The WORST Cameras of all time..

ozmoose said:
The Mamiya Universal Press. Designed by a sadist, pleases only masochists.

Any Mamiya R* 67 series camera - RB, RZ, you name it. Like trying to lift two cement blocks with a lens (oddly, often as not a truly excellent piece of glass, which sort of softens this acidic criticism). Likely created by an out-of-work designer for the Folmer Graflex Company.
Click to expand...


I didn't know that Don McCullin was a masochist, he uses the Universal Press to create his wonderful landscapes. He also uses the RZ67, and at the age of 83 he doesn't seem to be restrained in any way by the weight of these cameras. I have the "disguised" Universal Press, the Polaroid 600SE and I plan to get an RB67. Wonderful tools for medium format shooters.
 
ozmoose said:
...
Any Mamiya R* 67 series camera - RB, RZ, you name it. Like trying to lift two cement blocks with a lens (oddly, often as not a truly excellent piece of glass, which sort of softens this acidic criticism)...
Click to expand...


Often I've said they're no different than walking around carrying a hedgehog. Just cradle them properly and you're fine.

Oddly, I have always used my RB67's as carry-around cameras - I've yet to use them on a tripod. Yet they produce spectacular results.

You can see I've added a metering prism to one. This doubles the weight (I'm not joking) because the prism is made from the armor plating of Russian T-54 tanks destroyed in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20190419_090447346~3.jpg
    IMG_20190419_090447346~3.jpg
    38.2 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20200111_145642639~3.jpg
    IMG_20200111_145642639~3.jpg
    33 KB · Views: 0
filmtwit said:
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.
Click to expand...
Yes - I sold some great film equipment in order to get into the M8! I hated the experience as well, which wasn't greatly improved with the M8.2 (IR Cut filters, cropped sensor, small 10mp sensor). The experience was so chafing that by the time I upgraded to an M9 I had lost my passion for Leica altogether!

11091818-orig.jpg


My one-of-kind BP MP-7 (sold it in order to get into the M8).
 
Worst Camera?

Worst Camera?

"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.”

I'll forgive you for taking camera related advice from CR, which has recommended far too many clunkers over the years to have any credibility in this product.

That said, I was given a minty Miranda by a friend, giving me a bit of the Miranda collecting bug. I find them as a whole to be cleverly designed, very ergonomic to use, and almost flawless in operation (except for the DX series), probably with no CLA for more than 35 years. Of course, this comment excludes the light meter accessories which are usually dead, apart from dependence on a mercury battery.
 
justins7 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Old timer photojournalists? I would imagine there's not many (if any) left and most are probably using phones these days.
 
justins7 said:
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.
Click to expand...
That's nice. I had an M8 that I bought factory certified but used in 2010 and an M9 new the following year. The M9 went back to Leica 3 days after I bought it and was gone for 6 weeks. I owned each for just under 2 years and during that time I got to use each only roughly 55 percent of the time I owned them. The rest of the time they were off to Leica for repair. They were seriously the least reliable cameras I have ever used. At the time I was a student as well as freelance photographer. Never again will I make the mistake of shooting a digital Leica, certainly not for a task where results are expected on deadline.
They work fine for some but they are 0 and 2 in my experience.
Phil Forrest
 
The Komaflex 127-format SLR often gets mentioned as a bad camera mainly because so few working examples have survived all these years. Most died an early death because the winding mechanism is very fragile and if you do anything (ANYTHING!) out of the correct sequence, it is likely to break. But when it works, it's a fine camera. Mine shows some signs of age (such as a couple or three shots per roll where the shutter sticks open and thus over-exposes the photo terribly) but the good ones are in fact pretty good.


hAOC3S.jpg
 
Oh Geez how could I forget? I worked in a camera department and sold the NEW Kodak EK 4 and EK6 Instant Camera. We Shot it a bunch in the store and the images always seemed too blue. The EK4 was cheaper because unlike the delux EK6, you had to turn this black plastic handle to roll the film print out. The camera felt like a plastic kids toy. We sold lots of them.
 
justins7 said:
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.
Click to expand...

I got some really nice pics out of my M-E(M9), but as it had to have its sensor replaced twice in two years, and I had it in my possession for maybe 60% of that time, it definitely was one of the worst cameras I owned.
Next to the Lubitel 166.

I now forgive my Minolta Prod20s, because even though it takes kinda lousy snaps, at least it never broke.

p.s forgot to mention about the M9 - unless the battery in the camera was fully charged, it often would not sync with the Leica SF24D flash. Oh, it also did not work with many memory cards! You had to find a specific type/brand/memory capacity.
It's almost as if Leica didn't have any QA process for that product.
 
ChrisPlatt said:
When 127 reversal film reappeared (briefly) about 15 years ago I wanted one.
Unfortunately I never managed to find a Komaflex-S in fully working condition.
Click to expand...


I rolled the dice and bought mine on Ebay. The thing that appealed to me about this particular one, was that it still had a half-exposed roll of film in it (Kodacolor-X). I figured that if the camera was still working all those years ago when they were shooting that roll of film, maybe no one had broken it in the decades since then. Fortunately, I was right. I suspect the camera sat forgotten in a drawer until someone pulled it out and put it up on Ebay!
 
Dpingr1 said:
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
Click to expand...

I totally agree, the worst system ever invented. I was in the Mini-Lab business for 20 yrs, and we used to joke that the Disc Cameras made 110 film look like Medium Format. It's amazing what the "Public" thought was a quality image. I rarely remember ever seeing a decent 5X7 from a disc negative.
 
Beemermark said:
Close behind that is the Leica CL. High failure rate of the meter from the get go.
Click to expand...

From new? No, CL meters were not particularly prone to failure back in the day. 45+ years on, yes, the meters do fail, just like CdS cells in many other 45+ year old cameras.

A working CL today is a joy to use; it's the (relatively) modern implementation of the Barnack. After having my otherwise well-cared for CL fully serviced, the viewfinder is crystal clear and RF patch as contrasty as it was originally back in 1973, I like it better than any M...and I've owned all the film Ms.

The worst camera I ever bought new was the M8. Decided to sell it relatively quickly, before the huge price drop.

Made the mistake of buying a Q, and then it spent months at Leica getting repaired. Not that it was a 'worst' camera, just woefully poor service for a premium brand.

Never again will buy a new Leica digital.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mos6502
Halina 35X. One of the All-Time Worst?
2
Replies
37
Views
4K
Dralowid
Dralowid
A
The Quadrant Model of Gear vs Output
Replies
10
Views
897
Guth
G
A
The mystery photographer of '60s San Francisco and undeveloped Kodachrome
Replies
16
Views
4K
bcostin
bcostin
J
  • Article Article
Collecting Cameras: It can be an obsession, but a little rationality helps!
2 3
Replies
53
Views
4K
bythelight
B
splitimageview
  • Locked
RFF - Let’s Not Lose Focus!
2 3 4
Replies
64
Views
4K
CameraQuest
CameraQuest
Back
Top Bottom