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01-21-2014, 10:34 PM   #1
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Cameras you love to hate.

Cameras you love to hate.

Interesting discussion here, what cameras do you own/use/have used that you should hate, but love still?

For example, I love my few communist cameras, even though they should be pieces of crap.

For example, my Praktica FX3:
The waist level finder is tiny
The shutter speeds are hard to read, and only go to 1/500
It has no metering at all
The lens is preset
The focus ring is so tight it hurts my fingers
The lens is mouldy

Yet I love it!
Every use is an experience.


The same can be said of my Zorki-4:
The rangefinder is tiny and dim
Film loading is awkward
The focus ring is tight enough that the lens unscrews
The rangefinder window gets blocked
If you change speeds before cocking the shutter, it breaks
If you leave the lens cap off on infinity focus it sets the shutter on fire

And, once again, I love it.


So, what cameras have you used that on paper should be absolute rubbish, yet you have an unhealthy love of them?

01-21-2014, 11:34 PM   #2
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Praktica B200
the most unreliable electronics and gapless frames.
36 roll of film you could take 39 or 40 photos ( can not remember exactly) but all development needed to be done manually.
automated systems would cut across most negative/slide frames
still have it although most likely does not work any more......
01-21-2014, 11:43 PM - 1 Like   #3
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FED 2
  • Squinty viewfinder
  • Limited shutter speeds (1/500, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30)
  • Dim rangefinder patch
  • Light leak from somewhere near the rangefinder window
  • 1m minimum focus distance
  • Loud shutter (shrrrFlump)
  • Film rewind knob has been linked to arthritis of the hand
Still...I love it




Kiev 4A
  • Very squinty viewfinder guaranteed to scratch eyeglasses
  • Rangefinder window position requires special "Contax" hold
  • Lens mount requires a moment of mediation and divine assistance
  • Shutter speed dial can strip flesh going from short to long speeds
  • Film load requires eight fingers on each hand
  • Incredibly narrow frame spacing
Still...I love it




Steve

Last edited by stevebrot; 01-21-2014 at 11:51 PM.
01-22-2014, 11:17 AM   #4
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Thread moved. Please read the sticky at the top of the General Talk Forum - the one that reads: "Photography related threads do not belong in Gen Talk."

01-22-2014, 12:05 PM   #5
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Kodak Medalist II. It's super heavy and bulky. You have to roll your own 620 from 120, unless you have it converted. But that lens, holy cow! Might be the best lens I've ever used. Huge beautiful 6x9 negs.
01-22-2014, 12:33 PM   #6
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You'd have been better off with a brush and a can of oil paint. Hopeless.
01-22-2014, 05:13 PM - 1 Like   #7
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iPhone 5s.

I don't care what the new age blogs say, it's a crap camera. The IQ sucks. The ergonomics suck. The UI really sucks.

But then I've captured some great street 'moments' with it, largely because no one cares when you pull out a phone, and it allows me to use Instagram as a visual thought journal (am I allowed to confess to Instagram here?) so it's definitely a love/hate thing.

01-22-2014, 05:56 PM   #8
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Olympus E-PL1. I like the photos, but not the process. Still use it, but...
01-22-2014, 07:31 PM   #9
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I'll agree with the phone camera too. All of them. I have an iPhone 5s too. It does better than my previous phone, a Droid X2. I do continue to use it because it's always there and if I'm careful enough to hold it steady, I can get a decent shot from time to time. It is no substitute for a real camera regardless of the improvements.
01-22-2014, 08:59 PM - 2 Likes   #10
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I-pad!!! Looks like a lunch tray being held up!!! And also any camera I don't own!!
01-23-2014, 11:13 AM   #11
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My Pentax W80 has the worst image quality of all my cameras , at the base iso of 64 it looks much worse than 12,800 iso on my Sony NEX-3N .
01-23-2014, 10:41 PM   #12
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My *ist DS.
It was my first DSLR and we spent a lot of time together...
But, it's super slow, few physical controls on the body, menu has nonsensical abbreviations.
But I love how it feels in my hands, love how it looks, and I love our history together.
It's one of the few cameras I refuse to sell.
01-24-2014, 11:23 AM   #13
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I agree re the Russian cams, plus the Medalist... But imagine paying Leica/Contax prices for essentially the same functionality...

With Pentax, I will be heretical: I love to hate the Spotmatic stop down meter switch. The location could be better (e.g. Fuji has a button you sqeeze with your right hand; Yashica has a sliding switch at the bottom of the OTHER side of the prism/lens mount, where you have a choice of several means of attack)... plus the Spottie switch tends to get sticky when old...

The hardest to use camera I have is the National Graflex. The number of persnikity operations needed to reset mirror, advance film, arm shutter, set speed, set focus and set aperture is higher than I can recall with any other camera, and inevitably confusing.
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