For only a $1

[Mainecoonmaniac]

http://petapixel.com/2014/12/15/photographer-upgrades-1-dollar-store-camera-diy-features-fixes/

 

[AgX]

This camera model and its non functional hotshoe has recently been introduced at Apug...


(there was a url link here which no longer exists)


If that hack-recipe is for saving money ("for only 1$"), for 5$ you might get a camera that already got these features. Problem then would be that they all got a good lens...)

 

[darkosaric]

For 1 euro in my local flea market shop:

- Olympus superzoom
- Agfa sensor viewfinder camera with manual f stop, shutter speed, focus, 45mm f2.8 lens.
- Olympus travel mini (I think)
- some 6x6 - (dagora?)
- 110 cameras
...

There are some 30-40 cameras for 1 euro. I purchased couple of them and tried to sell them on ebay ... some went for 2 euros, some for 3 , some did not sold even for 1 euro.

 

[ParkerSmithPhoto]

You can buy a decent working 35mm camera from KEH for under $20. The whole hack thing feels a bit self-conscious, like "Yo, check me out! I shoot film on a hacked dollar store camera!"

He said he wanted to make the pictures "more interesting." Ahem. Not good.

 

[Moopheus]

The whole hack thing feels a bit self-conscious, like "Yo, check me out! I shoot film on a hacked dollar store camera!"

Yeah, sure. The whole point of the hack is to see what you can do, using a thing in ways not intended by the manufacturer, and owning it. Whether some other camera might be better/cheaper/whatever doesn't really have that much to do with it. Haven't you ever opened something up just to see what was inside? To a hacker, a closed box is an invention to play.

 

[AgX]

Morpheus, I totally agree. I only replied as that "1 Dollar" aspect was so exposed.

 

[Prest_400]

I've got one of those lying around since I was a kid. Infact, I thought about doing a photo project with that when I was 8.

For 1 euro in my local flea market shop:

- Olympus superzoom
- Agfa sensor viewfinder camera with manual f stop, shutter speed, focus, 45mm f2.8 lens.
- Olympus travel mini (I think)
- some 6x6 - (dagora?)
- 110 cameras
...

There are some 30-40 cameras for 1 euro. I purchased couple of them and tried to sell them on ebay ... some went for 2 euros, some for 3 , some did not sold even for 1 euro.

This is why I'd love to live in Center Europe, UK, US and Japan. Occasionally there are interesting cameras around. Here there doesn't seem to be much of a culture for garage sales, flea markets and second hand. No eBay overpricing, shipping and all of that.
I will try to see if I can get my hands on a decent underwater P&S for summer beach shooting.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

This reminds me when I buy a cheap cut of meat then try to make a decent dish out of it.

 

[Steve Smith]

My initial thought was why?... However, why not?


Steve.

 

[paul_c5x4]

I buy a cheap cut of meat then try to make a decent dish out of it.

Do you smother it with hot-melt glue and add assorted nuts & bits of wire to it ?

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Once in a while

Do you smother it with hot-melt glue and add assorted nuts & bits of wire to it ?

Only if it's road kill

 

[blockend]

Live and let live. The guy isn't doing anything people who bling their car or carefully paint model aircraft aren't, the world doesn't require either to keep turning. As that same world is heaving under the weight of redundant film cameras he might have picked a more productive diversion, but then you might ask why a plastic toy camera costs the same as a clean, used professional Nikon? Supply and demand are rarely based on necessity or objective values.

Apropos of nothing, my cousin was an enthusiastic holiday taker when she was single. The only thing that rivalled her keenness for vacations in exotic places was her fondness for photography. All this photography was undertaken on a consumer 110 camera. She literally filled album after album with small enprints of far away places barely discernible through the murky plastic lens and the deeply textured photographic paper. I once hesitantly asked whether she'd considered a more upmarket model, perhaps even an automatic 35mm camera, but she saw nothing lacking in the images to remind her of great holidays.

People on this forum might have factored in the substantial cost of such holidays, the high price of photographic processing and printing and would have made a case for a decent point and shoot as a minimum, but they'd be wrong. Her pictures suited her and that was all that matters. Likewise, the camera fettler above need not explain himself to any of us.

 

[ciniframe]

Live and let live. The guy isn't doing anything people who bling their car or carefully paint model aircraft aren't, the world doesn't require either to keep turning. As that same world is heaving under the weight of redundant film cameras he might have picked a more productive diversion, but then you might ask why a plastic toy camera costs the same as a clean, used professional Nikon? Supply and demand are rarely based on necessity or objective values.

Yeah, that's the way I see this sort of thing to. I like to tinker with all manner of photographic stuff. For me the journey is as much fun as the results. A few hacks I've done;
The lens head from a 90 f4 Elmar on a third party bellows for my Pen F, focus from infinity to 1:1 (reversible, can go back on my Leica M).

A series V clip for my Minolta 16II, (fits over '0' lens), attach filters, close up diopters, a Tamron 4X telephoto lens, a .42X fisheye lens, etc.(Why? because I could and yes, the actual results with the 4X and fisheye lenses are so-so.)

A sliding hardwood adapter for the Pen F to use OM mount lenses as shift lenses, the 24mm f2.8 Zuiko works ok that way.

Just tinkering around is entertainment for me, the results are secondary.

 

[darkosaric]

Live and let live.

I agree. Maybe I was not clear in my first post. I wanted to say that today you can find many cameras for 1€ or 1$, it is totally ok to play with it. I am also doing some fun projects that are "hacking" in a way (latest is to make some teleconverter for Olympus superzoom that I got for 1€) .

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Yes, my Canonet 28 was marked at $1 at a camera swap meet. A great buy.