The "Worst" Camera You ever Loved?

Agfa Isolette II. My example of this camera has a terrible hazy minuscule viewfinder, a Pronto shutter with 4 speeds; 2 of which are slow...but I always loved the results from the uncoated Apotar 4,5 / 85mm lens!
 
Kiev 35a Russian copy of the Minox 35, the lens was ok the rest of the camera was junk!!!
When it worked which was not often or for long it was nice...never knew when it would malfunction.

wbill
 
Kodak DSC-14n. Terrible if used above ASA64, but it was the first "real" digital i got to use and it was a joy to see the pictures appear instantly. Also I did take some good photos with it.
 
My vote goes to the Rolleiflex SL-35M - Beautiful camera, handled spectacularly well...... as long as it worked which was about 3 days after I bought it new.

Back to the store, repair, replacement, same result.... 2 Months later I got a Canon AE-1 with a special discount from the store for my troubles.

Still if it had worked it would have been a terribly fine camera.
 
MiniMoke said:
My vote goes to the Rolleiflex SL-35M -
Click to expand...

You never tried the Rollei SL2000F - in theory the perfect 35mm SLR with every bell and whistle known at the time, in practice a miserable failure of incongruous ergonomics and zero reliability.
 
Let me be the first to point out a truly terribly designed wonderful camera, which seemed like the greatest thing back in its heyday, but--after 25 years away from it--has recently revealed itself to be the height of rigidity, inconvenience, bizarre requirements and enormous expense.

The Hasselblad 500C. It's really a kludge to use. The film back has to be in the same cocking cycle as the body or it won't mount. The lens has to be synchronized to the body. The dark slide can be mis-positioned by 1mm and the back won't budge. Take off extension tubes in the wrong order and wreck the shutter mechanism. Ergonomically, it's a brick, unless it's on a tripod. It makes a god-awful ka-thunk when it fires. The aperture setting on the Zeiss lenses are those terrible, inscrutable sliding bracketing things. The aperture preview tab is tiny and the same color as the lens barrel. And to tune the damn thing up costs as much as a camera body.

But (sigh) it sure is nice.
 
Canon EOS Rebel G. Used one for years, with a 28mm lens paired with an A2 with 70-200.

Its virtue was its weight and I still use it today with a 40mm pancake.
 
Was never in favor of the Contax III with the big clunky lightmeter attached to its topplate. Same goes for its descendants .. aka Kievs - but it was nice craftsmanship that made them and top tech at the time...
 
Leica X1.
Supposingly over-priced, over-powered by modern cameras, and with a battery-holder that must have been designed when they were drunk or something .
Still - the handling, weight, size and controls are perfect; the lens is stellar and the results constantly amaze me, to the point that the M8 had to go, the X1 stayed (even for b/w). It complements a RF film camera perfectly. The camera continued to work in the roughest places when others failed (M's....) and have saved more than one photo project. While my heart is with film, the X1 is the ONE digital I will never sell.
I have now an X2 (my only digital, but with the AA-filter removed), but the X1 is still here, I could not part with it, and now my girl uses it happily - and I do, when I need digital color.
 
Lubitel 166B. Cheap plastic box, but fun to play with. Surprisingly the pictures came out fairly good. The title might change since I am waiting for a Zorki 4K, but I can't imagine it being worse than the Lubitel...

Gil.
 
Rolleiflex sl35 series
My dad bought 3 sl35es brand new, all died within month...
Shame, because the lenses are world class.
He also loved the linhof press 70 for the lenses, but the backs never stayed in sync and the rangefinder was always off...
 
Rapid Omega 200. So big and bulky, and with that winder making a racket, not very stealthy. Add in the back that I never could figure out the starting point, only to find out it was slipping. But I did some good work with that one.

PF
 
OK, I'll post my contribution to this thread-

What got me started in photography was the Brownie Holiday camera. This was the mid-50's and I was about 9 years old. I took many, many pictures with this camera using B&W 127 Verichrome Pan film. Still have lots of those pictures, too. They provide wonderful memories of my childhood, i.e. my dog, my adventures at camp, a visit to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, etc.

The camera was very primitive but I sure loved it.
 
Kodak Signet 50. The ugly stepchild of the Kodak Signet line. Simple bakelite and metal viewfinder camera with a selenium meter, it has a huge, bright viewfinder and is a joy to use, and gives surprisingly great results.
 
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