Most disappointing cameras?

[BrianL]

Sirius Glass, it is the cutting of the roads and trails that I'm against. May be legal but still destroys the habitat. Never dealt with or read anything from the Sierra Club and have no idea what their platform or mission is.

 

[Sirius Glass]

[Warning: Off Topic Aside ON]​

Sirius Glass, it is the cutting of the roads and trails that I'm against.

On this we agree.

There are many groups that work to block anyone from enjoying the outdoors if it is not done only their way. They will do everything legally and illegally, ethically and unethically to stop whatever they do not do. For, example they would look at your comment about using a tank for off-roading [probably meant as a jest] and quote it out of context elsewhere as an example why motor vehicles should be banned anywhere a road is not paved.

Frankly, a tank is not a good off-roading vehicle. It tears up all roads! The only place that treaded vehicle is useful and not damaging is in deep snow pack. Even in sand dunes the treads destroy the structure and kill things living in the sand.

Also the original HumVee is not so great for off-roading. Yes, it is a capable vehicle but it is too wide for many of the trails and cannot fit through the obsticles without damaging the obsticle or itself.

Back to my "There are many groups that work to block anyone from enjoying the outdoors if it is not done only their way." comment. I go off-roading to get to places I can no longer hike to or to places that would take many days to get to by foot. When I go off-roading, I almost always take someone who would not be able to see the areas I go into, because they could not get there if they followed the edicts of the Sierra Club.

Off-roading done following Tread Lightly [http://www.treadlightly.org], Blue Ribbon Coalition [http://www.sharetrails.org/], CORVA [http://www.corva.org/], U4WDA[http://www.u4wda.org], and Red Rock 4 Wheelers [http://www.rr4w.com/] to name a few, are very strongly in favor of preserving the environment so that later generations can visit them and enjoy them in the same state and condition that they are today.

[Warning: Off Topic Aside OFF]​

Now back to the "Most disappoing cameras?" thread.​

 

[fstop]

I love nothing better than mashing down small trees and brush with a duece and half.

motor vehicles should be banned anywhere a road is not paved.

Yeah and let the fools in the Yellowstone back country die during the winter because some limp wristed fools don't want snowmobiles there.

 

[wblynch]

It's one thing to have emergency snow mobiles but quite another to have a bunch of yahoo idiots screaming around tearing up the beauty of nature and terrorizing the natural residents.

What is with the mentality of those people who want nothing else but to tear stuff up? Tread Lightly is the best philosophy I've heard.

 

[fstop]

What is with the mentality of idiots who expect me to pay for a national park and not use it?
Snow melts, any sign of use is gone after spring,nothing is torn up, the only people being terrorizied are the ones who are trying to enjoy the park by those who don't want anyone outside of their clique using it.

 

[wblynch]

We all pay for the highways. use them.

 

[Sirius Glass]

"Paved roads are a frivolous waste of tax payers' hard earned money!"

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Ain't that something, sure hate to it break down!

Jeff

 

[kreeger]

I can add several to the list:

Bronica ETR-S. The lenses were so-so, and the rapid wind grip with the thumb advance was flimsy. They just seemed cheap compared to other Bronica's I used like ECs.
Nikon FA - Too much reliance on electronics. Viewfinder had a cropped viewfinder that made it hard to determine actual framing you were getting.
Nikon EL2 - Battery eater, hard to find and expensive battery.
Nikon F4 - Great camera and build quality but ultimately way too heavy. Made F2 with motor drive seem like a Minox.

 

[BobD]

Nikon EL2 - Battery eater, hard to find and expensive battery.

There are currently hundreds of listings for this battery on eBay. For example, you can buy 10 of them for less than $5

If you remember to turn off the meter (by pressing wind lever flush with body) the battery will last a lot longer.

 

[Excalibur2]

I really liked my Petri MF-1 at first as it was a small as an Olympus OM and took M42 lenses...but I just can't solve an intermittent light leak..and am not wasting any more film or developing in tests, as it would cost more than the camera is worth.

 

[Plate Voltage]

The most disappointing camera for me is the Pentax K1000.

I know it's highly regarded by many people as the archetypal manual camera that's ideal for people to learn the basics of photography on. That's probably the reason why my high school bought a fleet of them for the communications technology classes, which is where I got to use one in grade 10. The teacher gave the class a rushed overview of the very, very basics of photography and how to use the K1000 before sending the students out with a camera and one roll of film each to shoot. The K1000 I ended up with for the project apparently had a broken light meter but since I had very little idea how to use the camera from the rushed rundown on it and was new to photography at the time, I never realized it and all my exposures were guesses. Then it was into the darkroom to develop the one roll of film the school provided and make prints of the best shots. The whole roll was a writeoff and I got an awful grade.

Five years later after the mess in high school, one of my friends was using a similar K1000 setup to shoot slides. One day, we'd gone out photographing together and when we got our films back, we compared our sets of Kodachrome slides. The ones I took using my Canon A-1 with 50mm lens were consistently sharper than the ones taken with the K1000 with 55mm lens. After several more photography trips like this with similar results, my friend picked up a Canon with a 50mm FD lens like mine and the K1000 got shelved except for occasional print film use.

