Goldy
Whenever I see a French word ending in “…if”, it gives me a flashback to my first visit to Paris. I made the rookie mistake of consuming too many baguettes and too much fromage. A visit to the pharmacy isn’t quite as easy as it is at home. The ability to speak French would’ve […]
Beseler Pinhole
Here’s one from the archives circa 1998. It was yet another dark rainy night in Seattle. Amid the general din of tires swishing by on the wet street and the noise of freeway traffic in the distance, my husband pulled up to the curb. I jumped in the car, all aglow from a fabulous day […]
LOMO Lubitel 166 Universal
Marcy’s Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal Camera Experience: My original thoughts regarding this camera: “This camera is really too good for me. I found it at a junk store in Grayland, Washington. It is capable of making some fabulous images! Like I said, It’s capable of making them , but I don’t know if I’m capable […]
Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/2
Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/2 folding camera: My friends, Rosann and Bill, surprised me with this little beauty. A change of their home decor caused them to pass it on. The side struts are crazily elegant. I was just about to head out on another WORLD PEACE THROUGH JUNK STORE CAMERAS trip across the northern plains […]
Rollop
The Rollop. When my friend first gave this camera to me the name kept reminding me of Trollop. After a while, it became Roll-up … like, fruit roll-up. It hung out in the studio for nearly a year. I picked it up one day and thought, “I’m going to load this sucker!” I opened it […]
Stellar
The setting: A garage sale in my home town in Michigan. In the back of the nifty old wooden dusty-musty garage was this beauty. No price tag. I brought it up front to the old guy sitting in his chair in the shade. “What do you want for this?” He pondered and he pondered. He took the camera […]
Agfa Isolette
A friend’s dad died and I ended up with this Agfa, a Kodak Retina, a Brownie, some Polaroid gear (hey! did the earth shake just then?) and some movie camera stuff. The Isolette is your typical pop out camera. You press a little button and out pops the bellows. You can focus it, you can […]
Kiev 60
Forget the gym membership. Hefting this thing around will give you not only an upper body but also a core work out. A friend gave me this camera. With that TTL meter on top, it looks like it’s wearing a baseball cap sideways, doesn’t it? Meter and all, it weighs in at almost 4 pounds […]
Pilot 6
While tumbling the Pilot 6 camera about in my hands, I had this vision of Jessica Lang in the American Horror Stories series “Freak Show”. The thought holds true for my menagerie of messed up junk store cameras … “Zeez are my munsters.” I said, in Jessica Lang’s pretend German accent. “Zay ah my family, zeez […]
Reader’s Digest
Marcy’s Reader’s Digest Camera Review: I’ve been using my cameras way more than writing about them. I decided it was time to break this block using a true classic. Not a Diana. Looking back, I didn’t really have many good things to say about them. Well, that, and the fact that they’ve all been […]
Traveler 120
I found the “time” Traveler 120 camera in a junk store in Wheeler, Oregon. It weighs enough to anchor a small boat. Its made of metal. I think they call it pot metal? Manufactured by PHO-TAK CORPORATION, Chicago USA. It actually says “Time Traveler 120” on the front, but I don’t believe the word “time” is […]
WOCA 120G
I almost had this idea. While working on this review I thought, there’s really less to me than meets the eye. At eight years old, I fell in love with photography. It took that one first glance at a Kodak 126 Instamatic camera and I was in love. Not, you know, like how you fall in love with […]
JEM Jr. Box Camera
Here’s a nifty all metal box camera that I picked up in Conway, WA. It’s got top and side viewfinders. Made by the J. E. Mergott Co. in Newark NJ, the camera takes eight 6×9 images on 120 film. On the top of the body is a small lever for “I” and “B” […]
Arrow
The Arrow is one of Diana’s many sisters. Her aim is a bit off, as the area of focus is somewhat ring-shaped and circles around the central spot on the frame. I’ve put a few rolls through her and they seem to glide through without a problem. There are quite a few light leaks – […]
Conley Kewpie #2 Box Camera
I bought this Kewpie #2 at a camera show for $15.00. That’s more than I usually spend on any camera, let alone a simple box camera, but it was in great shape. I bought it for Mike Levy, who ended up trading me his book SELECTING AND USING CLASSIC CAMERAS for it. But not before I […]
Tower One-Twenty Flash
The Tower camera, sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co, takes eight 6×9 images on 120 film. The lens says “Precise” (impressive, eh?) “f110mm Tower lens”. This camera is all metal and weighs a ton! The viewfinder is on the side. As you can see, my flash attachment is kinda missing the most important part. I’ve […]
Wardette
The Wardette box camera … oh boy. Now we’re going to reminisce about Montgomery Ward. Monkey Ward’s used to have a photo section where they sold cameras and darkroom equipment. This camera was sold at Montgomery Ward stores and is a typical box camera. I like the patriotic theme, with those stars across the top of the […]
Ansco Shur Shot
Doesn’t everyone have a pile of Shur Shot box cameras? Sometimes they’re Ansco, sometimes Agfa. The graphics differ as do the limited features. The Agfa Ansco Corporation introduced the Shur Shot camera in 1932. One model had a 6×9 cm frame. Another model, with a smooth front, had a 6.5×11 cm frame. That same year, Ansco introduced […]
Reliance Camera
Clevenger’s Junk Store (actually I think they used the word “Antiques”) in Aberdeen used to be the kind of junk store where you could buy cheap tools, Army surplus, a case of those frogs that “rivit” when you walk by, used file cabinets, antique replica furniture and ‘homemade’ fudge. Halfway toward the back of the store, there […]
Kodak Duex
The 27 page (!) instruction booklet says the camera accepts 620 film. I trimmed down a 120 spool and got 16 images per roll. Very Kodak Bullet-like, in that it has a helical-telescoping front. (Them’s fancy words for – the front screws out.) If you forget to unscrew the lens to make it pop out, […]
Rocket Camera
In the mid 1990’s we were driving to Alaska in an old beater Ford pickup, stopping here and there along the way. One of our stops was a junk store in Spuzzum, British Columbia. It was fate. It was kismet. It was absolutely meant to be. I can’t describe to you the importance of that moment in my life – and not […]
Agfa Click-I
Not as cliquish (get it? clique-ish?) as the Dianas and way more reliable, the Agfa Click-I camera takes 12 square images on 120 film. I bought this Click-I for $2.99 at the Seattle Goodwill. It came with a nifty brown vinyl case & shoulder strap. I got this call from Orla at the Raleigh-Durham […]
Diana and her sisters
I bought my first two Diana cameras, a regular Diana and a Diana F, both for five bucks at a thrift store in Grayland, WA. At that time the Diana camera was going for $100 and better on eBay. Those boom times have passed and you can now pick up a Diana – or one […]