Guilty pleasure cameras

Cholentpot · Jun 4, 2017

I was wondering what your guilty pleasure camera is. I have a few that are maybe lower tier, or fully automated, tough to use or just ugly that I keep coming back too.

I have a troublesome Canon T50 that for all logical reasons I should abandon but for some reason I love shooting with the thing. It fits in the hand very nicely and give a satisfying feeling when the shutter is pressed. Sure I can't really choose any settings as it makes the decisions for me but I keep picking it up.

Another is a Kodak Signet 50. I hate hate scale focus cameras and this is a kinda plasticy cheap version of the Signet 35. But the photos from this camera come out wonderful! So, I load in another roll and hate the whole shooting experience but end up with images I love.

The last one to round this off is a Promaster 2500PK Super. This is a plastic fantastic all mechanical camera with a simple LED meter. The battery holder was kaput and its a chore getting power from the battery. The wind crunches to the next frame and the shutter sounds like a barn door during a twister. But; the thing is light, fits in my hand well and takes all my K mount lenses. So once again, I come back to it time and time again.

Sirius Glass · Jun 4, 2017

When I do not have time to stop and really compose carefully or I just want a quick snapshot that I will not print larger then my Nikon F-100. If I will want to work in the darkroom in color or black & white to make prints to frame then of course the Hasselblad. When I want to play around then the 4"x5" Pacemake Speed Graphic or 4"x5" Graflex Model D.

Paul Howell · Jun 4, 2017

My Rentia III big C, have had for 52 years, odd set up, winder lever on the bottom, hard to set the shutter and f stop due to the interlock, non coupled meter, the 80 and 35mm lens are not coupled to the rangefinder as well. Good fast 50mm lens, makes good images, just attached to it.

MartinCrabtree · Jun 4, 2017

Haven't used it in years but my Polaroid SX-70. Looking both ways...............sshhhhhhhhhhhhhh............my Nikon D3100.

Cholentpot · Jun 4, 2017

MartinCrabtree said:
Haven't used it in years but my Polaroid SX-70. Looking both ways...............sshhhhhhhhhhhhhh............my Nikon D3100.

Shhhh...and sometimes I use my cellphone, with a cheap clip on lens...

ciniframe · Jun 4, 2017

An original Olympus Pen, VF type will full manual exposure control and focusing to 22 inches. My very first Half frame and still a favorite. Only trouble now with using it is I buy preloaded 36 exp rolls and if I don't want to wait for the whole roll I have to roll off a blank shot, snip off and spool the exposed part on a plastic reel in the darkroom, and reload the remaining roll.

skucera · Jun 5, 2017

I've got to admit to having waaaayyyy too much fun lately with an Olympus IS-3 that I got recently. I bought it because years ago I had a boss who raved that it was the best camera since sliced bread, and it being $10 plus shipping, I figured I'd find out at low risk. Boy, he was right! It is a brute, though, but it makes beautiful pictures.

Scott

darinwc · Jun 5, 2017

My Motorola Droid Ultra.. I always have it with me and I have an advanced camera app. Often I have it in Black and white mode, which mimics a red filter. The lens has the same angle of view as a 24mm. And man it takes some great pics.

Film-wise, right now it is my Bessa I. No rangefinder. Separate meter. I mess up about half the frames and I only get 8 per roll. But for some reason I am drawn to it.

blockend · Jun 5, 2017

I feel no guilt using any camera, from the cheapest plastic crap to a 5 x 4. I do have a twinge of guilt regarding the amount of film in my freezers, all heading towards or beyond their sell-by date. This is especially acute with slide film, especially medium format of which I have a great deal, and is subject to colour shifts with age. Truth is I don't have a project worthy of it that isn't covered by other formats.

teejay · Jun 6, 2017

Cholentpot said:
Shhhh...and sometimes I use my cellphone, with a cheap clip on lens...

Careful lads - Big Brother is watching...

Wallendo · Jun 6, 2017

My guilty pleasure cameras are Fuji single-use cameras.

Sometimes I feel like they are environmentally wasteful, but at other times it is fun to slip one in my pocket and take off without worrying about protecting a nice camera.

benveniste · Jun 6, 2017

My Pentax 110 SLR.

Sirius Glass · Jun 6, 2017

Wallendo said:
My guilty pleasure cameras are Fuji single-use cameras.

Sometimes I feel like they are environmentally wasteful, but at other times it is fun to slip one in my pocket and take off without worrying about protecting a nice camera.

Actually the Kodak and Fuji cameras are reused so you really paid for a used camera that will be used many more times before it is retired.

Marcelo Paniagua · Jun 6, 2017

That would be Rolleiflex sl35e. Left me down on a number of occasions, but somehow she keep coming back from the dead. I really love ergonomics, the lenses, shutter noise and somehow "Rolleiflex" just spell classic cameras .

Regards

Marcelo

ac12 · Jun 6, 2017

My 4x5 Toyo.
Bulky and difficult to setup, compared to 35mm or even 6x6, but it is FUN.

Platelayer · Jun 6, 2017

ciniframe said:
An original Olympus Pen, VF type will full manual exposure control and focusing to 22 inches. My very first Half frame and still a favorite. Only trouble now with using it is I buy preloaded 36 exp rolls and if I don't want to wait for the whole roll I have to roll off a blank shot, snip off and spool the exposed part on a plastic reel in the darkroom, and reload the remaining roll.

