We often stick the tag of crap but good to film cameras. As much as I love shooting film I’m not a total Luddite and have been known to mix it up with digital. But what do budget Digital of yesteryear work out like ?
And what better place to start is my first digital – the Olympus Camedia C-120 (aka D-380). It looks lousy compared to even a modern entry level smart phone camera with Fixed focus and the sheer luxury of 2 Mega Pixels. But why did this camera travel around the world.
So my quest for the Olympus Lomo continues with another offering from the Plastic Trip series. Could this older model knock off the Trip 505 from the most Lomo like hot seat ?
Is this a lo-fi gem, a pile of junk or an actually okay camera. Grap your whip and Fedora and join us on this journey across erm…. the foot bridge.
For the canny photographer, there have always been bargain cameras that are nearly as good as more expensive classic. But one camera recently I’ve noticed has been had that status elevated above that. Enter the Olympus AF-10 Super (aka infinity Jr) , described by some as “Just like a mju“
But does this more humble camera measure up to arguably the prototype for the elite compacts that would follow ?
Canny de Camera strode across the land wielding his His Holy Olympus with the its cross hair of holy fire shooting Demons and Family portraits with easy. Welcome to the surreal experience of the View Zoom 80 (the Accura View Zoom 80 in the US) a 35mm zoom compact camera with a flaming red cross in the viewfinder. You’ll feel at home if you’re a fan of 70’s Italian Horror movies, 90’s FPS or religious things. But is it any good ?
Car boots are often is bit hit and miss for the cheap camera hunter. I’ve scored some great wee finds over the years from my £3 XA, a K1000 for a £5 that I sold on to my mint £2 Espio 120SW. But at times you find nothing but the odd instamatic and true tat. The bank holiday weekend on in Dumfries however flung up a grubby mju zoom 105(aka ∞ Stylus Zoom 105) for two quid that literally worked for one roll and then died.
Once there was a legendary Japanese Camera maker famed for its detailed very compact cameras. But in 1988 they went very large with a camera with a passing resemblance to a star cruiser.
That camera was the Olympus AZ-300 Superzoom (aka Infinity Zoom 300 (US) and IZM-300). It would become one of the cameras that defined the term bridge.
Sunny day with a wide 21st century AF camera, some subtle street shooting might be on the cards ? Not if you’re using the Olympus Trip AF51. This has the lowest trigger for its autoflash I’ve ever seen.
Shame as there’s some other things that make this quite likeable. Continue reading Flash-drastic – The Olympus Trip AF51 Review→
The Olympus Trip 35 is one of the most revered compacts ever made. Sadly Olympus had a bad habit of producing some decidedly basic & sometime awful cameras trading on its name. However not all are that bad But has this plastic trip the potential to be Olympus’s Lomo ? Continue reading The Olympus Lomo ? – The Olympus Trip 500 Review→
Shooting Film on the cheap on the Border in Credit Crunch Britain