Holga, Toy, Charity Shop, Car Boot and other Bargains (film only please)

I picked up a boxed Lomo 'Diana+' repro at the weekend from the local charity shop. Dear lord, what an utterly vile thing it is. I was toying with using it for a laugh, having never tried MF before, but I reckon I could put a crack in it just by looking at it the wrong way. The fact that someone saw fit to part with £45 for it boggles my mind. On the plus side, going by eBay prices I should make about 4x my money back.
 
RaoulDuke said:
I picked up a boxed Lomo 'Diana+' repro at the weekend from the local charity shop. Dear lord, what an utterly vile thing it is. I was toying with using it for a laugh, having never tried MF before, but I reckon I could put a crack in it just by looking at it the wrong way. The fact that someone saw fit to part with £45 for it boggles my mind. On the plus side, going by eBay prices I should make about 4x my money back.
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It's gotta be worth putting a roll of film through. Go on. You know you want to. :D
 
RaoulDuke said:
I picked up a boxed Lomo 'Diana+' repro at the weekend from the local charity shop. Dear lord, what an utterly vile thing it is. I was toying with using it for a laugh, having never tried MF before, but I reckon I could put a crack in it just by looking at it the wrong way. The fact that someone saw fit to part with £45 for it boggles my mind. On the plus side, going by eBay prices I should make about 4x my money back.
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Don't knock it, it's about more than sharp images and recognisable colour rendition, embrace the quirkiness.
 
Oh, I get the appeal (kind of) - I just can't bring myself to use something which has been very carefully designed to be appallingly bad. I also fear that using it might put me off MF for life :p
 
RaoulDuke said:
Oh, I get the appeal (kind of) - I just can't bring myself to use something which has been very carefully designed to be appallingly bad. I also fear that using it might put me off MF for life :p
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You never know until you try. :)
 
RaoulDuke said:
Oh, I get the appeal (kind of) - I just can't bring myself to use something which has been very carefully designed to be appallingly bad. I also fear that using it might put me off MF for life :p
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Indeed...why go to the trouble of buying a film, loading the camera, take a shot of something you like just to get a crappy picture. Of course there could be a challenge (in other threads) to get the best out of "inferior" cameras.
 
excalibur2 said:
Indeed...why go to the trouble of buying a film, loading the camera, take a shot of something you like just to get a crappy picture. Of course there could be a challenge (in other threads) to get the best out of "inferior" cameras.
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It'd be the challenge aspect that would appeal to me - working within the limitations of a low-quality camera to try and still get interesting shots. You're unlikely to get technically great shots (in terms of sharpness, exposure, lack of lens artifacts etc.) with a camera like this, so it wouldn't be worth using it for shots that demand those things, but rather to look for compositions and lighting situations that will work with this sort of camera. I think that, quite often, the type of shots that do work well with Holga's, Diana's etc. are ones that probably wouldn't work at all if taken with better quality kit. It's the grungy, lo-fi feel that's the charm, although I aprreciate that this isn't everyone's cup of tea.
 
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FishyFish said:
It'd be the challenge aspect that would appeal to me - working within the limitations of a low-quality camera to try and still get interesting shots. You're unlikely to get technically great shots (in terms of sharpness, exposure, lack of lens artifacts etc.) with a camera like this, so it wouldn't be worth using it for shots that demand those things, but rather to look for compositions and lighting situations that will work with this sort of camera. I think that, quite often, the type of shots that do work well with Holga's, Diana's etc. are ones that probably wouldn't work at all if taken with better quality kit. It's the grungy, lo-fi feel that's the charm, although I aprreciate that this isn't everyone's cup of tea.
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I can see where the OP is coming from though, I've often thought the same, why spend tens of pounds on some sort of 'toy' type camera when you can go to a jumble sale, flea market or car boot sale and pick up a primitive, vintage 120 'point and shoot' type box or 'TLR' box camera for less than £5? Then you'd have the history aspect, as well as lo-fi charm, plus you'd have the money you saved to spend on film and processing. :)

This seems to be a good time to remind people about this year's Box Brownie Challenge, so blow off the dust and get clicking! :) https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...enge-registration-thread.649482/#post-7767272
 
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Mr Badger said:
I can see where the OP is coming from though, I've often thought the same, why spend tens of pounds on some sort of 'toy' type camera when you can go to a jumble sale, flea market or car boot sale and pick up a primitive, vintage 120 'point and shoot' type box or 'TLR' box camera for less than £5? Then you'd have the history aspect, as well as lo-fi charm, plus you'd have the money you saved to spend on film and processing. :)

