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.
If Lomography had though they’d covered the niche reloadable disposable market, then 2019 must have given them a bit of rude awakening. First we had the Yashica MF-1 arriving. But now and more threatening is a big name make moving in with Harman (aka Ilford) Technology’s new camera
Well not quite. This was never sold by Kodak, the name here has just been licenced by Vivitar. Its actually just a Vivitar T201 Lx under the hood a camera that has a cult following. But is that deserved ?
So I must admit i’m a bit of a fan of Minolta’s 110 cameras. If you’ve followed this blog you’ll know I highly rate some of the models in the Pocket Autopak 400 series pretty highly for this class.
So when I got my hands on the top dog of the class I was pretty excited. But it didn’t quite live up to the hype.
I got my hands on Yashica’s new film range and I though a child free trip to the Lake District would be perfect to test them out.
Shame I missed the lack of DX code on the films including the 400ISO B&W. I shoved that film into my F75 which defaulted to 100 ISO. Luckily some saints of the lab world came to my rescue.
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.
I’ve come across a few more basic cameras that pick up a mythic tag comparing them to a more esteemed classic. But the Nikon F-301 (or in my case weirdly the Americanised N2000) is perhaps the most bizarre of the bunch. That’s because some folks do compare it to the legend that is the F3
Whilst it’s no F3, if you’re on a budget this might be good compromise.
If Kickstarter in 2018 kept us hanging on high end gear like the Reflex SLR, then 2019 has turned out to be decidedly more lo-fi. Hot on the heals of the Meh !Yashica MF-1, arrived my Reto3D camera. It promises 3D photos via the wiggle technique. But is it more Lo-fi dross or does it add something to the world of film based 3D photography. And why bother ?
So I’ve been playing around with the new Yashica MF-1 “art” camera for a few days and have started to get a grasp of this plastic 35mm fixed everything camera. But is it indeed a tweaked single use camera as many speculate and more importantly is it any good ?
Weirdly this camera sums up a lot of the UK’s current political & economic situation. A rehashed plastic version of a 1950’s British number pushed out by a global corporation that misses the zeitgeist and lags behind it’s European counterparts. But hey it’s British made and we might be able to sell it to the Yanks.,,,
