Your cheapest camera...

I very recently got interested in really cheap cameras, new or old. I'm curious about the photos they might produce.

It got me wondering, what is the cheapest camera you've ever purchased? Thought that it might be fun to see who

has found the best "bargain". Free doesn't count!

I got a Kodak Instamatic 44 from my Mom's flea market for a quarter, but I'm not sure I'll be able to use it. The one

that makes me laugh out loud though is the $1.60 I paid for a new, 35mm manual point and shoot I got at Kmart a

couple weeks ago. That price included a roll of film, AA battery and sales tax.

The cheapest cameras I ever bought were Leicas decades ago. I can sell them for what I paid.

 

If that does not count, a Waltz Envoy 35mm with 50 2.0 Nikkor lens. It was $50 about 1958/9 when I was a junior in high school. It got me thru college. Pics were very good, but the transport mechanism quit. Bought a Pentax Spotmatic system.

 

I lusted for a Nikkorex with 43/86 zoom a few years later. Thankfully I could not afford it as a college student and it proved to be a junker anyway.

 

My 1959 Ford 6 cyl manual trans got me thru college. That was a purchased new junker . Metal when I bought it, bondo when I sold it in 1965, pure rust not accidents. The metalurgy in the engine was crap and it need constant valve work. You have no idea how much cars have improved. The heater would not even keep the car warm.

Canon AF35, less than five bucks at a pawn shop. Noisy, slow AF but took fine photos, really good sharp lens. Every bit as good as the vaunted Canonet rangefinders.

 

Next best was a Minolta Hi-Matic. Don't recall the specific model. Good, not quite as sharp as the Canon or Canonets, but only cost three bucks.

 

Gotta love pawn shop puppies.

Just purchased an Olympus XA with A11 flash. Goodwill store, $1.99. Works well.

A Perfex 35 with a General Scientific 50mm lens. I bought it as a kid for $2 at a garage sale, as I recall. It wasn't a great camera, but I had the most fun with the thing. It was truly, bizarrely, stupendously weird. It had a weird shutter that had two speed ranges. The lower range passed the shutter curtains very slowly (1 sec travel time) across the focal plane, with varying slit width. I got some cool motion blurs out of it, including corkscrew images.

 

My second favorite find was a Kodak Monitor Six-20 (ca 1946) camera, which I found to be a pretty decent portrait camera. The lens was amazingly sharp. The design was rather advanced for its day -- a delight to study and use. I got the entire outfit, including a very impressive/fun/weird flash unit for $5 at a garage sale. Best $5 I ever spent for a camera.

 

Much more recently, I was trying to find a 100-300-ish FD zoom for my T70, for use in a canoe. I found one on Ebay as a part of a T70 outfit someone was selling. I got a very nice Sigma telephoto, along with a second T70 body, the kit lens, a 2x adapter, filters, flash, cable release, misc. junk, bag, all for $50 -- about what I expected to pay for the lens alone.

Not me but a friend picked up a Hasselblad C/M for $5 at a yard sale. The lady selling it didn't know if they still made film for "that old camera".

I've picked up my Zorki 4 last week for under $ 70 in full working order.

I bought a Praktica Super TL with Meyer Lydith 30mm lens for BP 0.99 last week from UK Ebay. All my recent

cameras with Carl Zeiss and Pentacon lenses cost less than $9 each. The pictures taken with these are as good as

the pictures I took with the ones I bought for $120 or more. The price is set by "who asks" and "who bids"; May

not often have a direct correlation with quality, utility, aesthetics and performance. Recall the Veblen effect?

Over the years, I have found several deals that knock my socks off in retrospect. All were at a flea market that has since stopped operating, and is now an abandoned Cineplex. The deals: I forget the name of it, but it was a Zippo lighter with a camera built in (WW II Japanese spy camera repackaged for PX sales). Complete with casettes for film, a couple pictures taken with it, and original box. Price, $1.00. Next in line would be a Kodak Bantam Special for $2.00. Lastly, I got 2 Mamiya C330 professional bodies, a 80MM lens, and 150MM lens for $4.50. These were vandalized with red spray paint randomly sprayed on them, but cleaned up perfectly with some work, and mechanically excellent. Those were the days

Pinhole camera hand made out of an oat meal box:

 

Cost: one box from/before recycling: 0 $; 1 pin to prick a hole: 0 $ (ask your neighbor/wife for a needle). Done!

