camaras antipaticas?

[dan_fromm2]

Sorry to have put the subject in spanish, but I don't know a good

english equivalent of "antipatico." Antipatico a nasty antonym of

sympathetic.

 

We have a thread going titled "Your muse camera." Do any of you

people with heaps of cameras have cameras so horrible, for whatever

reason, that the prospect of HAVING to use them makes you decide not

to shoot?

 

I'm not asking about cameras you'd rather not use, but about cameras

that turn you off. My father's Argus C-3 had that effect on me when I

was a child.

 

I don't love my Yashica GSN or my AF35ML, and like my AF35M even less.

But if one of them was all I had, I suppose I'd use it as best I

could. Please don't tell me about ugly ducklings like them, tell me

about ones that work -- that wretched C-3 worked -- but that you just

won't use.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[daniel_iggers]

Are they not all God's children, Daniel?

 

Could you vouch for one of your children, above of the others? Could you forsake one? Aren't they all special in some way?

...

 

OK, not funny.

 

But this is difficult.

 

I'm trying. I'm drawing a blank.

 

Sure there are some plasticky early point and shoot AF cameras from the 70s and early 80s that I wouldn't load, even to check them out. Do they count?

[alan_gage]

Dan, what's your mailing address?

 

I've got a present for you.

 

Alan

[gene m]

Just yesterday I threw my old Leica MP into the trash. I simply hated the feel of the thing.

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

What did you hate about the Leica, Gene? Not enough bakelite?

[dan_fromm1]

Dan'l, god's chillun are one thing, cameras made by the hand of man are quite another. I mean, the Leica didn't spring full grown from Oskar's brow.

 

Alan, if you have in mind to send me an Argus to teach me the error of my ways, I live in an undisclosed location.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[mskovacs]

Gene's MP likely didn't have the rare Leica Meniscuscron lens. The Vulcanite content was less than 100%.

 

I haven't found a MF folder that I can get along with yet, e.g. the Isolette II. There was nothing wrong with the camera, it just couldn't hold a candle against even a Tessar-equipped Rollei TLR.

[dan flanders]

The aluminum on the old Foth Derby looks like something salvaged off a wrecked airplane. Its focal plane shutter sounds like a garage door slamming in the wind. the view finder is little more than an aiming device but lacks an aiming point. The shutter dial rotates and if it contacts part of the hand the shot is ruined. Surprisingly the lens is not be sneezed at but it won't put Leitz or Zeiss out of business. No range finder, no accessory clip, no flash sync. But it does have a history. It fit quite well in the pocket of my flight coveralls. 127 film was cheap and only sometimes available. We made an adapter for short lengths of cine 35mm cadged from the G2 people, and we had to put tape over the red windows on the back and wind by guess and by glory. It's ugly, it's capricious, and it is unapologetic; but it's also a veteran. It served its tour with a navigator in the 8th Air Force in '44-'45, (and though the G2 boys promised me copies of the confiscated images I never got) here nearly sixty years later it still makes pix when I can find the film. Don't offer me something really valuable for it -- it ain't mine. It belongs to history and when I'm gone and someone inherits it I hope they realize that there is more there than its superficial resemblance to its contemporaries.

[connealy]

I recently spent a frustrating day with an Agfa/

Ansco Chief box camera. The thing that got me started with it was wanting to do some holiday flash pictures with one of my funky old cameras. I scrounged up an adapter that would let me use the small bulbs I have. Pushed in a bulb for a trial fit, and the thing went off in my face and lightly sauteed my fingers.<br>    The next day, I took the camera apart and cleaned the shutter which also fixed the stuck flash contact. Thought I would trim a roll of 120 to fit the 620 chamber, but it turned out that the opening was too narrow. Then hit on the idea of filing down the brass rivets on the spool holder and that got the film in. The camera has "Near" and "Far" focus settings so I set it to "Near" and shot off half my bulbs and a few without. <br>    Souped the film, scanned the negatives which looked pretty well exposed, and found that the central subject in nearly all the shots was out of focus. It turns out that even at the "Near" setting the camera can't focus closer than about 12 feet. I don't think I've got the energy to try another roll in this one.

[tito sobrinho]

The Mercury manufactured by the Universal Camera Co. Ugly duck, with the humongous semi circle above the camera to accommodate the shutter, plus setting buttons everywhere.

 

Kodak Jiffy whereas the large portion of the flat front comes out and on its middle, a tiny lens.

[henricus]

I have an Agfa Clipper PD16 that works, but is sooooo butt ugly that I refuse to be seen with it. I only keep it to remind me of what not to buy.

<p>PS. I'll give you ten bucks for the AF35ML and two for the AF35 if they work. I think these cameras suck, but I'll gladly take them off your hands.