This seems to be a good time to remind people about this year's Box Brownie Challenge, so blow off the dust and get clicking! :) https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...enge-registration-thread.649482/#post-7767272
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True, but Kes says he actually bought it from a charity shop, so unless the only reason was to make a bit of profit from re-sale, you'd assume that there must've been at least some temptation to give it a shot? :)
 
Well today was a case of being in the right place at the right time. I walked into a junk shop and saw some boxes of film next to a fuji compact and asked about them. I got the camera and films for £3 along with two XD cards in a holder.

Then the owners mate asked if I was into cameras as he had a couple in his van from a house clearance. He brought me a Nikon F3 and an F90 and asked £60. I said I only have about £20 spare then remembered I had another £10, offered him £25 for the F3, as I already have an F90 and he said £30 for both. The F3 came with the Series E MkII 50/1.8 and the F90 the 28-80/3.3-5.6G.

What's strange is that I commented the other day that I didn't have an F3 to compare my F-301 to. Someone must've been paying attention. Maybe it's Fate making up for letting that car run over my foot. [emoji2]IMAG0238_1.jpgIMAG0239_1.jpg
 
That one looks like its had a life, the F3 is a classy bit of kit, I doubt you'll be doing much debating comparing it with the F301, but it takes all sorts to make a World..:)
 
I like them both, they each have something the other doesn't. The F-301 has two program modes and the F3 has mirror lockup, interchangeable viewfinders, viewfinder blinds etc.

They both have the same problem, the counter stuck on 40. I tried manually resetting it by pushing the pin but it seems stuck. Both cameras are loaded now so it'll have to wait.

I'm carrying both for now, the F3 is loaded with a 13 year old roll of Kodacolor 200 from the shop.

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Decent Durst Neonon 80mm enlarger lens picked up at car boot yesterday, attached to a Meopta Magnifax 4a with Color 3 head (up to 6x9), no base board so £5. :)
 
I spent a year of uni on exchange in Canada, where a friend got me into toy cameras. I know a lot of people think they're gimmicky and such but I think for the price of it ($20CAD second hand if I remember correctly) my little Holga more than paid its way - especially considering the fact I didn't know what I was doing and just pointed, clicked and hoped for the best (although what else can you do with one of those cameras anyway!). It really got me into film photography, and the excitement of looking through prints after they'd been developed. Anyway, I came across an old hard drive the other day and lo and behold it was full of Holga pictures. Most were total rubbish (I'm very good at snapping film when winding it back up) or really dark, but here are a few of my favourites in all of their wonky, grainy glory:

Lake Ontario Holga.jpg

Vancouver Holga.jpg

Canada Woodland Holga.jpg

Whitby Holga.jpg
 
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kewri said:
I spent a year of uni on exchange in Canada, where a friend got me into toy cameras. I know a lot of people think they're gimmicky and such but I think for the price of it ($20CAD second hand if I remember correctly) my little Holga more than paid its way - especially considering the fact I didn't know what I was doing and just pointed, clicked and hoped for the best (although what else can you do with one of those cameras anyway!). It really got me into film photography, and the excitement of looking through prints after they'd been developed. Anyway, I came across an old hard drive the other day and lo and behold it was full of Holga pictures. Most were total rubbish (I'm very good at snapping film when winding it back up) or really dark, but here are a few of my favourites in all of their wonky, grainy glory:
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I like the Whitby shot best out of those. Toy cameras can be fun to use, I think. I like the challenge of having to work withthin the limitations they impose and sometimes the defects present can be used advantageously to add charm to the shots taken.
 
I was just thinking we have no views like that near me, though the last one looks like Whitby, when I saw the caption. [emoji1]
 
I finally added one of the cameras I wanted as a teenager to my collection, the Fujica STX-1.

IMAG0249_1.jpg

I started with a Zenit B and when I could afford to upgrade this was one of the options. I ended up buying a Praktica BX20 kit.

IMAG0251_1.jpg

I do already have some of the others off the list like the Chinon CE5 and the Ricoh KR10 and a lot of others that were out of my price range at the time.

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Manwithacam said:
I finally added one of the cameras I wanted as a teenager to my collection, the Fujica STX-1.

