Sounex YN-9000 Re-usable Camera

 

From camera film to film camera, this post will be looking at the Sounex YN-9000 camera. It is an unusual and one of the most interesting cameras I have come across. So strap in for a wild ride.

The origin of this camera was hard to figure out, but I think I might have found it. I believe this camera and all (if not, most) other cameras like this one was manufactured by the New Taiwan Photographic Corp.

This company was founded in Taiwan 1981 and manufactured low cost security cameras and photographic cameras from their own brand, Ouyama, as well as other well-known camera brands (CollectiBlend 2023) and tri-pods (Camerapedia Wiki).

There isn’t much else on this company that I can find, other than that they seem to still be operating, but aren’t actively advertising their company (Global Sources). This could be because as Eckman (2019) writes: “When a company is in the business of ripping off someone else’s design, it is in their best interest to not keep good records of their history…” and that “It’s not likely that anyone will ever come up with a more conclusive history about the company simply because the market was so saturated with these types of mass produced cheap consumer goods products made in China and its provinces.  New Taiwan was likely one of a million such companies that just so happens to have a history making a line-up of cheap cameras that still show up for sale.”

Now the number of cameras they have manufactured are unknown, but seeing that a lot of these type of cameras, like the Sounex YN-9000, have similar characteristics and materials, it could be surmised that some of them were manufactured by New Taiwan Photographic Corp. (CollectiBlend 2023).

These cameras’ main purpose was to make people think that they were buying real SLR cameras or viewfinder cameras, often times going so far as to add metal plates at the bottom to give it more weight. (CollectiBlend 2023).

These cameras where dubbed “trashcams” or “scameras” “that mimic the design of professional quality SLR cameras…” but without the quality of other well-known brands. (Eckman 2019).

These cameras where advertised in magazines and on TV, claiming to be as good as the real thing it is imitating. They even teamed up with Time Magazine to send and distribute to subscribers (CollectiBlend 2023).

To even bring people under the impression that it may be a well-known brand camera, the New Taiwan Photographic Corp, used such cameras companies’ brand names such as Cannon instead of the respected brand Canon. Eckman (2023) writes: “Canon wasn’t even the only major photographic company to have its name used on a rip-off like this.  There exist models claimed to be made by Sony, Mitsubishi, and Argus.  Sometimes, there are names used that aren’t exactly like a real camera company, but come close, like Canomatic, Olympia, Nikai, Nokina, Panasound, Tashika, and Mitsuba.  Sometimes the names are just completely made up and mean nothing like Olempia, Gold Star, Cortland, Sonaki, Elco, Sana, Ultima, Akira, Cyber 2002, Nikkei, Globus, Minotar, Yoshita, Yunan, Impac, Fukai, Meikai, Orion, Polo Sharpshots, Millennium 2000, Magnamate, and many others.”

What makes it even more sketchy is that as Eckman (2019) points out:   

“Although the packaging of New Taiwan cameras often had stickers claiming to have Suggested Retail Prices as high as $399.95, there is little evidence to support that these cameras were ever sold through traditional retail channels.  They were likely given away as gifts or were promotional items offered to people for signing up for a credit card or listening to some telemarketer’s speech. In my research for this article, I was not able to find a single advertisement for these cameras or any type of literature that explains how someone would come across such a camera during their peak of popularity.  I couldn’t even find conclusive dates to when they were made.”

As CollectiBlend (2023), points out that the number of brands that was made by the New Taiwan Photographic Corp is debatable. So I will now make the argument why this camera, the Sounex YN-9000, did come from this company.

First piece of evidence is that it has a sticker that says it passed quality inspection and was made in Taiwan. Second is the lens.

 

On the lens it says “Optical Color Lens,” which according to CollectiBlend (2023), these lenses were part of the Kinetic brand (associated with manufacturing cheap cameras (Camerapedia Wiki)) and as Alan (2020) writes: “This company (New Taiwan Photographic Corp) produced a bewildering array of so called Optical Lens Cameras.” Alan (2020) does also point out that there is a chance that other companies used these lenses as well.

Kinon LX-9 New Taiwan Photographic Corp Camera. Source:https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/New-Taiwan-Kinusa-LX-9-(Color-Optical-Lens).jpg

Kinusa Deluxe I New Taiwan Photographic Corp Camera. Source: https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/New-Taiwan-Kinusa-Deluxe-I-(Optical-Color-Lens).jpg

GM TEX GT-304 New Taiwan Photographic Corp Camera. Source: https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/images/New-Taiwan-Gm-Tex-GT-304-(New-Optical-Lens).jpg

The third piece I will put forward that suggests that this camera was made by New Taiwan, is the name Sounex. This brand name cannot be found anywhere and as mentioned above, New Taiwan had the habit of making up names that weren’t a part of any established companies. 

Fourth is the placement of the Viewfinder and how it is hidden to give it the appearance of a real SLR camera. At first glance the viewfinder is in the right place at the back and can’t be seen in the front, giving it the appearance that like it might be a mirror camera that has the viewfinder looking into the image sensor, but this is not the case because it is actually hidden behind a flap that has the Sounex name on it and like a disposable camera, it does not show exactly what the lens is seeing, only the general area.

Fifth is by looking at other Sounex reusable cameras, like the Sounex 2000DNT (BobShop 2017), that has the “Image Master” brand on the box, which was “one of Ouyama/NTPC's most prolific products during the 1990's” (Rochevalier 2018) and as mentioned I believe the Sounex name to be a made up brand by New Taiwan, it could be that if the Sounex 2000DNT was a part of their extensive catalogue then the Sounex YN-9000 was as well.

