and the story of this limited edition are quite inspiring.

So how are the images? I have many pretty cameras that don’t take great photos, but this one does it both. The exposures are very consistent; the lens is fantastic and the camera winds perfectly to the next frame. Its compact, efficient, and represents a great value for the person who wants to be carefree with shooting.

[The two Frames make one image, if you want...]

Here is a great example: I shot a bunch of rolls on Saturday morning and dropped them off at the one-hour lab. When I returned, I thought I would get 4×6 inch prints with two images on each, (the two half-frames) but instead I got 48 prints.. why? The computer that processes and scans the rolls sees each space between the frames as a separate photo. So it made 48 scans and 48 prints from a roll of 24 exposure film. At 4×6 inches, you cannot tell them apart from a regular full-frame print, so you just got twice as many prints for the same price. While it may have confused the guy at he photo counter, it sure made me smile.

There are few cameras that really surprise me with just how well designed and produced they are, and Superheadz keeps making one after the other. I can’t wait to see what they will do next!

• Want it? Yes. This is the best half-frame camera in the world today.
• Need it? Yes. You will not put this camera down. You will shoot and shoot and shoot.

Some More images from the Golden Half…