CARENA


Porst was a German photographic distributor and marketer.  They rebadged and sold cameras from a large number of camera manufacturers, and one of these was Seagull.  There were a couple of Seagull DF-300-type cameras that were sold, mainly in France, under the Carena name.

Carena DF-300

In terms of features, the Carena DF-300 is just a Seagull DF-300 -- with the Carena name -- which is just a variant of the Minolta X-370/300.  But the Carena DF-300 has one "feature" that no other Seagull SLR has.  Although the camera only came in a chrome version, the face plate under the name is black, not chrome.

It has speeds of 4 - 1/1,000 (in auto mode) and 1 - 1,000 (in manual mode), plus B.  It features TTL metering, and the camera can be used in manual, metered-manual, or aperture-priority automatic exposure modes. A shutter speed scale with LED's is displayed in the viewfinder. Like the Minolta X-370, the Carena DF-300 lacks a stop down button and PC connection. There is a motor-drive connection, however, which can accept the Minolta auto-winder G, as well as several Chinese auto-winders which offer single or continuous operation -- similar to, but not as fast as, the Minolta Motor Drive 1.


Carena SX-300 (model 1)

Apparently, Carena or Seagull wanted a more distinct name for the camera, so it was changed from "DF" to "SX".  Maybe someone simply thought the new name was SXier.  The Carena SX-300 is just a Carena DF-300 but it came in two versions -- just like the Seagull DF-300.  The first model was covered in leatherette.  But unlike the Seagull DF-300, It was only available in black

And it had the same cable release, but no DOF button or PC conection.


Carena SX-300 (model 2)

This model saw the same changes to the body as the Seagull DF-300 (model 2), such as a rubberized covering.

It did have a dedicated hot shoe.

And it accepted a power winder.

The back was changed to include a film window and a thumb grip.

Carena also made a CX-300 (left, below) , a 100SX, and a 1000SX (right, below) -- probably just to confuse things -- but all of these used the Pentax K-mount.

Carena SLR cameras are often seen with Exakta lenses, but there are numerous lenses with the Carena label as well -- from wide-angle to tele-photo.  The vast majority of these have a 42mm screw mount, but several had a Minolta SR, MC, and MD mount, such as:

There probably were others.  Some were obviously made by Seagull, such as the 50mm f1.8 below, but others were undoubtedly made by other firms.

  Shutter Shutter
speeds
Flash
synch
speed
TTL
meter-
ing?
ISO
settings
Auto
expo-
sure?
AE
lock?
View-
finder
info
Flash
shoe
Sensa-
switch?
PC
plug?
Multi-
expo-
sure?
Cable
release
plug?
Stop
down
button?
Self
timer?
Mirror
lock-up?
Motor
drive
option?
Battery
used
for
Film
indicator 
Carena DF-300 cloth,
horizontal
4-1,000
B
1/60 Y 12-
3200
Y Y Shutter
speed
scale
Dedicated Y N N Y N Y N Y meter Tab
holder
Carena SX-300
(Model 1)
cloth,
horizontal
4-1,000
B
1/60 Y 12-
3200
Y Y Shutter
speed
scale
Dedicated Y N N Y N Y N Y meter  Tab
holder
Carena SX-300
(Model 2)
cloth,
horizontal
4-1,000
B
1/60 Y 12-
3200
Y Y Shutter
speed
scale
Dedicated Y N N Y N Y N Y meter  Tab
holder



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