Dakota RZ-2000

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Dakota with its Quantaray 35-70mm zoom image by Amara U (Image rights)

The names Dakota for cameras and Quantaray for lenses are private-label brands used by the US photo retailer Ritz Camera. In the case of the RZ-2000 35mm SLR, body & lens were made under contract by Cosina—also suppliers to Vivitar and countless other low-cost camera brands. This model offers manual focus and manually-controlled exposure settings, and is essentially a rebadging of the Cosina C1s in its all-black version.

Newcomers to film photography are often advised to start with a camera such as this one, which sticks to just the essentials. But with a 1/2000 second top shutter speed, LED exposure readout, and a self timer, this model actually offers a couple of advantages over other iconic "student" cameras like the Pentax K1000 (and the Dakota can accept all the same K mount lenses).

Links

• Dakota RZ-2000 manual in English and five other languages at Mike Butkus' OrphanCameras.com