I obtained one of these originally and it's quickly become a favourite camera. I've had 'technically' very good results with 100 speed film developed and printed normally, but quite like the look of Kentmere 400, half frame, developed in Rodinal to preserve the grain. Not an every day combination, but it gives a particular 'look'.

Cholentpot · Jun 6, 2017

Wallendo said:
My guilty pleasure cameras are Fuji single-use cameras.

Sometimes I feel like they are environmentally wasteful, but at other times it is fun to slip one in my pocket and take off without worrying about protecting a nice camera.

Reload em. I do it all the time. A shock or two is no big deal.

fstop · Jun 6, 2017

My guilty pleasure camera has to be a Minolta XG-9 or XGM. They have the right features, compact size and excellent glass from the era.I've shot a lot of car shows with them.

cooltouch · Jun 6, 2017

This is an interesting question, mostly because having a guilty pleasure camera, as if it were an addiction to chocolate or something, has never even occurred to me. I mean, of my favorite to use cameras, I honestly don't feel guilty about using any of them, and I guess I don't understand why such a thought would even cross my mind. I guess the nearest thing I can come to this is using a sub-par camera, while knowing full well it's gonna produce crappy results, but I go ahead and use it anyway because of some sort of inordinate fondness for it. Like a Lomo or a Holga, or maybe a folder with a pinhole in the bellows or something.

I guess the closest I can come to it isn't really a camera at all. Instead, it is a large, but slowly dwindling supply of very expired film in my freezer. Most of what I have left now is C-41 and I've slowly been working my way through it. And I've also been slowly developing it, which is the closest I can get to this "guilty pleasure" notion. I mean, so far, the results from developing have been ranging from write-offs (totally exposed film that some dweeb apparently rolled back into the cassette), to pretty bad, to almost ok. I still have a current backlog of some twenty rolls to develop, so I remain hopeful that at least a few will have made the time and expense worthwhile. That's about as close as I can get to feeling a guilty pleasure about it. More like a feeling that I can't stand to waste stuff -- and you just never can tell, there might be some good stuff on one of those rolls. Almost all of which I've totally forgotten about what I was shooting anyway.

narsuitus · Jun 6, 2017

Cholentpot said:
I was wondering what your guilty pleasure camera is.

My Pinhole Cameras by Narsuitus, on Flickr

McFortner · Jun 6, 2017

My FSU LTM rangefinders.

Cholentpot · Jun 6, 2017

cooltouch said:
This is an interesting question, mostly because having a guilty pleasure camera, as if it were an addiction to chocolate or something, has never even occurred to me. I mean, of my favorite to use cameras, I honestly don't feel guilty about using any of them, and I guess I don't understand why such a thought would even cross my mind. I guess the nearest thing I can come to this is using a sub-par camera, while knowing full well it's gonna produce crappy results, but I go ahead and use it anyway because of some sort of inordinate fondness for it. Like a Lomo or a Holga, or maybe a folder with a pinhole in the bellows or something.

I guess the closest I can come to it isn't really a camera at all. Instead, it is a large, but slowly dwindling supply of very expired film in my freezer. Most of what I have left now is C-41 and I've slowly been working my way through it. And I've also been slowly developing it, which is the closest I can get to this "guilty pleasure" notion. I mean, so far, the results from developing have been ranging from write-offs (totally exposed film that some dweeb apparently rolled back into the cassette), to pretty bad, to almost ok. I still have a current backlog of some twenty rolls to develop, so I remain hopeful that at least a few will have made the time and expense worthwhile. That's about as close as I can get to feeling a guilty pleasure about it. More like a feeling that I can't stand to waste stuff -- and you just never can tell, there might be some good stuff on one of those rolls. Almost all of which I've totally forgotten about what I was shooting anyway.

I have a freezer full of expired film. It's about all that I shoot. Works for me and I generally get good results. I shoot for fun so I don't really care all that much about consistent results.

John Bragg · Jun 7, 2017

My guilty pleasure cameras are my small collection of point and shoot plastic fantastics. Canon Sureshot Supreme and Olympus Mju I and Mju ii. All of these have limitations but conversely they have many strengths. Gas on a budget is one way I describe it, but sadly many others have wised up to the potential of these 80s and 90s cameras. Hence market value has rocketed. I bought Mju I cameras for 99p and now they go for a lot more, so my guilty pleasure has been an investment as well.

cooltouch · Jun 7, 2017

Cholentpot said:
I have a freezer full of expired film. It's about all that I shoot. Works for me and I generally get good results. I shoot for fun so I don't really care all that much about consistent results.

Yeah, but even if the film is nothing that you much care about, getting it processed is quite expensive -- unless you do what I've recently started doing, which is developing it myself. Then it can be much cheaper, but still there's a considerable amount of time involved in the processing and handling of the negatives afterward. So it's a bit of a let-down if the roll turns out to be junk.

BMbikerider · Jun 7, 2017

When I sold my house and downsized, after everything else was sorted out I bought a Nikon F6, Nikon 20/35 and a 28/70. Both lenses are constant aperture and of are utmost quality. I am as happy as a pig in a mud pool with the outfit. Mechanical and electrical quality beyond approach.

Nothing else has been made to equal them in 35mm analogue photography.

Guilty pleasure cameras

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