crappiest camera and lens what did you do with it?

[Ron in Arcata California]

Don't forget Miroslav Tichý

https://fstoppers.com/natural-light/...de-camera-4848

[monochromeFan]

i think this was intended for real junk cameras bought new, not old decrepid cameras dug up from the grave.

holgas! leaking light so bad the entire camera had to be wrapped in electric tape once loaded with film. destination... statan island garbage dump!

And to think, thats their main SELLING point..

[jnantz]

i think this was intended for real junk cameras bought new, not old decrepid cameras dug up from the grave.

holgas! leaking light so bad the entire camera had to be wrapped in electric tape once loaded with film. destination... statan island garbage dump!

Have you ever seen victor milin’s holga photographs, stunning!
—
I like using a pre war Agfa sure shot and a strut camera whose door doesn’t want to open. They make nice photos, the sure shot allows 1/2 frame on B2 (120) has a yellow filter and the oof areas are really pleasing the strut camera I love to put something self coated in it, the sharp in the middle and soft like a petsval and it didn’t cost 2grand!

[Pete Oakley]

Coming over here nocking our beer mats, it's a disgrace.

[Pete Oakley]

Coming over here nicking our beer mats, it's a disgrace.

[paulbarden]

I must have an outlier Holga - it doesn't have any light leaks, anywhere. *shrug*

[Serge S]

A few years ago a friend gave me a badly damaged 105mm Schneider Xenotar lens in a barrel. The front element was badly scuffed up - it looked as if someone had taken steel wool to the glass! I mounted it in a shutter, put it on my Intrepid 4x5 and use it as a kind of "soft focus" lens (with vignetting, as its usable image circle isn't enough to properly cover 4x5). I like what I get from it - It's got a specific feel.

Oh, and this is a Wet Plate Collodion negative - you know the stuff: inferior orthochromatic crap, unfit for modern photographic applications!

Looks good

[ericantonio]

Sharpness bourgeois bla bla fuzzy concept la la la boop dee doop.

Sounds like one of them fancy Lomo cameras with a butchered Leica Summicron attached to it via hot glue, prayers, and hairpins. It'll be the next Insta/tiktok artist to go millionaire.

[ericantonio]

Does anyone NOT REMEMBER the internet early days of "Plungercam?" Some guy with a hasselblad. I wish the website was still up. My love of cheap cameras and lenses come from working in and studios. Everything was hyper real. Too real, too sharp. Then Zone VI started selling the Holgas. I was hooked back in 1988.

I remember one of my photographer friends back then, we were printing in a lab after work, and I said "hey great shots, is that a band?? Yah, I used my Holga in a club. Those guys are called "red hot chili peppers". Are they wearing....dick socks????" I wish she published those...

Even though I have fantastic lenses, I still have a love of the memory that images make. I guess seeing super tack sharp photos was a turnoff but it was for print production so we needed them sharp.
I still have my Spiratone Portragon. And a real Diana not a recent copy.

[domaz]

I love my Omega 120 (the original, not Koni variety) and on outside appearance it looks like a crappy bizarre camera. Missing some paint, the integrated lens cap is broken off etc. When I got it the rangefinder didn't work among other things, but it was a very simple camera to repair and the lens has really nice bokeh for being "just a Tessar". It's an odd camera in terms of film advance though, it only gets 9 shots on 6x7 and the frame start out really close together and get farther apart towards the end of the roll. I have no idea if this was poor design or my camera.