[edhebert]

As wonderfully crafted as it is, I find the interface on Voigtlander Prominent to be so unusable that it's almost unimaginable that they'd let that thing out of the gates of the factory without a redesign effort. They took a chance on a potentially clever new operation inferface, and I think they failed miserably. I don't own one personally, so I haven't really spent enough time with it to be qualified a proper judge. My buddy owns one, and I do enjoy ogling its precisely fitted mechanics and buttery gearing. Nokton's a magical lens too. But that goofy focusing dial on the top? nah.

[william_vickers1]

I tried to like twin lens reflexes (2 1/4 by 2 1/4"), but I failed. I know they are capable of taking great pictures and offer a cost-effective entry into medium format photography. But I hate working with them. I don't like holding a clunky box at my waist and looking down into a ground glass screen with a reversed image. I'm just a 35mm kind of guy. Rangefinder or SLR, give me that compact, eye-level camera with the unreversed image.

[vivek iyer]

Dan,

 

I will email the list to you privately..

 

Gene,

 

If you still have the MP, send it to me..

 

(I have nothing against Dianas, Dodys, Clicks, Clacks, Bricks, etc)

[John Smullen]

"Do any of you people with heaps of cameras have cameras so horrible, for whatever reason, that the prospect of HAVING to use them makes you decide not to shoot?"

 

No, I don't (and wouldn't) own a camera that is so bad that the prospect of using it is a turnoff. I'm selective in what I spend my hard earned money for, and the thought of acquiring heaps or boxes of cameras is not an appealing way to enjoy a hobby.

 

I do own some cameras that will probably never be used again. But they sit unused because they are interesting artifacts of what photography once was and not because of their irritating qualities.

[dan_fromm2]

Henry, thanks for the kind offer to buy two of my unloved little cameras. My wife likes the AF35ML and it is occasionally useful, so it is not for sale. You can have the AF35M, which worked two months or so ago when I tried it out, for $5 plus postage.

 

John, I take your point about not buying cameras, or anything, for that matter, that you know won't please. Have you never made a mistake? I ask because back when I was shooting a lot of S8 I acquired a heap of S8 cameras that included an Elmo 614XL. Nice specifications, took ok footage, but a tinny camera with a horrible grip. I couldn't bring myself to use after it passed acceptance testing. It was bought as a backup for my then main camera, a Canon AZ814LS that I still have and that never failed, so I didn't have to use it.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[John Smullen]

Hi Dan...didn't mean to come across as too serious...<grin>. I inherited a packrat gene, so buying boxfulls of cameras for that one good one would soon fill the basement.

 

Sure, I've bought some that turned out to be mistakes. One nice looking Kodak Retina was a lesson in how important it is to look at and through the lens.

 

John, who learns sometimes by doing.

[ken_jeanette]

For me, loathing and despair enter when I use digital cameras with shutter lag.

 

I recently threw a HP point and shoot in the river, it just got me so darned aggravated.

 

I'd rather use an Argus C-3, at least it takes a picture when you push the shutter release, not a minute later

 

GRRR!!

 

Is this road rage or what

[lex_jenkins]

I put those cameras up for adoption.

[luis triguez]

In my long life I only found some "antipᴩcos" photographers but none camera

[henricus]

Dan,<p>

You are quite welcome, these cameras have great lenses. I'll send you eight bucks via Paypal for the camera and shipping. Deal?

[goemon]

I have this little Stylus Epic that is always with me, because it's tiny and small, right? But using it for anything but grab shots is the most intensely frustrating thing, because I can't tell it to use a smaller aperture, and I can't always tell when it's focusing on the right thing, and ... ooh. This is why I keep my SLR with me at all times.

[dan_fromm1]

Henry, thanks for the kind offer. What's your zip code? I'd like to charge you shipping -- USPS priority mail -- at cost, neither overcharge you nor eat it part of it myself.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[dan_fromm1]

Graham, although my AF35ML isn't as small or light as your Stylus Epic, you've articulated nicely why I don't enjoy using it. In its favor, it usually takes pictures that are at least well exposed and in good focus. And it warns me nicely when it thinks its too dark out there for hand-held shooting, as when the lens cap is on. Composition and steadiness problems are mine, of course. But it works well enough to please my wife, so there it is.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[gib]

had a Canon elan 7E bought it with two soso Sigma lenses - shot a few rolls of print film = seemed to be ok. took a two week raod trip, shot 7 rolls of slide film, SC, NC, Virginia (Monticello, Beaufort, etc.) Processed the slide film, slides almost all over exposed badly, turns out Sigma lenses were not compatible with Elan 7e, got them rechipped for free by Sigma rep firm in Canada. But.....always disliked the dimish viewfinder and hated trying to turn off all the automation on the camera, so I got rid of it. Had ordered it sight unseen, but had great expectatins since my last SLR of the new kind had been some years previous, with the Nikon F-801 (great viewfinder) and Pentax PZ-1 (also a pretty good viewfinder) - canon viewfinder (not so hot) - eye focus was cool, but overall, no...