Focal brand cameras.. anyone got specs?

[dagman]

Focal brand camera surface on ebay Australia quite frequently... I'm guessing they're a cheap rebadge of a japanese or other camera? I believe they were sold by Kmart... though I can't remember where I heard/read that. There's one called an XL300 going at the moment... anyone had any experience with these, or know where to get some basic stats (lenses. framerates etc?)

[filmbuff]

Focal brand camera surface on ebay Australia quite frequently... I'm guessing they're a cheap rebadge of a japanese or other camera? I believe they were sold by Kmart... though I can't remember where I heard/read that. There's one called an XL300 going at the moment... anyone had any experience with these, or know where to get some basic stats (lenses. framerates etc?)

A Focal Macro 800 was the first camera I ever owned. It was very robust, auot exposure only, 8 to 1 zoom. I like it a lot but sold it when I got more expensive toys.

[Scotness]

I've wondered this myself a bit too - there's a few Focal cameras in the wiki - see

http://super8wiki.com/index.php?title=C ... ixa+7860-M

the 300 isn't listed but the 303 is

http://super8wiki.com/index.php/Focal_XL_303

XL generally stands for extra light doesn't it - hence a wider shutter angle on those cameras

For the price they're going for they're probably worth fooling around with

Scot

[marc]

chinon was often the "ghost" manufacturer for these renamed cameras. GAF being one of the biggest representatives on relabeling Chinon cameras. That could be the case here. However, the way the handle folds in like that, I wonder if it could have been made by Sankyo. I had a camera once that was labeled under the trade name of CAVALIER. And it also had the same fold down handle like the one in your auction. After close examination, I was fairly certain that this CAVALIER was manufactured by Sankyo. Not only the body design led me to this conclusion, but also some of the features on the camera.

[Patrick]

There was also a Focal film stock available in super 8 cartridges.