35mm plastic lens compact cameras

blockend · Jun 9, 2020

Most people think of Holga and Diana roll film cameras, when talking lo-fi. However there are simple 35mm cameras that operate on similar principles. A favourite of mine is the Olympus Shoot & Go, a fixed aperture, shutter speed and focus camera, with thumb wheel film advance and a flash powered by two AA-cells. It has a 3-element plastic lens that suffers from (or promotes) the optical characteristics of other low fidelity cameras. Halina, Hanimex and others produced models to fulfil a role for an ultra-simple camera.

Anyone else have 35mm "toy" camera favourites?

darkosaric · Jun 9, 2020

Konica pop is my favorite, but it is not plastic lens, it has pretty good glass lens. However there is a fix focus, single shutter speed, so by function it is somehow in Lo-Fi category.

Donald Qualls · Jun 9, 2020

I have a few of these, there are multiple brand/model labels that are identical cameras -- and some that aren't the same at all. I have one that I received with the lens drilled, and the shutter paddle along with it (the guy who drilled the lens was making a pinhole out of it, but didn't remove the shutter paddle first). I fixed it, finished converting, and made the shutter B-only. Haven't found it again since my move, though.

blockend · Jun 9, 2020

darkosaric said:
Konica pop is my favorite, but it is not plastic lens, it has pretty good glass lens. However there is a fix focus, single shutter speed, so by function it is somehow in Lo-Fi category.

I think the Konica Pop has an automatic aperture, with a lens of f4 maximum aperture. So it's effectively an auto exposure camera.

darkosaric · Jun 9, 2020

blockend said:
I think the Konica Pop has an automatic aperture, with a lens of f4 maximum aperture. So it's effectively an auto exposure camera.

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Konica_pop

Shutter speed: fixed at 1/125s

F stop you can change by changing ISO value and/or flash pop (without batteries - flash will no fire, but will change f stop of the lens)

blockend · Jun 9, 2020

darkosaric said:
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Konica_pop

Shutter speed: fixed at 1/125s

F stop you can change by changing ISO value and/or flash pop (without batteries - flash will no fire, but will change f stop of the lens)

I have never come across this system. Does the aperture remain wide open at f4 with slow films and shoot at f16 with 3200 ISO film? Surely that is less consistent than having a shutter speed of 1/100 and f11 Waterhouse stop with instructions to shoot in daylight?

darkosaric · Jun 9, 2020

blockend said:
I have never come across this system. Does the aperture remain wide open at f4 with slow films and shoot at f16 with 3200 ISO film? Surely that is less consistent than having a shutter speed of 1/100 and f11 Waterhouse stop with instructions to shoot in daylight?

Here is explanation which f stop and how this works with Konica pop:

https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Konica_pop

darkosaric · Jun 9, 2020

And here are 2 cheap negative scans from Konica Pop test that I did couple of moths ago:

Donald Qualls · Jun 9, 2020

Clearly not as lo-fi as all that. Looks like some shots I have from box cameras, though. Kind of a round-about way to control exposure, too.

blockend · Jun 9, 2020

Donald Qualls said:
Kind of a round-about way to control exposure, too.

Yes it seems film speed is used as variable aperture. However, let's not get lost in definitions of how lo-fi is lo-fi, the Konica Pop is clearly a very basic 35mm camera. Simple cameras often use a two aperture set up, one position for 100/200 ASA, and another aperture for 400 ASA. Some have an aperture for flash to make use of the modest power of in-camera flash.

Another feature of some of my fixed-everything cameras, is auto advance. Such was the fashion for power winding that cameras which were primitive in every other way needed batteries not for exposure, but to eliminate a lever or film wheel!

Donald Qualls · Jun 9, 2020

All of the simple 35mm cameras I have are fixed-everything, manual advance, and no battery needed or accepted. But there were a couple models of Kodak Instamatic that used a spring-driven auto-wind in a camera with no other adjustments (other than to slow the shutter or open the aperture -- not sure which, fifty-plus years later -- when a flashcube was installed). I've got a few pictures on my computer from one or two of them, let's see here...

"Mischief" -- camera listed as "Junker P&S" roughly 35mm f/8 to f/11. Tri-X, experimental monobath (ancestor of Famous Format R1).

blockend · Jun 10, 2020

Nice shots, gentlemen.

blockend said:
Such was the fashion for power winding that cameras which were primitive in every other way needed batteries not for exposure, but to eliminate a lever or film wheel!

I just dug out such a camera, my Nikon EF100. Hard to believe Nikon ever made, or labelled, such simple cameras given their reputation. Nevertheless, the EF100 features a single aperture and shutter speed - but requires 2 AA batteries to advance the film. It has another sophistication.. macro! It achieves this by pushing the plastic lens assembly forward on a spring. In every other way it resembles the cheapest of cheap plastic cameras. The natural inheritor of the box camera and 126 Instamatic.

Agulliver · Jun 27, 2020

I wish now I hadn't sold my Konica Pop. Definitely fixed shutter speed, what it did have was a crude light meter which would trigger a red LED if there was insufficient light to take a photograph without the flash. It was adjustable for 100, 200, 400 ASA simply via aperture size. Very simple but effective and you could remove the batteries and use 400 or higher speed film knowing the apertures and shutter speed. I got my yellow example in 1982 and sold it around 20 years later but now I kind of wish I still had it. It did take decent photos provided one wasn't close to the subject.

darkosaric · Jun 28, 2020

I started a thread here on apug about gear that one sells, and then later buys again. I have a long list , and now I know better: do not sell, nothing. I have like 20 50mm lenses, using 2,3 only. But no selling, except you really need money for bills.

