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Click here for Chinon CM-3 PDF
Instruction manual

This camera functions much like the  CM-5, click here to review the CM-5 manual

Use a quarter to unscrew the battery holder.  It takes 2 MS76 or SR44 batteries.  Note both the battery "bumps" (negative) go towards the cap.

Turn the ASA dial and match the film inserted to the numbers on the ASA dial.  Use the suggested starting position of the shutter speed of 1/125 (125) and the F-stop of 5.6 to start adjusting the light meter.

Focus on the subject, press the shutter halfway, the LED's just outside the will operate.  ONE will light up showing the batteries are functional.  If one of the light does NOT glow, try new batteries.

Illustration of changing the battery.  Note the direction the batteries go in, the small bump of the battery goes towards the cap.

The button by the ASA dial is a battery check, pressing it should turn on the Green (center) viewfinder LED.

Make sure the film sprockets are in the right location.  Use the end of the film pack to insert into the back holder.
Wind the film.

You must wind the lever and fire two "blank" shots to get the exposed film past the shutter.  There is a shutter lock, move it off the "L" to allow the camera to fire.  The lock does not prevent you from winding the camera.  A camera should not be left in a wound mode for extended periods of time.

Set the ASA to match the film in the camera, try a setting, when outdoors, of 1/125 and F-5.6 to start adjusting the setting to get a correct exposure.  Press the shutter button slightly.

Adjust the F-stop to get the green (center LED) to light.  You may need to adjust the shutter speeds if the lens aperture is all the way closed and the top (overexposed LED) is still lit or the aperture is open all the way and the bottom (underexposed LED) is lit.  Certain lens have an "A"uto (aperture of lens is always open unless the shutter is firing) and "M"anual (aperture size varies in accordance to F-stop set.  This setting is sometimes useful when checking actual depth of field in viewfinder), you should have the lens set to A unless doing some specialty photography.  The split image viewfinder becomes clear on the subject when in correct focus.  The exact center top and bottom half also will match when in focus.

Use the aperture and shutter speeds to obtain correct exposures for you pictures.  When you are finished with the roll the film will not advance fully.  Do not try to advance any more, just press the rewind button.

Flip the rewind bar and turn the rewind knob to wind the film back in the container.  Pull up on the rewind knob to release the back door when the rewinding becomes easy (you may feel a greater strain as the film comes out of the advance slot)

Image 25 shows how to unscrew the lens, counter clockwise.  Image 26 and 27 show the differences in depth of field by lens aperture.  Image 26 shows a small depth of field (notice the bricks) and 27 a great depth of field.

Image 28 shows the depth of field scale on the lens.  At 10 feet at F8 will provide an in focus image from 8 feet to13 feet, at F16 from 6.5 feet to F18 feet.  Remember you can always use the scale to extend you depth of field by finding the distance of the item you want in focus and then moving the distance setting to the closest or furthest on the scale.  For example a picture taken at F16, you set the 10 foot camera setting at the far right F16 depth of field mark.  You will then have everything in focus from 5 to 10 feet but directly behind the 10 foot mark will be out of focus.  You can do the opposite and have everything from 10 feet to 30 feet in focus but everything in front of 10 feet is out of focus.
Image 29 shows the self timer lever.  Press the lever all the way down to delay the shutter 10 seconds or so. After pressing the lever down you must depress the shutter to let the self timer activate.

To use a flash, set the shutter speed to X.  The hot shoe will accept any standard flash.  Do not use dedicated flash units with extra pins.  The metal shoe will short the pins and could damage the flash.  If you have an ancient flash with a flash cord or a powerful hand held unit with grip, use the flash contact on the side of the lens.
Image 33 shows the Infrared Film mark.  With Black and White IR film you first focus, then move the distance found on the lens to the RED IR mark.  Usually a Red or IR filter is used to cover the lens. Exposure film according to the IR package.  Color IR film does not need to be refocused.

The power winder shown mounted to the camera, the integrated chip that controls the functions and the available remote relay for the power winder.

The winder with the interval timer, image 37 shows the continuous mark when firing more than one frame or using the interval times.  Image 38 shows the dial for the number of frames you wish to fire up to 24 frames and image 39 show the length of time between those number shots up to 30 seconds.  There is a winder with just an single advance.

Fig 40 shows the cap needed to be removed to add the Chinon Power Winder, I believe there is a place to screw the cap on the bottom of the winder body to keep it from getting lost.