I used to roam Camden area, especially the market, in the very early 2000’s (this is where I bought this Halina Paulette Electric). Quite an interesting place Camden Town, if you’re in antiques, old stuff sold from stalls hidden here and there. An old mate of mine lived in Angel, and we used to take on foot from Angel to Camden Town, hover in the Lock and the Buck, Inverness St, that sort of roaming. The Canal Museum was a must of course, as as St. Pancras gardens. A lot to cover on foot, but that part of London in 2000 or 2001 was fabulous, compared to these days. No idea why, it just feels this way.
Bought quite a lot of stuff from that place, Camden Market I mean: old cameras, light meters, film, the odd bits and bobs that makes life interesting. Plus that we used to have fun and pint or two on our way, which was not bad at all. I still remember The Nag’s Head, which was our most welcomed watering hole.
Made by Haking Industries in Hong Kong beginning with 1965, this Halina Paulette Electric is a viewfinder scale focus, 35mm format camera. It has a 1:2.8 / 45mm Halinar Anastigmat, with a shutter speed range from B to 1/250s. There is a light meter cell on the front plate, uncoupled, which translates into EV values which you set by means of a dial around the lens. The aperture range is from 2.8 to 16, which is not too shabby.
One has to read the meter, and translate the EV value number to the shutter and aperture rings. The meter’s reading window is on the top plate, and reads EV values from 7 to 17, however this extended values scale is somewhat not too helpful. The high end of the value scale is not operable, as the camera will not meter anything more than 1/500 at its best. Anything more than that will have to be worked out by you, manually.
As said, focusing is manual, at distance scale, set by the distance ring on the lens. The distance ring is marked imperial, in feet, and on this camera is a bit stiff but operable. The viewfinder is a simple one, no parallax. There is a flash sync socket, and the flash is synced at any speed. ASA selector allows you to input values from 25 to 400 , depending on the sensitivity of the film loaded.
Bottom plate is showing the exposure counter, tripod socket and the uncoupling the film winder button.
All said, not the worst camera I have handled. True, feels and looks a bit cheap, mainly because of the light weight and stamped metal it’s made from, but takes good images. Lens is not the best there is, but if you are careful, nice images can be had.