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 […]
SEM Baby
I like to think I don’t have a “type”. I like colorful, little plastic cameras that make snapping noises. I like tin and Bakelite 127s. I do have some nice cameras – cameras that are too good for me. These are mostly gifts from people who never in a million years would have given me grampa’s […]
Tammy
For those of us with low expectations, this camera will make your heart sing like a violin. She looks like a 126 film camera, but don’t let her fool you. She’s uses 127 roll film. Every time I touch her I hear Debbie Reynolds singing. Her Hong Kong manufacturer was one of those who felt […]
HIT Camera
Here’s a fun cam! Mike Levy sent me this HIT camera way back when. She fits perfectly inside the box she arrived in, though I’m not convinced this camera originally came from the factory in this box. I have a HIT knock-off (and have reviewed it). This actual HIT camera is quite chunky for […]
Fotodiox Camera Review
Despite a few glitches, this camera has brought more fun into my life! While using it I had quite the epiphany. More on that later. As I have mentioned before, my friend, Philip, recently passed away from cancer. He fought for a long time and he did not want to go. Before he passed, he […]
Rollei 35
A friend gave me this camera. She was going through a major life change – divorce & moving out of the state. Anyway, she stopped by before she left. She told me she had a camera for me and began to wax emotional about how her father had given her this camera when she was in high […]
Split-cam
Image Fusion! I bought this camera a while back at Archie McPhee’s. It’s supposed to be able to meld two images together. It has these little sliding black doors across the lens and viewfinder. You close both sliding doors. You advance the film (35mm). You open one door (top or bottom) on both the lens […]
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 […]
World’s Fair
Kodak World’s Fair Flash Camera: Oh man! How I have missed the “pop …fizz” of flashbulbs! 2 AA’s and a few AG1B’s later, I’m sated. Manufactured in 1964-65 specifically to commemorate the New York World’s Fair, this little plastic number shoots 12 square images on 127 roll film. Use a penny to loosen the access […]
Ansco Dollar
If you fork over a dollar for an Ansco Dollar Camera, you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck. My Ansco Dollar camera is a simple box camera that I picked up in Belfast, Maine. It takes 8 images on 127 film. I’m sure I paid more than a dollar, but not much more. […]
Foto-Flex TLR Camera
Marcy’s Foto-Flex Camera Review: Manufactured by Hadds Manufacturing in Chicago, the Foto-Flex has to be the ugliest camera I’ve ever seen. The Foto-Flex takes twelve square images on 127 film. It was in a box of cameras that I bought at an auction. Its made of metal, with a plastic viewfinder hood, and weighs close […]
Imperial 620
Imperial 620 and Imperial Herco 620: The Imperial Six-Twenty Snap Shot camera was made in the USA. It’s completely plastic, right down to it’s cute little plastic handle. It’s 2 3/4″ wide 3 1/8″ deep and 3 3/8″ tall (not including the viewfinder). There are absolutely no settings to have to fiddle with on this […]
Penny King
The Penny King Camera: Who cares if the Penny King is the cheeziest of the cheezy? As long as it has the MAGIC LENS. That MAGIC lens? It’s not made of diamonds or crystal … it’s not even cubic zirconia. It’s plastic. Magic plastic. Must be rare earth plastic. Made in Hong Kong, this camera […]
Kodak Bullet
My Kodak Bullet camera review: I truly love the 127 film format. I always have. This camera takes surprisingly large (and kinda surprisingly clear) images on 127 roll film. I’m thinking that lens wasn’t quite locked into place. Hence, the crooked frame. Click on any image for a larger view: […]
Meikai EL
The Meikai EL is a very nondescript 35mm manufactured in Japan. It’s metal AND plastic. I believe the focus free “New MK Lens” is glass, so this ain’t no toy we’re dealing with here. Also says “Tougodo” – I think that means “To good”. (Just kidding.) And, around the lens “Meisupii”. It’s got an imitation […]
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 Contessa 35
Contessa? An Italian countess? Italian royalty horning into this delicate photographic ecosystem that is my studio? My friend, Joanie, gave me this camera. She said, “Hey! I’ve got this old camera. Do you want it?” Like I’m going to say no? Turned out, it was this super cool little number – the Zeiss Ikon Contessa […]
Auto Flash Super 44
One day in an effort to promote world peace through junk store cameras, to lighten my load and to possibly get a little run in, I took a short train ride from our Airbnb rental ( a converted garage) into Brighton, England. I ended up lessening my load by one camera, then adding three, then […]
Bencini Comet
The guy at the Mini Flea Market in Brighton, England asked me, “Why did you choose that particular one?” The question surprised me and I halted for a moment. “What drew you to it?” he asked. As I’d sifted through his boxes of junk cameras, I kept in mind I only had just so much […]
