Worst View Camera Ever?

[Kevin Convery]

I'll defend the Nikon D70s -- I get great photos from the several I've owned and I like that it's menu system and controls are simple compared to the feature-creep of the later models. In fact I still use mine nearly everyday.

Frank,
I can surely agree with you on the ease of use when it comes to the menus and controls. I don't know, sometimes I think its because when I went to school it was around the time the dSLR became within the $1,200 - $1,500 price range and they still weren't sure of how to do all those nifty PS tricks and I ended up spending all my time in the color darkroom. Then again, I've had friends who are photoshop wizards work on my images from the d70 and they still didn't look THAT great. Perhaps I suck...

[Clement Apffel]

I'm sorry but,

I must defend Practica. I owned just about 15 Prackticas from fully mechanical to latest ones during my early photography era and those cameras are excellent and very easy to use. Those batteries you're saying... My dad bought UCAR battery 25 years ago and it's still good!!! works flawlessly!!! I agree shutter is noisy, but who cares!!!, works flawlesly all the time. It is some damn good East-German precise manufacturing!!!

On lenses, I'm not sure what you had, but I had Carl Zeiss optics, especially 50mm/F1.4... man, that is some fine lens, I can tell.

From all eastern-european 35mm cameras, Practicas were the best ones!

Then I guess I got tricked by the seller. I mean, eventhough the shutter didn't looked rusty at all, the exposure times were quite random : I had to anticipate that the "rust" was causing a +50% coefficient on exposure times.
And even with that, I had quite unstable results.
plus the 1/1000s gave quite the same result than the 1/500s speed.

Oh and, if I mentioned the mercury batteries, it's only cause mine fell out of power after like 6 months and that I never found any other batteries to replace it.

And like someone said above in this post, I too should have specify that I just didn't fit with that camera. taking apart all the technical hazards I encountered, the viewfinder was inadequate for a glasses wearer and the design was bulky and non-ergonomic to me.
Especially if you compare that model to other contemporary reflex cameras.

Once again, that is my opinion.

[EuGene Smith]

OMG, here's the penultimate LF camera fabricator!

Read the write-up that accompanies the vacuum cleaner camera thing (#270277464298 on FleaBay) . . . like, this guy makes cameras out of everything from toys to bowling balls. Just imagine what he could do with a frozen turkey!

Smiff

[evan clarke]

OMG, here's the penultimate LF camera fabricator!

Read the write-up that accompanies the vacuum cleaner camera thing (#270277464298 on FleaBay) . . . like, this guy makes cameras out of everything from toys to bowling balls. Just imagine what he could do with a frozen turkey!

Smiff

You might think penultimate, but go take a look at this guy's cameras!!

http://www.boyofblue.com/cameras.html


Evan Clarke

[Jim Galli]

You knew it was coming...........

Hasselblad ELM. When I inherited this shop with it's cameras they were real proud of this Hasselblad. To me it's like a 1958 Mercedes Benz with the 4 speed stick shift on the column. Unnecessary funkiness. The backs were all loosey goosey and half the time the film wouldn't advance. The shutter would jam, it weighed a ton, and the batteries would spin the starter on a Model A Ford. The last time I tried to use it the film didn't advance, the customer was unhappy, and I put it neatly in it's original Hasselblad case with all it's accessories and stored it in a con-ex.

[EuGene Smith]

WoW, Evan, I hadn't seen all those "cameras" (?) . . . guess it's a good thing I said penultimate, as I was trying to leave room for someone even wackier, maybe the devil himself!! After seing those images, maybe the devil has been found.

Could this be the guy who, in a fit of jealousy over Galli's LGM's showering him with all those lenses, decided to punish Jim with the ELM?

$8,000 to $26,000 apeice for those pieces of art, eh?

Smiff

[DougD]

My worst was an old Ansco 8x10. Everything was loose and the tailboard had a tendency to get loose and bang me in the face or head when I mounted it on a tripod.

[ImSoNegative]

another vote for the nuview as the worst camera i have ever used, a friend gave me one, shot one sheet of film with it, after that i was done. not worth wasting film on.

[Turner Reich]

Red Rover, Red Rover, who'd name a camera a Grover?

All the Nu Vu needed was a third rail.

I heard about a guy who used his Nu Vu as a car jack.

Seriously though, even if it takes a new thread, would love to hear (and see) any potential mods to a C1

The only modification I can think of is "Drill Baby Drill", make it so light it will sail in the wind and become useless like a lot of other models. The moral of the story is once a boat anchor always a boat anchor. It is what it it, it's a survivor machine.

One other thought: Wouldn't a nice slick smooth rack and pinion focus be nice? Maybe round off the razor blade stainless steel locks. Why should a guy, or gal, have to make a base plate for them? I did, why didn't it come with one? At least it didn't come made of cast Iron.

[Rafael Garcia]

Gray Calumet monorail, long rail. It sticks you in the ribs, or the rail shows up in the photo. Impossible to take to the field!