Donald Qualls · Jun 28, 2020

I've had that discussion with various life partners for decades. "You have too much stuff, when was the last time you used that X, why don't you just throw it away?"

My rejoinder has been, for everything (not just camera gear): "I know I'm going to want it again, and I might not be able to afford it when I do."

Wallendo · Jun 29, 2020

I have a Harmon reusable Camera, which produces images with significant vignetting, peripheral distortion, and complete lack of sharpness away from the center. The images are virtually identical to those from my Vivitar T200. Both are flimsy plastic cameras. Although no smaller, they are both much lighter than my solid metal Olympus 35RC which takes images of better technical quality. Still, I occasionally will shoot with the plastic cameras for the "plastic effect".

blockend · Jul 2, 2020

Wallendo said:
The images are virtually identical to those from my Vivitar T200.

The simplest cameras closely resemble disposable models, with the addition of a rear door. I wouldn't be surprised to find they are manufactured by the same company.

Donald Qualls · Jul 2, 2020

Unless I missed a decade of them (possible), the simple 35mm cameras predated disposables by a good while. Remember the Time-Life 35mm? Styled to look like an SLR, and it had steel weight plates in the bottom cover to make it feel more "real" -- and it was given away with a subscription to the magazine. As early as the 1980s.

blockend · Jul 4, 2020

Donald Qualls said:
Unless I missed a decade of them (possible), the simple 35mm cameras predated disposables by a good while. Remember the Time-Life 35mm? Styled to look like an SLR, and it had steel weight plates in the bottom cover to make it feel more "real" -- and it was given away with a subscription to the magazine. As early as the 1980s.

Yes, simple plastic 35mm cameras pre-dated disposables, though tbh I don't know exactly when disposable cameras were introduced. Cheap 35mm cameras usually aped the look of their more expensive brethren, but used inexpensive lenses and cut corners on materials. Halina (the Haking Co of Hong Kong) were a volume supplier of such cameras. Hanimex also turned out Hong Kong made 35mm compacts. In later years some prestigious names adorned very cheap compacts, as everyone wanted a slice of the bottom end amateur market.

Faux SLRs were the same thing, but rather less honest, with metal ballast to give the camera gravity (sic). There was a trend a few years ago for reusing disposable cameras, as people liked the output. With a fixed f11 aperture the better examples were capable of sharp images. A decade ago when film was "dead", you could pick up a consignment of 35mm disposable cameras, suitably themed in wedding or toy packaging, very inexpensively indeed.

blockend · Jul 4, 2020

This site contains reviews of plastic compact cameras: https://austerityphoto.co.uk/

skorpiius · Aug 6, 2020

I was just about to post a similar topic, glad I found this.

A couple of times I have used the Ilford XP2 single user camera and I really liked it.
But they cost almost $20 CAD and the film inside is only worth $10 CAD so I'm basically spending $10 each time to 'rent the camera'. So I was looking for something similar but reusable.

First that came to mind was the Kodak KB 10. It's basically the same specs but actually slightly more primitive as the flash fires every photo. You can apparently just not load batteries though

Then I was interested in the Harman reusable camera with the luxury of a flash on/off switch, but if it has a fun-house lens then I am not interested.

So then I was thinking the next step up up would be something with several apertures.

This stock photo showed up and I'm quite curious about it, but no branding at all.It appears to allow several apertures and several ISOs

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-ph...-dubious-quality-isolated-white-image52144454

EDIT its an AGAT 18K

https://www.photothinking.com/2018-10-15-belomo-agat-18k-plastic-fantastic/

And this Pentax Pino 35 is basically the same thing but from a more respectable brand

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Pentax_Pino_35

I realized that most of the plastic cameras Kodak put out from the 50s-80s (Brownie, 'Star' series, Instamatic, 110 cameras) are all just simple box cameras like the Kodak KB 10.

But then I thought about what might be the next level of advancement.

I note the Instamatic 404 has a selenium light cell tied to aperture (and I actually own one for display)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instamatic

but I have no interest in reloading 126 cartridges.

Note, I realize some of these last ones probably have a glass lens.

So I'm curious if there was a plastic 35mm camera with that small level of automation? What about a switch to change between two focal lengths? I think that would be the very limit of the kind of 'advancement' I'd be looking for but I'm curious what is out there.

AgX · Aug 6, 2020

skorpiius said:
was just about to post a similar topic, glad I found this.

Its an AGAT 18K

And this Pentax Pino 35 is basically the same thing but from a more respectable brand.

It is basically not the same. As the Belomo Agat got scale focusing, the Pentax Pino has only fix focus.

And I assume that both cameras got glass lenses, the Agat at least even got a Tessar type, which contradicts your prerequisites.

xya · Aug 6, 2020

the nearest to your needs meight be a canon snappy/BF80/BF90. fixed focus, flash can be forced or suppressed, see http://www.135compact.com/canon_prima_bf90.htm. there is also a link to my pastic camera website, but these do not have flashes in general.

skorpiius · Aug 6, 2020

xya said:
the nearest to your needs meight be a canon snappy/BF80/BF90. fixed focus, flash can be forced or suppressed, see http://www.135compact.com/canon_prima_bf90.htm. there is also a link to my pastic camera website, but these do not have flashes in general.

Yeah that's pretty cool, I was just checking out the manual online and it's like the Kodak KB 10 + DX + AE + controllable flash but with the fixed focus. Thanks!
I like the idea of not having to worry about focus while doing shoot from the hip street photos with a small camera, but a bit more certainty of decent exposure is a plus.

redrockcoulee · Sep 5, 2020

Not my photos as mine aren't on this tablet but my snap crackle pop is my favourite. Was a gift from a fellow photographer

35mm plastic lens compact cameras

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