The oddest/quirkiest/most unusual camera you have ever used...

[Pál_K]

Ahaha - I may have to talk myself out of looking for one of those now then... that sportscam is massive.

There used to be a highly detailed review of the X1 on Outdoor Photographer, but that article is gone - I can’t find it even with the internet archive.

There is this less detailed, less useful review:

Konica Minolta DiMAGE X1

Konica Minolta has today announced the ultra-slim DiMAGE X1, an eight megapixel three times optical zoom ultra-compact digital camera with Anti-Shake and a large 2.5-inch LCD monitor. From a design point of view the X1 is much more rounded in appearance compared to its siblings, indeed it looks...

m.dpreview.com

It won’t give you 500 fps though:

”UHS Continuous Advance captures 640x480-pixel images at up to 10 fps at any image quality setting, making it ideal for capturing fleeting action such as recording a tennis or golf swing.
As well, the UHS Progressive Capture mode saves images from the last 1.5 seconds before releasing the shutter button (up to 15 images at 640x480). This means you won't miss photo opportunities during fast moving sporting events.”

 

[Nokton48]

Makiflex Standard BandL Super Cinephor Linhof Graflex Back by Nokton48, on Flickr

This is my second Makiflex Standard, bought from a shoppe in Vienna. It has been heavily, professionally modified. Note the custom Side Handle. The Front Standard is HEAVILY MODIFIED, note the precison machine werk. Quite a bit of the camera has been removed! Right under the lens is a LENS SWING MECHANISM, which has a ball detent (NICE) and swings the front standard on the optical axis of the lens. Quite a bit of Swing is possible, seems very sturdy and built to last. The cool thing about the Standard Makiflex, is that the inside throat is more spacious, and has no cables getting ini the way of BEEG lens. This boat anchor of a lens, is a Bausch&Lomb Super Cinephor, 159.1mm F2.0, which is outrageously fast. It looks great I think on this camera, and it will get some use this Spring, I can tell you. It's going to be FUN. This is a olde lens meant for 70mm and 35mm Cinema Projection, like in a commercial theatre. Cool that it fits the Standard, but won't fit my Automatic Makiflex, for the above reasons. So this lens is an Uber Speed Light Sucker, great that I can swing the front, say like, when doing a portrait or still life. On the back is the Makiflex 4x5 Holder that takes Linhof Plate Holders, or Graflex Graphic Holders, with the flip of a couple of switches top and bottom. Linhof Holders are much thicker, and can also take planfilm or glass plates. They are mucho Deluxe 🙂

 

[The Spastic Image]

Funnily enough I was playing a variation on that game only yesterday! I had to ask the other half to remove the battery as my fat fingers couldn't get it out. What were they thinking?

Also, unless said photographer is an Olympus shooter, ask him or her to find the shutter speed dial on a FS, FT, or a FTn.

 

[The Spastic Image]

(at first I thought you meant Nikkormat FTN rather than Nikon F Tn)

Nikkormats are inexpensive enough that you could by several, each set to a different ISO! 😀

In my case, I’m almost always using an ISO 200 film, regardless of camera, so I don’t change ISO settings often (even with digital!).

My Nikkormat FTn, has a working meter (albeit a bit jumpy). I leave it set on ISO 400 (as I shoot mostly that speed.

 

[The Spastic Image]

My quirkiest 35 mm cameras I have shot:

Exakta VX Varex. A camera which makes sense to someone left handed and dyslexic.
Argus C-3 "The Brick". Infuriatingly and vexingly inconvenient to use, in every way possible.

Quirkiest medium format:

Voigtlander Avus. Which had a Rada 120 roll film back.

 

[neal3k]

I was rereading this thread and thought of another quirky one of mine. The Coronet Midget is a 16mm camera and I've had experience with other 16mm cameras. But the cassettes that came with mine would not work as they were too large so I started my learning curve. I just load it in the darkroom, tape the leader to the take up spool and then coil the rest into the supply indentation and carefully close the back. A problem quickly occurred in that the film tension will pull it backwards from the take-up reel so I have to keep a piece of tape on it. I carefully lift the tape, wind, and tape down again before it starts a partial rewind. I don't use backing paper so I taped up the window and try to geuss when I've finsished the roll.


Coronet Midget - Lego Sized by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

I have a few usable shots that I like. Here are two:

Ektar
Tiny Store on Tiny Film by Neal Wellons, on Flickr


Delta 100,Sepia toned in edit.

Broken Clock - Coronet Midget 16mm by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

 

[Bill Clark]

Graflex. 4x5 negative.

 

[Muggins]

Wow! WOW! That's really, really quirky - I've always fancied a midget, but I'd never have thought it might still be usable!

 

[das]

All 1950s scale focusing 6x6 folders are quirky and useless.

 

[Deleted member 82967]

 

[CP93]

Oddest? Not counting the cheap-o Lomo 'ripcord' pano, I'd have to say my $40 Mercury half-frame.

 

[DownUnder]

All 1950s scale focusing 6x6 folders are quirky and useless.

Respectfully disagree on the "useless". Many of my finest images have been made with a circa 1950 Zeiss Nettar. Easy to use, an early P&S at its very best. Mine has the Novar lens but the full range of shutter speeds 1-1/300, fortunately, the original owner had the good sense to spend a little extra on it.

However, I do entirely agree that they are "quirky"...

 

[Muggins]

As a fellow Nettar user, I have to agree.

 

[css9450]

Respectfully disagree on the "useless". Many of my finest images have been made with a circa 1950 Zeiss Nettar. Easy to use, an early P&S at its very best. Mine has the Novar lens but the full range of shutter speeds 1-1/300, fortunately, the original owner had the good sense to spend a little extra on it.

+2

My Voigtlander Perkeo takes fabulous photos. Sure, the viewfinder is squinty but that doesn't have anything to do with it being a folder or a scale focus camera.

 

[Papercut]

An anamorphic pinhole camera -- medium format. The film is held in a circular shape (almost a full circle) with the pinhole / light coming from one end of the "tube" of film. Gives wonderfully unpredictable and surreal images.

 

[DownUnder]

Oddest? Not counting the cheap-o Lomo 'ripcord' pano, I'd have to say my $40 Mercury half-frame.



View attachment 4830745

American manufactured madness at its finest.

These monsters drove more photographers insane than any other piece of photo gear ever made in the USA...

I had one, briefly, in the late '60s. Bought for about the same price as yours, but that was a lot of money back then. I never could get a decent image from it. A friend who was studying for a BFA in Montreal borrowed it, took a few shots, and won a newspaper photo competition with one of his pictures. Which astounded me. So anything is possible...

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Kodak DCS200ir. Internal 80MByte SCSI disk, non-removable. Must transfer using SCSI Twain driver. 1" CCD for a 2.5x crop factor.
The disk, when spinning, helped steady the camera.
I believe Kodak made 2 of these, then went to the DCS420ir.

2nd- Nikon E3 which used an El-Nikkor enlarging lens to reduce the full-frame image to a 2/3" CCD.
The Digital cameras of the early 90s were a stretch.