Point and Shoot cameras using 120 film
I love shooting on 120 cameras and sneakily you can also shoot 35mm on many of them. This allows you to get neat effects like a sprocket shot.
Modern Lo-fi cameras like the Diana F+ and the Holga 120 series have cottoned on to this and actually make 35mm film backs but even with them you can use 35mm film without them Continue reading The Bluffer’s 8 Steps Guide for shooting 35mm in 120 Cameras
This gorgeously styled 120 shooter hails from around 1960 with pretty impressive retro styling this camera looks like a classsic TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) camera
Infact it is little more than a fixed focus box camera with a large brilliant viewfinder. Continue reading Halina Viceroy Review – Diplomatic Fixed Focus Fun
And finally we get to a true British camera the Conway Popular. Made from around 1931 it was produced until the 1950’s but despite some innovations this box camera was actually less flexible than the Kodak Brownie No 2. It is however the oldest camera for a quid or less I own
Continue reading Conway Popular Model – Poundland Camera Challenge No 19
Fixed focus cameras have lasted as long as consumer photography has existed and beyond from the Kodak Brownie launched in the 1890’s right up to date with the still in production clones of the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim. Easy shooters often derided but popular with the public and pre-AF often the choice of the casual snapper.
Over the years we’ve had ones that have no controls right through to fully automatic exposure models. Here’s my thoughts on some Continue reading 10 Fixed Focus Wonders
The Kodak brownie is probably the best known and iconic camera series ever made. The Brownies in one form or another were made from 1900 to 1986 although are best known for the Iconic Box Brownies. The No 2 deserves a special place in this Iconography not just for it’s own 34 year run from 1901 but for the fact this camera gave us 120 film and is arguable the most reliable camera in the world still turning out shots almost a century later. Although this isn’t a Poundland Challenge Camera, scarily you can actually get this classic for a quid or less.
The Isoly series is probably best known for the humble Isoly I, the camera that launched a 1000 Diana clones. But the series also feature a range of other models including the top of the range Isoly III which makes for a rather good 120 P&S
The Agfa Isoly is perhaps one of the most influencial basic 120 point and shooters there has ever been, setting the scene for the Diana cameras and their more recent re-birth with LSI’s Diana F+. But how does this classic stack up ? Continue reading Agfa Isoly I Review : The camera that launched a 1000 clones
Lomography’s plastic classic left me strangely disappointed when it arrived. I’d been impressed by its little brother, the Diana Mini, but this seemed a shoddier affair and worryingly idiosyncratic. However a few rolls later and I’m warming to it. Continue reading Diana F+ Review : Or How I Learned to love the Plastic bomb
This 120 roll film camera is a bit of an oddity for Haking a company with a TLR (Halina A1) and a smattering of pseudo TLRs (e.g. the Halina Viceroy. But it perhaps serves as model for how Haking cameras were to become in the 35mm age and the styling is more like a 35mm than 120 film camera of the era.
And for a basic 120 film P&S, it is pretty good. Continue reading Halina 6-4 Review: Point and shoot 120 class with Pilkington Glass
This quite gorgeous lump of Aluminium hails from 50’s Italy. It’s a pretty basic 120 film camera from the era but has a couple of trump cards to play. It’s first trick is that it’s a half frame (3×4.5cm) camera allowing you to take a whooping 24 shots on a roll of 120 film. Continue reading Bencini Koroll 24s Review : The canny man’s vintage 120 film camera