 

Can anyone get any lower than 0$ for a working camera? Unless you inherit a working Leica IIIf or such for "free".

An Exakta IIA for $10! And that included three lenses!

One of the assignments in my college photography classes (1969-70) was to buy the now legendary "DIANA" camera. The amount of creativity the little plastic camera unleashed was amazing. Multiple exposures, winding film with the shutter open, time exposures. It seemed to inspire a lot of people to be more free when they returned to their regular cameras. <p>

In 1969 I'm sure I paid less than a dollar. Vintage Dianas can sell for more than $100 on Ebay these days. I think they are back in production for around $50. I have read that wedding photographers often use them for the dreamy, vignetted, soft focus effects.

My Kodak Easy Share was a pretty cheap one compared to my Canon Rebel XT. Not for as cheap as you've found cameras though, that's awesome! Way to bargain shop!

I recently bought a Holga 120N from B&H for $24.95. It's a great litle camera.. medium format and so on. You can see some of my Holga images in my portfolio. The only bad thing is... I don't do film developing myself and the developing typically costs more than the camera did!

 

Jeff<div></div>

Barring the occasional disposable, my little Kodak "Cameo" was the cheapest I've owned, cashing in at about $10.00 new (including a roll of film).

That was my sidekick for a year or so in Japan (well before I knew jack about photography obviously).

 

A friend gave me a Canon 10S, for which I bought sushi (The Flaming Lip, about $9.00). Of course, that could be considered my most expensive

camera, as it was a left over from his divorce (probably $10,000 in lawyer fees).

 

My favorite cheap camera is still my Holga though. I agree Jeff, there's quite the irony in buying a camera that, after 3 rolls, you've spent more on

film and processing.

 

This discussion seems ripe for a corresponding "No Words" forum.

For me, a Canon G6 at about 200GBP/$400. That said I imagine that my Bronica SQA-i /SQ-B which cost me more than that might be replaced at less than that now. I've also had cameras given to me or got them free with incentive points etc but they don't count apparently

 

I have bought compacts for my wife and family much cheaper than that. Most of them were bad till digital came along.

 

Funnily enough, I've never felt that cameras that start off cheap are as good as cameras that start off dear.

Jeffrey, I think the Holgas are a direct descendant of the old Diana camera I wrote about. The quality of the

picture you posted seems to verify that. Very nice picture! <p>

You need to learn how to develop the film. The cost of 1 roll of film developed at the lab should cover the cost of

the equipment you need. (1 developing tank and 1 devoloping reel) A jug of developer, a jug of fixer, a clock, and

a dark closet. <p>

Leica IIIF for $6.

I only have a Nikon F75/N75.....

Zenit E with 4 lenses, case etc...for a fiver.

I've gotten many cameras, good and bad, for little or nothing. Least price for best picture quality probably goes to an ugly but functional Argus C-Four I bought for a dollar. In terms of investment bang for buck, it's hard to beat the minty Leica IIIb I got back in 1968 for $25.

My cheapest camera (and favorite) is the Holga which the first one I "bought" was in trade for processing a couple of rolls of film for a friend in my lab. The next cheapest was my Rolliflex that I bought for $15 at a flea market, it was in great shape and works wonderfully.

Minolta HiMatic 7 and Oly 35RC. Both about $20.

Ditto the Olympus 35RC, same price, twenty bucks. My second copy of this camera. Sold the first to a college student and regretted it. For awhile I had a dozen different compact fixed lens rangefinders from that era. Sold and gave away most of 'em. Found another 35RC in a pawn shop a few years ago and snagged it. Even had the oddball 43.5mm UV filter (SL39-3C) and PS200 flash, which works great with the guide number flash setting on the camera. The Oly is the best and possibly last such RF I'll own.

My trusty Olympus 35RC. Free! Given to me by one of my customers when I was working in a 1 hour lab. She found it in a drawer in her house, and just didn't want it, just the film inside. Goes with me almost every where.