Halina AI

[Freester]

My wife's grandparents are going to 'lend' me a Halina AI Twin Lens Reflex.

A bit of googling and I found this link and I quote:

Halina cameras were made, to put it politely, to a price by Haking out of Hong Kong . Of all the Halina models this Twin Lens Reflex is one of their better efforts but quality never stood in the way of price, the lens in particular being rather dubious.

Which in some ways doesn't surprise me! Anyone else have any experience with this camera. Is it worth me running a roll through to play?

 

[nomorem6]

I don't have any experiance of that camera specifically BUT to answer your Q..... 'Is it worth running a roll of film through it to have a play'...... I would say the answer is YES.

There's no substitute to taking a camera that has obvious limitations and trying to get the most out of it as a way to a) learn more about photography and b) enjoy playing around.

It's too easy to go down the route of paying out loads of wonga (£££) to get the best equipment you can afford hoping it'll make you a better photographer. The bottom line is that it wont make you a better photographer. Only you can do that.

There's loads of fun to be had learning to use lens distortion or vignetting (sp) etc. to your advantage. The key is to take your time and REALLY think about what you are doing and trying to capture before finally pressing that little button.

All that's just my opinion and could well be complete b$%^&*cks of course. Have a look at this months Pro Photography. There's an article on just this kind of thing.

 

[ekimeno]

Of course! What have you got to loose? Couple of quid's worth of film... Get snapping and post the results!