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 […]
Imperial Lark 127
We have tidal rivers around here and there’s this thing I do. On a low tide, I go down to the river’s edge and find things. Things left behind by long dead people. Beachcombing is fun, but this river thing … it’s addicting. One day, I found out that traipsing along the river’s edge […]
Imperial Delta
OK… poor man’s Sprocket Rocket? Nah. It’s not panoramic. I picked this camera up at the 2018 PSPCS camera show in Kent, WA. I bought it from a guy who had a small table of stuff. This plastic beauty takes 127 film. There was tape residue (there still IS tape residue on it – since […]
Canon FT QL
It’s a Canon Ft QL. A client of mine said, “I know you like cameras. I’ve got a Minolta I want you to have.” Then she handed me a Canon FT. I’ve always been a Nikon girl, but what am I gonna do? I gave her a polite thank-you, deciding that I’d discretely throw it […]
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 […]
Cub
I can’t believe I just spent 45 minutes trying to fix the shutter in this thing. Finally …You know what? Fuck it. I soaked it in lighter fluid and, if it isn’t working tomorrow, I’ll stick it open and use a piece of tape for a shutter. At least this experience has prompted me to reload […]
SceneX
This camera came all the way from Iowa – in its original box – “From DIXIE”. It came with it’s original instruction sheet. There was even film inside! This teeny tiny (2″ x 3 1/4″) plastic camera was made in the U.S.A. It takes 8 images on 828 film. I finished off the roll. The […]
Hollywood Reflex
They say Hollywood is a tough town to get a break in … and this is one tough camera. A cast metal twin-lens reflex “style” (meaning, not the real thing) camera. Manufactured in 1947 … well, what do you know? I just happen to have a roll of 620 film that expired in May of ’47! […]
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 […]
Norton Camera
This is what I hate. It really bugs me when you click on something thinking you’ll get information about it but instead the person goes on and on about something completely unrelated. [Just wait for it, ok? I’m getting there.] Today, I’m working on updating my Norton Camera review, which I originally wrote nearly 20 […]
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 […]
Photo Master Camera
Manufactured in Chicago, this small plastic camera is only 1″ thick, just over 4 inches long and, including the viewfinder, is 3″ high. I don’t remember where I got it, but I think it was something like 49 cents. The shutter has a time setting. This camera uses 127 film, which it refers to as […]
Mar-Crest Camera
With a name like Mar-Crest, you would think this camera was born, catching a wave, on a beautiful beach in southern Cailfornia or maybe a lovely sun-soaked island somewhere south of where we are now. Alas, she comes to us from the fair city of Chicago, Illinois. A pretty much typical half frame 127 roll […]
Coronet 3-D
Mike Levy of SELECTING AND USING CLASSIC CAMERAS fame gave me this camera. It was kinda bunged up, but in working condition. Just the way I like ’em. Sporting a binocular viewfinder, this 3-D camera was manufactured in 1954. It has a little finger that you slide across the front to cock the shutter. […]
Dover 620-A Camera
Manufactured in Dover, New Hampshire, the Dover 620-A is one of the weirdest cameras I’ve used. I bought it at a camera show. I bought it because it’s weird and four bucks was within my budget. When I carry this camera, I need nothing more … other than maybe flashbulbs. Stamped on the camera’s back is what might […]
Anscoflex and Anscoflex II
The Anscoflex and the Anscoflex II cameras were designed by Raymond Loewy (the same guy who designed the Studebaker Avanti & Lucky Strike cigarette package). The Anscoflex & Anscoflex II cameras have big, fabulously bright viewfinders. The Anscoflex II has two built-in filters, one yellow, one close-up. Only one filter can be used at a […]
Photo Champ
This camera has definitely got a fightin’ chance as a contender for the title of coolest plastic camera. Manufactured in the U.S. by Cardinal Corporation, it’s got the same bloodlines as the Buckeye Camera. The Photo Champ gives 16 exposures on 127 film. Keep in mind, the shutter actuates on both the down and up movement […]
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 […]
Empire Baby
The very first time I saw an Empire Baby Camera on eBay, I thought it was the cutest little thing. Someone from Australia was auctioning it. I bid $5 and was outbid .I bought my first Empire Baby at the annual camera show in Puyallup, Washington. There, I paid my five bucks. This tiny (3 1/2″ x […]
Brownie Number 2A Model C
I bought this Brownie box camera in a town named Bow. It was at one of those junk stores that are like how junk stores used to be. Crammed with funky, interesting junk at decent prices for funky, interesting junk. This camera was five bucks. The back latch was broken. What intrigued me was that […]