View attachment 103673

I started with a Zenit B and when I could afford to upgrade this was one of the options. I ended up buying a Praktica BX20 kit.

View attachment 103674

I do already have some of the others off the list like the Chinon CE5 and the Ricoh KR10 and a lot of others that were out of my price range at the time.

Sent from my HTC Desire 530 using Talk Photography Forums mobile app
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When I was a young lad my next door neighbour was about 8 yrs older than me and was at Uni studying architecture, he had a Zenit B and I thought it was really cool as my parents only had little cheap compact cameras.
 
Yeah, no frills on that camera. No meter, no split screen, nothing lightweight about it and only 1/30-1/500 shutter speed range but it was great
 
Picked this little beauty up today local forces support shop.

Needs a new battery which I believe a modification is required for to work on modern batteries.

20170610_161831.jpg
 
In other news I picked up this Minolta Dynax 404si body for £5 and the Yashica 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 zoom for £4.99 from different branches of Cash Converters today.

I also bought The Complete Photographer by Ron Spillman for 50p and The Encyclopedia of Photography by Michael Busselle for 70p.

I have a 404si in my collection but it has a strange discolouration in the viewfinder.IMAG0252_1.jpgIMAG0253_1.jpg
 
Don't like to worry you but is that fungus on the front element of that 70-150 Hoya? Perhaps best to check in sunlight or by shining a torch on it, and check the other lenses too if they're from the same 'collection'?
 
Checking the lenses for fungus is one of the first things I do when buying cameras, it's always that bit more difficult with FD lenses as you can't open the aperture fully with the lens off camera but I don't remember seeing any on the 70-150, there definitely isn't any on the 50 or the teleconverter but I'll take another look at the zoom and wide angle through the camera

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Yesterday I got some stuff from a local flea market. A Canon EOS 30, EOS 50e and Nikon F-401. The cameras all have problems with their backs, the catches anyway. I may be able to find a donor camera for the 30 or 50e.

I also got a Nikon MD-12, two boxed Canon BW-58C hoods and a Rollei flash bracket, all for £10.

The cameras are all working so just a little work is needed.
 
Manwithacam said:
Yesterday I got some stuff from a local flea market. A Canon EOS 30, EOS 50e and Nikon F-401. The cameras all have problems with their backs, the catches anyway. I may be able to find a donor camera for the 30 or 50e.

I also got a Nikon MD-12, two boxed Canon BW-58C hoods and a Rollei flash bracket, all for £10.

The cameras are all working so just a little work is needed.
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Could be interested in the MD12 if it's working.
 
There was a 635 on offer at a local auction the other week. It looked to be in worse condition than the one above, with some signs of corrosion on the strap lugs and other fittings, but it did have a bunch of filters and the 35mm adapter with it (in fact, when I opened the camera to check the innards, there was a part exposed roll of 35mm inside. Oops!). Sadly, the shutter speed dial seemed to be faulty and wouldn't rotate to all the speeds, so I just put a low bid on it thinking that the filters would be worth having. In the end it went to someone else for £45.
 
Looks like you got a bit of a bargain there, it appears to be a mid-1960s version, if you let me know the serial number (just the first two letters and the three following numbers if you want to retain some anonymity for it) I can probably be more specific about year and month on manufacture. One thing to be aware of when using this model camera is to always ensure the 'M' and 'X' flash sync setting lever is in the 'X' position before operating the self timer, or the shutter mechanism will jam permanently! :banghead:

There is reference to this in the instruction manual, which is available in PDF format from Butkus: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/ To be honest, it's probably best to leave it on the 'X' setting all the time (but it's not difficult to knock the lever and inadvertently move it to 'M'!), and don't use the self timer to be on the safe side!

Personally, I think the 35mm conversion kit is more of a novelty than a necessity, I've used the 35mm kit once in 3 years of owning Yashica 635s, just to see if it worked, which it does... but in portrait format. To shoot in landscape format you have to turn the camera on its side, which makes using a TLR slightly awkward! Besides, as it takes 120 film why would anyone really want to shoot 35mm in it, unless it was the only camera you had with you and you could only find 35mm film?

If you are still determined to track down and buy a 35mm conversion kit then make sure all the bits are included. There should be 6 pieces, as per the following photo, plus the leather type case with a separate divider liner/inset. It's quite common to see incomplete kits advertised, so it's a case of buyer beware! I hope this is useful and look forward to seeing some of the photos you take with it. (y)

 
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