Sounex 2000DNT New Taiwan Photographic Corp/Ouyama, Image Master Camera. Source:https://www.bobshop.co.za/sounex-image-master-35mm-lens-50mm-see-description-and-pictures/p/308520891

Now time to talk about the Sounex YN-9000s specs. The lens is an Optical Color Lens Auto Fix Focus 50mm Lens 1:6. Most likely from the Japanese Kinetic brand. The focus is not manually adjustable and the only settings that can be made by the photographer is the ISO (between 100 and 200) and just like the Tamashi FMD QP8000 camera (and other models made by the New Taiwan Photographic Corp) “The outer most ring on the lens moves allowing you to move between the 4 aperture (f/6.3-16) setting with are shown along with weather icons. The aperture is controlled by moving 2 V shaped blades apart...” (Alan 2020) And also like everything else the whole lens is manufactured out of plastic.

It has a fixed shutter speed, most likely 1/100 give or take. It doesn’t have a flash and thus needs an external flash, which is placed and hopefully will be triggered by the hotshoe mount on the top. But this is more of a pro then a con because it means that this camera doesn’t need batteries or any other power source.

Instead it works by using 35mm photographic film and winding it up to take the shot with a thumb wheel, just like a disposable camera and can take up to 37 pictures. It also has a numbering wheel that indicates how many pictures are taken so that the user knows when the film is finished. This is represented by an S (for start?) then counts from one then in increments of two and odd numbers being represented by dots. When 37 dot is reached it shows an E (for empty?).

 When the film is has been used, the user uses the rewind crank (while pressing the rewind button at the bottom) to get the film back into the canister. Once that has been done, the user pulls the rewind crank up to open the film compartment in the back.

Then there is the viewfinder. As mentioned it is hidden behind the name in the front and is mirrorless. It is pretty good. It is clear and manages to frame a lot of detail from the object/subject that the user wants to capture. More of a bonus is that this viewfinder is at least in the middle of the camera and above the lens. Meaning that unlike, for example the Tamashi FMD QP8000 model (Alan 2020), where the viewfinder is on the side, you can get a more accurate picture of what you are looking at through the Sounex YN-9000’s viewfinder.

Tamashi FMD QP8000. Source: https://austerityphoto.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG_20200618_123013-3.jpg

The drawback for this type of viewfinder is not knowing if you truly took a picture of your subject or if it is even in focus. This is because the viewfinder has no real distance gauge or that you are unable see what the lens is aimed at or if it is in full view or focused properly and clear (even though it is a fixed focused lens). This can cause issues such as with the Canon DL-9000, reviewed by Eckman (2019), who points out that since you can’t have a direct point of view of the lens this leads to some shots “were either completely black or just blurry blobs of nothingness.”

It is hard to find a date for this camera, but it could be any time between the mid-1980s and 1990s.

It works by letting light photons in when the shutter is pressed. This causes a chemical reaction on the photographic film known as photochemistry (Woodworth 2024). For more information, I go over it in my Kodak 200 Color Plus Film post.

 Although this type of camera isn’t favoured by photographers, I still like it. I like the way it looks, especially the symbols and colours used on the lens for ISO and weather conditions/aperture.

 The fact that it doesn’t use batteries makes it ideal for long trips where there is limited places to recharge electronics. I like the thumb wheel, it gives me the nostalgic feeling of using disposable cameras, except now I get to re-use this camera. The fun part of this camera is that it can take film. This means that if you want to try using film for the first time or test out different types of film, you can do it in a more inexpensive way and take your time. Although it might be made of plastic, that means it is light weight, (except for the metal plates in the bottom). It is also compact and easy to use.

Going in to this I did not expect the Sounex YN-9000 to be so obscure and be a part of the history of the New Taiwan Photographic Corp. I might be wrong about this being a part of the New Taiwan company (which I doubt I am), the history of this camera will probably be the same. All of these re-usable/trashcams/scamras, no matter who made them, where made for the same purpose: to make you think you are buying a cheap SLR camera. But this is none the less a fun camera to have and experiment with, in my opinion.

Thank you for reading all the way through and I hope you found this as interesting as I did researching it.

List of sources:

Alan, D. 2020. THE SCAM THAT CAME IN FROM THE COLD – TAMASHI FMD QP8000 REVIEW. https://austerityphoto.co.uk/the-scam-that-came-in-from-the-cold-tamashi-fmd-qp8000-review/

BobShop. 2017. Sounex Image Master 35mm Lens 50mm See description and pictures. https://www.bobshop.co.za/sounex-image-master-35mm-lens-50mm-see-description-and-pictures/p/308520891

Camerapedia Wiki. Kinetic. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Kinetic

Camerapedia Wiki. New Taiwan. https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/New_Taiwan

CollectiBlend. 2023. The New Taiwan Photographic Corp. https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/New-Taiwan/#:~:text=The%20New%20Taiwan%20Photographic%20Corp,are%20listed%20under%20this%20manufacturer.

Dowling, S. 2023. TIME Magazine Camera: The king of trashcams? https://kosmofoto.com/2023/04/time-magazine-camera-king-of-the-trashcams/

Eckman, M. 2019. Cannon DL-9000 “The Scamera.” https://mikeeckman.com/2019/04/canon-dl-9000-the-scamera/

Global Source. New Taiwan Photographic Corps. https://www.globalsources.com/new-taiwan/homepage_6008800010590.htm

Rochevalier, M. 2018. Ouyama - New Taiwan Photographic Corporation Neikai. https://www.collection-appareils.fr/x/html/camera-7650.html

Woodworth, C. 2024. How Photographic Film Works. https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/film.htm