The Stuff You Didn't Like

Not a hater usually, but man did I hate this camera:

Hate.jpg


Olympus Infinity Stylus. Bought one brand new from B&H in the early 1990's for an "always have it with me camera" when I was living in NYC. Loved the idea that it fit nicely into my pocket and the little sliding door protected the lens, and I didn't have a lens cap to lose. Whenever I would see something happening on the streets of Manhattan (which was pretty much always), I would pull the camera out of my pocket, slide open the door, and . . . NOTHING! The camera refused to turn on. That happened at least 50% of the time when I was trying to use it. So I returned it and B&H gave me another one. Same issue. I missed so many shots, sliding that stupid little door back and forth, back and forth, back and forth; trying to get the darn thing to turn on. Man I hated that camera.

End of rant.
 
There were many cameras that I did not like enough to keep, but there was no camera that I really hated - so far.

Some cams were pretty annoying, though.

My first Lubitel 166 had some weird lens flaw, every photo looked as if taken through an effect filter. (The second one is better).
My Holga 120 was, well, a Holga.
And I had - some years ago - a Kyocera digital cam which just ate up batteries. More than 20 photos were impossible with a set of freshly loaded rechargables.
 
Yashica Mat 124G

Never could get on with the TLR format, couldn't see properly through the viewfinder, results weren't even close to sharp unless I zone-focussed, and ultimately grew to hate it.

Now I've got money burning a hole and I don't know what to buy...!
 
I think it is going to be this Minolta Maxxum 5xi my daughter's work gave her, who then gave it to me. I have yet to buy a battery for it (too expensive just to see if and how the camera works). I did download the manual and it has to be the most complicated camera I own. And I really don't like any use DX encoding and default to ISO 100. (I load my own cassettes).

At least the Maxxum came with a Pelican case.
 
The Contax T3 was really disappointing due to insufficient eye point height. Also, small wheels and buttons make settings a pain. Great lens and perfect size wasted. Replaced it with a Klasse S and never looked back.
Incidentally, the Minolta TC-1 is the same size as the T3 and infinitely more usable.
 
The ones I really dislike:

- Nikon RF's in general; to big, heavy, too many framelines, and the lenses are generally not up to 'German' standards (I know, I know: most of them look much better than their German counterparts);

- Yashica mats (and other yashica's) in general since they look/feel cheap/plastic;

- point & shoot cams; since it is hardly possible to get the focus right;

- Hexar RF; didn't focus my Leica lenses & too many leds in the viewfinder

- I always had a love/hate affair with the 'ugly' EOS PLASTIC (film) cams; but since I got my first one for a few weeks now, I really started liking it the more I use it! :D
Canon-EOS-100-(EOS-100-QD---EOS-ELAN).jpg


Still looking for some EF lenses - if you want to get rid of them pls drop me a line...


...and the ones I still like the most.. not really a secret: Leica's (apart from the digi's) and Rolleiflexes...
 
What didn't I like?

Any Petri camera

Canon 50/1.2 lens - too soft, the 1.4 gives what I want for speed.
Leica Summaron 35/3.5 - funny colors, funny corners. But the ergonomics are good.
 
Hasselblad X-Pan. I didn't realise how much I disliked the panoramic format until I bought this camera. I like the format even less nowadays.

Epson RD-1. I bought one of the first of these imported into the UK (early November 2004) and tried to convince myself I liked it more than I really did. It wasn't a bad camera (and I'd probably enjoy it more today than then) but I persevered for about 6 months before selling it and going back to an M7.
 
Tom A said:
Another design by some-one who obviously never used the lens!
Click to expand...

My favorite "someone who never used the lens" was the LEICA 50mm f/2.8 ELMAR-M, which really needed the hood to pull it out, making it really not collapsable.

Not to mention, only the cases for the M6J were snub-nosed ( I did manage to pry a pair out of Leica for my Milleniums).
 
Hi,

Interesting discussion but I'd love to know which cameras were bought new and which were from flea markets and all the variations in between.

As for my pet hate, a lovely nameless camera that shocked me when I had to replace the battery in it and had to pay just under thirteen pounds for the battery.

Regards, David
 
Bought new? A Pentax ME that replaced my college Chinon CS. I liked it at first, but within a few weeks, pieces began falling off: self-timer lever, rewind lever. I traded it back for a Olympus OM-1--and have been in love with OM series cameras since.
 
Stuff I don't like: the battery cover on my Leica M6: this summer I was looking for pictures in a dark pagoda in Saigon, Vietnam and suddenly the meter went dead: the battery cover had disappeared. A 30 minute search revealed the two batteries but the battery door...no. So I went into town and bought a torch...back to the pagoda and on hands and knees an hour later I found the battery cover under a bench. The internal spring had catapulted the thing a few meters away from where I stood. This is not a smart design at all.
 
I did, while cursing Leica...I can't understand why a sophisticated engineering oriented company would release a dumb design like that and stick with it.
 
The newly-acquired Mir-24H lens, a 2.0/35mm Kiev-19 lens (that's a Nikon mount) that can also be converted to an M42 lens.

But, with the M42 mount installed it only works in stop-down mode and tolerances are very tight, if the aperture ring has only a little play, the aperture will freeze up around f4.0 on the M42 camera.

Unscrew it from the camera and instantly the aperture works fine.

Either sloppy workmanship or a flimsy design altogether, but I now wish I'd sprung for a true M42 version... I didn't buy it to shoot it on digital Nikon, on which it works just fine... :(
 
Roelli 35SE, great quality, but meter could not read less than 1/125 with 400 asa. That is set the speed to 1/60 or slower, out of meter range. Got a Contax T instead and have not looked back. Worst camera for my father Zenit TTL, sloooow reacting meter, and the veiwfinde was extremly dim, even with an f2 lens, which effected focusing.
 
Nikon FM2n. I hated that you had to pull the advance lever back to un-lock the shutter release. I was so glad it packed up so I could go back to the FM early version, which only locked by turning the collar.
 
Peter Wijninga said:
Stuff I don't like: the battery cover on my Leica M6: this summer I was looking for pictures in a dark pagoda in Saigon, Vietnam and suddenly the meter went dead: the battery cover had disappeared. A 30 minute search revealed the two batteries but the battery door...no. So I went into town and bought a torch...back to the pagoda and on hands and knees an hour later I found the battery cover under a bench. The internal spring had catapulted the thing a few meters away from where I stood. This is not a smart design at all.
Click to expand...
Peter
I had this happen to me earlier in the year but failed to retrieve the battery cover. My guess is that it wasn't put back on tight enough after a service at Red Dot Cameras in London, who afterwards kindly supplied a new cover with a coin slot in it, a much better design.
Lawrence
 
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