This could just as easily go here or in the Lo-Fi Cameras sub-board.
Recesky is a 35mm TLR that comes as a kit and sells for as little as $15, depending on the seller (same camera is sold under other brands, too -- I spotted one on Amazon just a few minutes ago that had much more detailed English instructions, but was twice the money). Mine was at that bottom price, including a very intensive lesson in written Chinese at no extra charge. Fortunately, there are multiple sources for English instructions for the very similar Gakkeflex.
The kit is 68 parts -- injection molded plastic body parts (probably ABS, seems less prone to early failure than polystyrene), four springs, 25 screws (18 cheese head, 5 washer head, and 2 flat head), a front surface reflex mirror and frosted plastic focusing screen. Assembly is widely touted as taking about an hour, but it took me two; I spent extra time double checking the English instructions for the Gakkenflex against the pictures in the Chinese instructions for the camera I actually have. The only significant difference between the two, though, is that the Recesky has moved the rewind knob to the right side plate (where the film advance and advance "counter" live, and added a (pretty useless) tripod socket on the left, and is a little narrower (because there's no need for support for the rewind on the left side plate). lens is an unlabeled plastic biconvex; based on photos I've seen it's inferior to the meniscus on a Holga (and certainly inferior to the one on a Brownie Hawkeye Flash from sixty years ago).
The lenses are geared together in opposite thread helicals (like a Ricohflex or Kodak Reflex), so you can actually focus the camera like a TLR, but the frosted plastic viewscreen is so coarse it's hard to tell when you're in focus.
Shutter is fixed at approximately 1/150 (says the manufacturer), if you install the aperture disk behind the taking lens you have f/11 (vs. f/5.6 and even more distortion/field curvature/chromatic aberration/coma), hence the recommendation is for ISO 200 film. Since I have none of that on hand, I loaded with XP2 Super, which can be shot at EI 50 to 800 on the same roll with good results.
I have little expectation for this camera -- but it's a brand new camera for $15, and it was fun assembling it. There's a good likelihood I'll get a couple glass achromats and try "upgrading" the lenses at some point -- this small, lightweight camera would be a lot of fun if it'll make images at least as good as a Holga.
I'll come back here with images once I have some.
Recesky is a 35mm TLR that comes as a kit and sells for as little as $15, depending on the seller (same camera is sold under other brands, too -- I spotted one on Amazon just a few minutes ago that had much more detailed English instructions, but was twice the money). Mine was at that bottom price, including a very intensive lesson in written Chinese at no extra charge. Fortunately, there are multiple sources for English instructions for the very similar Gakkeflex.
The kit is 68 parts -- injection molded plastic body parts (probably ABS, seems less prone to early failure than polystyrene), four springs, 25 screws (18 cheese head, 5 washer head, and 2 flat head), a front surface reflex mirror and frosted plastic focusing screen. Assembly is widely touted as taking about an hour, but it took me two; I spent extra time double checking the English instructions for the Gakkenflex against the pictures in the Chinese instructions for the camera I actually have. The only significant difference between the two, though, is that the Recesky has moved the rewind knob to the right side plate (where the film advance and advance "counter" live, and added a (pretty useless) tripod socket on the left, and is a little narrower (because there's no need for support for the rewind on the left side plate). lens is an unlabeled plastic biconvex; based on photos I've seen it's inferior to the meniscus on a Holga (and certainly inferior to the one on a Brownie Hawkeye Flash from sixty years ago).
The lenses are geared together in opposite thread helicals (like a Ricohflex or Kodak Reflex), so you can actually focus the camera like a TLR, but the frosted plastic viewscreen is so coarse it's hard to tell when you're in focus.
Shutter is fixed at approximately 1/150 (says the manufacturer), if you install the aperture disk behind the taking lens you have f/11 (vs. f/5.6 and even more distortion/field curvature/chromatic aberration/coma), hence the recommendation is for ISO 200 film. Since I have none of that on hand, I loaded with XP2 Super, which can be shot at EI 50 to 800 on the same roll with good results.
I have little expectation for this camera -- but it's a brand new camera for $15, and it was fun assembling it. There's a good likelihood I'll get a couple glass achromats and try "upgrading" the lenses at some point -- this small, lightweight camera would be a lot of fun if it'll make images at least as good as a Holga.
I'll come back here with images once I have some.