I've never touched a K1000 since that fiasco in high school and my friend's experience with his lenses being softer than the Canon FD lenses pretty much put me off permanently. To this day, I can't think about using Pentax equipment without the thought, "Will this be like that K1000?" rippling through my mind.

 

[Roger Cole]

I've never touched a K1000 since that fiasco in high school and my friend's experience with his lenses being softer than the Canon FD lenses pretty much put me off permanently. To this day, I can't think about using Pentax equipment without the thought, "Will this be like that K1000?" rippling through my mind.

I understand a bad experience, but lenses differ from sample to sample as well as different models of lens across the same manufacturer's lines. Nor does using a Canon or Pentax lock one into that line of lenses. My most used lens on my Pentax LX is my Vivitar 28-105 Series 1. It's a very sharp lens, just very intolerant of filters and lens hoods - it very easily vignettes at 28mm if you attach much of anything to the front.

I'm not a huge fan of the K1000 either but for a very different reason. Any camera used to "teach the basics of photography" darned well ought to have a depth of field preview. It's fine to talk about it and show photos and teach using the scale, but what really drives it home is hitting the button and seeing it change (not to mention no matter how experienced one is, it's much more useful than the DOF scale on the lens IMHO.)

 

[brucemuir]

I understand a bad experience, but lenses differ from sample to sample as well as different models of lens across the same manufacturer's lines.

fer real,
plus the post mentions a 55 vs a 50 FD
In most cases the 55 focal length was an older design when it was harder to make a fast 50.

IMO Pentax glass kicks azzz even the older 55 I have in M42.

 

[Plate Voltage]

That K1000 was definitely a bad experience. Let me put it this way: when I took up photography on my own a year or two after that comm tech course, I wasn't interested in going out and buying a K1000 for my own personal use. Consequently, for a number of reasons, I ended up buying a Canon FD mount camera and built a system around that.

And the Canons have DOF preview...
Speaking of omitted features from the K1000, if I remember correctly, I don't think the K1000 has a shutter lock. I'm pretty sure the shutter release is live as soon as the film's advanced to the next frame.

 

[Roger Cole]

That K1000 was definitely a bad experience. Let me put it this way: when I took up photography on my own a year or two after that comm tech course, I wasn't interested in going out and buying a K1000 for my own personal use. Consequently, for a number of reasons, I ended up buying a Canon FD mount camera and built a system around that.

And the Canons have DOF preview...
Speaking of omitted features from the K1000, if I remember correctly, I don't think the K1000 has a shutter lock. I'm pretty sure the shutter release is live as soon as the film's advanced to the next frame.

Many Pentaxes have DOF preview too. The K1000 was an entry camera and many such didn't, from many makers.

My LX has a shutter lock. Annoys me a lot too. I've lost several shots when it got activated and I didn't know it or mean for it to be on. Wish it wasn't even there and never missed it on any other camera. YMMV, but I'm a "do not put finger on the trigger until ready to fire" kind of guy anyway. ;-)

 

[darinwc]

I have to agree on the K1000. I've picked up a few but never felt the need to put film through them. Compared to the spotmatic it does not seem as well built. And compared to a MX or ME Super, it feels big and clumsy.

 

[Roger Cole]

The K1000 was intended as an introductory camera though it's fair to point out that the earlier, Japan-made ones are generally a lot better built than later ones. Still, they're all manual, all mechanical except the meter, and relatively rugged. What they are not is particularly refined. They are certainly not an MX. If you want to compare manual Pentaxes to a top of the line manual 35mm of other makes, then it should be an MX, for comparison of full featured models with auto exposure, the LX compares to other pro grade cameras. (I just wish it had exposure memory lock, the one glaring omission on an otherwise superb camera.)

 

[lonelyboy]

All APS film camera......

 

[aroth87]

I picked up a Canon Sure Shot WP-1 off eBay with the intention of using it on float trips and rainy campouts. It worked for about half a roll before it stopped advancing the film. It wouldn't rewind what I already took so I had to pop open the back and ruin the only test pictures I had. I replaced the battery but it couldn't even start winding a fresh roll. It tried but it sounded like either a motor was worn out of a gear was stripped. Somewhere along the way I also broke one of the latches on the door. I've got a lot of old cameras sitting around on shelves that don't work, but that was the only one I've ever thrown away....

Adam

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I have a waterproof Canon (I keep thinking it's model number is A1) which did pretty good.

Jeff

 

[f/16]

I have been unhappy with abut half the camera bodies I got on fleabay. Now I get most of my gear at KEH.

 

[alanrockwood]

Most disappointing camera: a Topcon Super D bought on ebay. It was defective. The seller took it back.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I have been unhappy with abut half the camera bodies I got on fleabay. Now I get most of my gear at KEH.

Usally KEH is pretty good.

Jeff

 

[Vanishing Point Ent.]

My Most Disappointing camera purchase was a Yashica T-4, here's why...

My last purchase was an Olympus XA w an A16 Flash,
which replaces a Yashica T-4, which despite the
superior Zeiss lens, I could not produce the quality
of the results I wanted, because of the limitation of
the film DX Coding, without a Manual Overide.