Mintax, Nikai etc. cameras

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seany65

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I'm wondering whether anyone has ever used any of those plastic cameras that are meant to look like slrs but have direct vision finders and that are usually fixed focus with a curved film plane, and have 'optical' lenses? You know the ones, with names like 'Mintax' and 'Nikai', that may be meant to fool those who don't know any better.

I saw one on ebay and it seems it has 5 apertures/weather symbols. I don't know what shutter speeds it has, but it's not likely to be many.

I've just come to the realisation that people are quite happy to use box cameras, that are fixed focus, ahve 1 or 2 apertures and usually only two speeds, at least one of which demands a tripod etc.

Many also seem happy to use 'toy' cameras for 'lomography' ie. using cr*p cameras to produce weird, cr*p photos which they then call 'artistic lomography' photos.

So I was wondering if anyone uses these and what sort of results you get?
 
I've used a couple of the older types, Anny 35, and Meikai EL.

The results are "too good" to be interesting, but not good enough to be "good". The later, more common, all plastic variety usually don't function at all, thanks to faulty designs.
 
"Too good to be interesting " eh?

Like "The sci fi film wasn't so bad it was good."

I've just done a quick google of the two you mentioned, tunalegs. At least those two don't look like they were meant to fool people into thinking they were slrs rather than cheap rubbish.

Apparently the meikai 4351 (etc.) cameras very often did multiple exposures withouth the user's knowledge, especially near the end of the film. I suppose that could qualify as 'Lomography'.

It seems the 'Time camera' :

http://beacon225.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/time-promotional-camera.html

Could actually produce reasonable results.
 
I actually have one of these and as a kid wanted to shoot a summer roll in it. Never did at the end.

More hilarious are the "Olympias". Even nowadays I see listings on local classifieds for rather high prices.
 
Why did you never use it, prest 400?

Years ago an oxfam shop on oldham street in manchester had one of these 'trashcams' and they had a price tag of £45.00 on it!
 
seany65 said:
Why did you never use it, prest 400?

Years ago an oxfam shop on oldham street in manchester had one of these 'trashcams' and they had a price tag of £45.00 on it!
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Indeed, the very same.

So once as a kid (2003-4) I was thinking I could do a roll documenting my town, even if it was with that plastic camera.
Got a P&S digital instead and returned to film in 2008, but with a serious approach. This thread reminded me of it, and a minolta AF P&S mom used, which is in the same cabinet.

Actually lomography's site is nice for reviews of these cameras, only that with spurious and non-descript brandings it's hard to find them. The one I have actually had a written review.

As good film cameras are cheap, I go for them instead. Summer 2015 I used a Quicksnap marine single use in the beach and got great results within what it can do (meniscus lens romanticism).
Sadly the single use cameras feel like a waste with just 27exp and having to chuck them afterwards.

£30 and a bit of patience gets you a Nikon F80 kit here, which as a kid back then would be something far fetched to have. I commisioned as my beach "battle" camera, with a few close calls to the saltwater. Better angles than on land!

At least I surpassed that idea I had of a project documenting beach times in town, just a decade late.
 
How to make things more interesting

How to make things more interesting

tunalegs said:
I've used a couple of the older types, Anny 35, and Meikai EL.

The results are "too good" to be interesting, but not good enough to be "good". The later, more common, all plastic variety usually don't function at all, thanks to faulty designs.
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I think a way to make it more interesting is to make the aperture more big, like i have it done with my cheap plastic 'wide-angel' camera. (see Thread : LoFi-Photos with modified Plastic Camerahttp://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161816)

I have carefully disassembled it, and made the aperture-hole realy big with a big drill. Be careful to not scratch the lens. After this mod i get very beautifull unsharp dreamy pics. And the overexposure does some more funny things to the colors...

Oh, use outdated film... Older is better to get ill colors.
 
I had one of these for a while. And I see them listing for stupid money on the SHopGoodwill web site, Craig's List, and Ebay.

As well, (I posted about this in the cameras and movies thread) , I saw one being used as a prop for a news photographer.

Just watched Paul Burdis' "The Wee Man"--Amazon has it as "Gangster"--and right around 1:38 there is a scene where The lead character is talking to the press on the doorsteps of a court house. One of the photographers is using some variant of this:

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/"Olympia"_camera

Seeing that as a prop definitely took me out of the movie.

Rob
________
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The thing had zinc/potmetal weights built into it to give it that "professional" heavy camera feel, Would not reliably advance the film, and was just a thoroughly unpleasant camera to use. One slight positive--the version I had had TLR like viewfinder built into the top of the "prism housing." Thought I might scavenge that for another project but the "mirror" was just shiny paper...
If you get one for less than the cost of a roll of film, it might be sort of entertaining, I guess.

