The WORST Cameras of all time..

[Ambro51]

While I’m praising Kodak I’d like to nominate the “Wonder Camera”, the EKTRA as a Worst Camera. This is two sided: it created a wonderful optical support system on one hand BUT....the Shutter is a very weak unpredictable link. Yes WWII came along and maybe IF Kodak had brought in a new engineer and redone the shutter system it would be another story. We may have seen a rethink to SLR as Nikon Done with the F but that didn’t happen.•••••oh and yes, a good camera for Lefties! As a Collector/user the Ektra is poison to me. It will Never sit next to my Foton.

 

[justins7]

I beg to differ about the M9. Although my sensor has been replaced, so it is not a stock camera, it is an excellent camera and worthy of any M-series machine. The LCD screen may be lousy and high ISOs are crappy but it takes great photos otherwise and one quickly forgets that it's digital. I know several photojournalists who swear by the M9 as a reliable workhorse.

 

[KoNickon]

My first 35mm SLR, a brand new Miranda Sensorex, was my worst camera for all time.

Back in the 1960s, Consumer Reports magazine declared that Miranda Sensorex was the “best buy for the money.” Their declaration had a great influence on my decision to select the Sensorex as my first SLR. However, my Sensorex broke three times within the first two years of its three-year warranty. The third time it broke was when I was hundreds of feet in the air covering the maiden voyage of a new aircraft that the local university had just acquired. Thank goodness a backup twin-lens reflex camera that I carried allowed me to complete my assignment.

Based on that review, my father bought a Sensorex. One of my sisters took it to the USSR for a semester's study abroad. It delivered the goods then, and for some time -- I think one of us still has it today. I always liked the feel of the camera and its layout. Lenses weren't great, but they were OK.

 

[Jason Schneider]

Cheesy AE-1?

Cheesy AE-1?

Canon AE 1 - cheesy feel and

tinny sounding shutter, almost bad as a Nikkormat. "Ping!"

The Canon AE-1 certainly feels cheap and plasticky, and its shutter may sound tinny to some (though I don't recall it as standing out in that respect), but Canon sold about 5 million of the things, it was a roaring success, and it performed quite well for a broad-spctrum entry-level SLR. It may not have a high lovability quotient, but I don't think it belongs on any worst camera list. The AE-1 was also a landmark camera in terms of production engineering. Canon was able to spin off a range of models all employing a large percentage of common parts, notably the Canon AT-1, AV-1, and A-1.

 

[grouchos_tash]

The X100 with v1.0 firmware. A beautiful, buggy mess that never should have been released to market. Greatly improved with time, but the original will always own a deep dark hole of disappointment in my heart.

I bought an X100 when they first came out and decided that I had made a horrible mistake moving to digital and never used it. It was so frustrating that I could manually focus faster and more accurately. After a few years I pulled it back out and the aperture was stuck at f2. Fuji repaired it as it was one of the serial numbers where the manufacturing process was affected by the Tsunami. Sold it as soon as I got it back.

I'm very happy with my X-Pro2 now though 😀

 

[zuiko85]

When conditions were right I made some pretty good photos
with inexpensive 126 and later 110 Instamatic-type cameras.
Also I was new to photography then, with "fresh eyes"...

Chris

I was impressed with a Kodak 110 tele model that had a 22mm and 44mm lens, both 3 element lenses. By that time standard album prints were 3.5 x 5, a 7X enlargement, and with careful technique the prints were plenty sharp.
My sister in law wanted a compact easy to use camera and I tested this one before I gave it to her.

 

[AbtractBrewer]

Anyone mention the Yashica Y35 yet? Though classifying it as a camera is a stretch I suppose..... Edit... read back and saw it was mentioned. +1 for me.

 

[Orthogonal]

The worst cameras have to be the ones that are the most difficult to take good pictures on. At least with trashy toy cameras like Holgas you're aware of the limitations and can get unique results. My vote for the worst are countless 90's superzoom point and shoots that are always on full auto, have no manual flash control, slow lenses, bad AF, and tiny viewfinders. I think they're the worst since they generally give consistently mediocre results with little character and almost zero creative control for the photographer, making photography more about dumb luck than intention. They seem to be designed with total disinterest for the actual process of photography (the lenses usually don't even come labelled with their aperture) but festooned with meaningless buzz words and impressive sounding specs to impress consumers and their friends, nevermind that a 180mm lens on a small plastic film camera is near completely useless when your fastest aperture is f11.

 

[sara]

Lomo Diana.

Even the Holga isn't that bad.

 

[Dpingr1]

No votes for this yet, though it must make this list. Any camera using the 8x10 disc film format. All the terrible image quality of a Minox, without the coolness of feeling like James Bond. Thin, clumsy, hard to hold and easy to drop. I knew three people who had these, and all went back to their 126 snapshot camera after one disc.

Camera_Kodak_Disc_4000_with_disc_film by Daniel Ingram, on Flickr

 

[raid]

Cameras that I owned:
I once owned a Lubitel MF camera. It was really a bad camera. The negatives always showed the shadow of a screw at one side. I tried in vain to figure out why this screw was showing in all film rolls.

The AGFA Rapid was very basic. It was my first camera ever. The photos were square shaped.

 

[MrFujicaman]

Any Kowa leaf shutter SLR-I had a Kowa "H"-it lasted a roll and a half and jammed.

Argus Autronic-one seriously ugly camera

All Disc cameras-that was a bad idea from the start!

 

[Dogman]

The worst camera I ever owned was a first generation Nikon F3. It didn't work very often and, when it did work, it would stop working in the middle of using it. Nikon couldn't make it reliable.

Now that doesn't mean all Nikon F3's sucked. It just meant mine sucked.

By the way, the worst car I ever owned was a Honda.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I'd put the first new real camera I bought on this list.
Mamiya Sekor 1000 DTL
Never got a good clear picture out of it. Might have been user error as I didn't jell with the focus screen the way I did with the split image screen on my neighbor's SR-T 102. If I could have/would have bought a better camera I might have gotten more into photography in my youth.

 

[Scrambler]

I think you mean M8. And the decaying sensor in both models could not have been anticipated. It was unfortunate... However, there are still many fans of both cameras. Why?

Typo/brain fart. You are correct.

 

[santino]

The worst camera is the one you don‘t have with you (because you left it at home) 😀

 

[filmtwit]

Leica M8.2 - Hated it, still hate it.

Shutter lag, shutter lag, shutter lag and shutter lag.
Color, don't get me started here . . .
Write Speeds - I wind film and go "Click" quicker then this camera could.
Cost . . . A Canon 10D was fraction the cost, and could SOOOO MUCH MORE.

 

[Pál_K]

The Exa, hands down. A miserable piece of junk which no one remembers, for good reasons.
...

Youre thinking of the Exa I. The Exa II / Exakta 500 is very nice. Compact, fits the hand, good range of shutter speeds (B, 1/2 to 1/500), instant return mirror, shutter-uncocked warning in viewfinder, elegant frame counter, and excellent results with inexpensive Exakta lenses!

I've had so much fun using this camera.

 

[Pál_K]

No votes for this yet, though it must make this list. Any camera using the 8x10 disc film format. All the terrible image quality of a Minox,...

Minox 8x11mm image quality is actually very good. However, one's technique in using the camera is what governs the image quality.

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Youre thinking of the Exa I. The Exa II / Exakta 500 is very nice. Compact, fits the hand, good range of shutter speeds (B, 1/2 to 1/500), instant return mirror, shutter-uncocked warning in viewfinder, elegant frame counter, and excellent results with inexpensive Exakta lenses!

I've had so much fun using this camera.

Love it - especially picture 2!