Frankly, I'd rather use a long expired disposable camera. Or reload some of the more interesting ones--the Konica Wai Wai comes to mind.

Rob
 
I had (may still have) one and did try to use it only for it to chew and destroy the film roll within seconds thanks to its 'Advanced motor drive' being built to the exact quality of what you would expect from one of these junk cameras, the hot shoe appeared to have been wired by Blunkett and Wonder inc too.
I took it apart in curiosity and despite it saying Made in Japan on the front of the 'lens' no part acctually is, its all badly molded Chinese plastic.
The lens on the front is fake (bit like the one in the new Faux film Yashica), its nothing but a clear plastic piece, the actual lens is pretty much what you would find in a cheap disposable or point and shoot meant for kids, small and plastic and an close to a 5p piece in size.
The drive teeth were deformed so I cut them so they would work well enough and made some washers to get it to line up properly to stop it eating film.
The Weight is lead and has been sort of made to fit rather than acctually made to fit (if you had 2 side by side they could be totally different in weight) and poses no functional value.
Talking of no functional value, the plastic in the viewfinder is not magnified to match the focal length so you may aswell not bother looking through it but shock and horror that ring does alter the amount the shutter opens (always roughly 1/30, like a cheap disposable) and the charge it sends through that shoe gives a fair old whack too.

If its free by all means play with it but otherwise just stick a tube on the front of a disposable or kiddies point and shoot and you'll probably get the same result without needing to open it up to fix it every five minutes.
 
Sega, you've shown more patience with your plastic-not-so-fantastic than I probably would. Actually, if I tried to fiddle with one I wouldn't be able to get it back together.

One thing always bothers me about Holgas, is even though they can give really interesting results, those results always seemed to be down to the chance or the camera and very little to do with the photographer due to the lack of real controls.
 
seany65 said:
Sega, you've shown more patience with your plastic-not-so-fantastic than I probably would. Actually, if I tried to fiddle with one I wouldn't be able to get it back together.

One thing always bothers me about Holgas, is even though they can give really interesting results, those results always seemed to be down to the chance or the camera and very little to do with the photographer due to the lack of real controls.
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If you want to see what Holga's can do look up the photographers David Burnett or Michael Kenna.
 
seany65 said:
Sega, you've shown more patience with your plastic-not-so-fantastic than I probably would. Actually, if I tried to fiddle with one I wouldn't be able to get it back together.

One thing always bothers me about Holgas, is even though they can give really interesting results, those results always seemed to be down to the chance or the camera and very little to do with the photographer due to the lack of real controls.
Click to expand...

Most cheap cameras are like that, the Holga and the Diana style Cameras were only ever intended a playthings for Children, not quite the quality of an old Kodak Box camera in some cases but a step up from a simple pin hole.
The Lenes dreamy look as they put it comes from their imperfections but don't feel the Photographer is not involved though.

You still need to calculate your exposure based on your fixed shutter speed and apeture (This sort of thing is roughly 1/30 but couldn't say what apeture as I've yet to fettle with a Holga or Diana) and compose the shot based on what the focal length seems to be.

If you are patient enough to work on something why not look at a Kodak Instamatic?
They will give you the same Kitsch plastic lens look but should be nicer to use with some models offering flash, you just need to modify a 126 Cartridge to take 35mm and learn its working (The spacing in the sprockets for 126 is a lot further apart so some will need you to cover the lens and advance and fire a few times to reach the next frame), this was another of my projects I never finished but you may find somone in the community who has fully carried it out and can tell you the exact behaviour for a model or two.
 
@zuiko85@ I've seen a few Holga photos in a magazine called "Black and White Photography", and I liked them. I even remember that the "GCN" Holgas had glass lenses.

@Sega: I owned a Kodak instamatic 177X when I was about 12-ish. I put about 2 films through it, maybe only 1. I got it for Xmas. My mother bought it for me, along with a digital watch and a digital alarm clock. I have no idea why I wanted an alarm clock and the watch broke about six months later. I have a vague notion that there was a Rollei SL26 in the catalogue but there was only one photo of it and I couldn't see how you were supposed to aim it. If I'd known then what I know now I would've foregone the watch, the clock and the 177X and hoped I could've bought that instead, although I would've had to have it for my birthday as well as xmas.
 
I only got occasional toy style simple point and shoots as a kid, only time I got something decentish was when I get taken to Florida.
 
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