what are your coolest/weirdest cameras?

[harry01562]

weirdest... sorta

weirdest... sorta

My vote has to go to a TLR. I have the Ansco Automatic Reflex, designed and built in the USA in the late 40's. They attempted to compete with the Rollie, and it wasn't much of a battle. The camera originally had a price tag around $230, in 1948. That was a lot of money, then. They designed the camera quite well, and built it solidly. It has the crank load, and Morrocan leather. The controls are funky, but the lens was not the greatest. They saved money on the lens. Like a guy buys a high end amplifier for $3000 and then gets $200 speakers.
Anyway, I have shot with it, and it isn't bad. They are very undervalued, I think, but they don't have a following.
Compared to either of my Rollie's, they finish at the rear of the pack. It is a very impressive camera, however, and, like the Ektra, is made in the USA. We didn't make a lot of expensive stuff designed for the guy on the street.
And I do get the most looks when I'm out with the 2x3 Crown Graphic, or the Mamiya Press G.....

Harry

 

[raid]

Tom: I have a C-44 with only the 50/2.8 lens. I wish I had the 35mm lens for it.

 

[Tarzak]

This one is more anti-cool but definitely wierd.

I used to use it! (shame on me).

 

[remrf]

My weirdest camera is one I built up myself. At the time I owned two view cameras but I did not have a "field" 4x5 and could not take a 4x5 with me easily on my motorcycle.

I used parts from my Omega E model (ground glass and film back) and built a fixed focus wide angle 4x5 using my Schneider Super Angulon 90 mm f-8 lens.

It worked very well and I used it to shoot some fireworks this last 4th of July. But I bought a Crown Graphic shortly after that and now have a folding portable 4x5 so I don't use the one I built much anymore.

The second weirdest is actually the filmback that makes it weird. I bought a 35 mm long roll adaptor for my 4x5. Why? becuae it was there and it was cheap. Unless I decide to do a bunch of portraits someday I don't know what I would use it for.

Sigh....

Pictures of both below

 

[dostacos]

The camera I have that garners quite a bit of attention is a Revere 33:

http://www.stereophotoworld.com/revere33cam.asp

The camera is well made and the one I have looks new. I also have a Kodak Instamatic 500 that is quite unique. It's not a rangefinder, but is the only Instamatic I've seen that has very good build quality. Even the case is of good quality.

and mine is the Kodak variant http://www.stereophotoworld.com/kodakcamera.asp

 

[Poptart]

I have an East German "Beirette VSN" which is an ordinary scale-focusng plastic 35mm p/s but with an adjustable glass lens. It's not bad quality:

 

[CleverName]

I have a weird idea for a camera, does that count?

Take an old TLR, cut the back off it.
Take an old solid body Polaroid, cut the front off it.
Find a way to attach the two.

If it actually worked, it would be cool.

Anybody got an old TLR they don't want? Anybody got an old Polaroid they don't want?

 

[RJBender]

Bill and Chris: It is an impressive lens, isn't it. I am dying to use this camera before giving it away to my university. I asked so many people already about the original use of this camera. Nobody has a record of such a camera. It was suggested to me that this camera may have been used to take photos of some experiments in the lab, or similar. I really forgot what someone suggested based on his expertise. The lens is still clean without any wiping marks. It has radioactive material in it. I know; I used a Geiger counter to measure the radiation from the camera.

Raid,

If there's a contract number on the camera, do a google search on it and see what you get.

Did you get this at a surplus equipment auction at the naval air station? It may have been used for aerial photography. It looks like something I saw in Red's Camera store on Navy Blvd. in 1988-1989.

R.J.

 

[RJBender]

I have an East German "Beirette VSN" which is an ordinary scale-focusng plastic 35mm p/s but with an adjustable glass lens. It's not bad quality:

Hey, it looks just like a rabbit! 😀

R.J.

 

[raid]

Raid,

If there's a contract number on the camera, do a google search on it and see what you get.

Did you get this at a surplus equipment auction at the naval air station? It may have been used for aerial photography. It looks like something I saw in Red's Camera store on Navy Blvd. in 1988-1989.

R.J.

RJ: This camera was obtained in a camera swap meeting in Pensacola from someone (not Red). It is a Navy surplus equipment with a contract number. I had no clue that it was one time in Red's store. I was hoping to fin d someone who could attach to it some large bellows so that it could be used for cool photos. So far, I could not find anyone like that.

 

[RJBender]

RJ: This camera was obtained in a camera swap meeting in Pensacola from someone (not Red). It is a Navy surplus equipment with a contract number. I had no clue that it was one time in Red's store. I was hoping to fin d someone who could attach to it some large bellows so that it could be used for cool photos. So far, I could not find anyone like that.

Raid,

Red used to have some strange gear back in the 1980's. I can't say for sure if your camera came from Red's but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. 🙂

The contract number might be your best bet for clues on what the camera was used for.

R.J.

 

[wpb]

By far my weirdest looking camera is a Stereo Realist, but alas it also is the coolest because of the images it produces. The camera looks like a piece of surveying equipment and has the controls to match. It looks like a thoroughly utilitarian device without even one iota of thought given to its styling. The two lenses and center viewfinder window look quite strange and the two rangefinder windows are in the worse possible locationif you happen to wish to hold this camera with your hands. The rangefinder is accurate enough for a 50mm f1.0 lens, but seems a bit long for the camera's 35mm f3.5 lenses. This is especially true on a camera that should be used at its hyperfocal distance at any given aperture. The flip up lens protector is nice, as it can't be easily lost, but it has general exposure guidelines on the inside that you need to hold the camera upside down to read. The wind and rewind functions appear to be designed by a person who never used a camera before and the frame counter won't reset on its own, and setting it back to zero is quite difficult. Damn this thing is ugly! Why on earth do I love it so? It all started when I found a Kodak stereo slide viewer at the Salvation Army. It was $2.00, and even in the early days of E-bay I knew I could sell it for 30 times that. I wanted to pay for it with my debit card and was told I would have to buy something else, as they had a $5.00 minimum. Walking around with the box tucked under my arm I spotted something behind the counter... tan and chrome... could it be? Yes, a SX-70 with a tripod mount for $5.00? You need a pack of film to test this camera (battery is in the pack) but what the hell. I thought even if it did not work I can use the mirror to fix up some other cameras. When I got home I got quite a surprise, the viewer worked right out of the box. Cool... but when I went looking further in the box what I thought was a space filler was actually two small boxes filled with stereo slides, turned upside down. I popped in the first one. It was a candid shot taken in a nightclub in the late 1950's. A man and two women all decked out sitting at a table with cocktails, just like you would imagine in a Rat-Pack movie... I was completely blown away! Others were a graduation from a military academy, a wedding and some random portraits all as if they had been shot just yesterday (God bless Kodachrome). This has started a now 5 year love affair with that ugly little camera, I purchased to go with the viewer. I've been trying to make a set of slides that my family can share in one day. It still pains me a little that someone either didn't realize or didn't care what wonderful images were with that Kodak viewer, but the original photographer can rest assured... I do. :angel:

 

[DougK]

Probably my Yashica Samurai qualifies. Kind of amusing anecdote... I took it to the zoo last fall and any kids happening to walk into my frame mugged and carried on like I had a video camera. I panned with them for a few seconds, waved, they went away happy and I got my shots. I'm not sure what it is about people that they don't seem to mind being on video but whip out a still camera and they run for cover....

 

[Kin Lau]

This one is more anti-cool but definitely wierd.

I used to use it! (shame on me).

I have a similar Vivitar.... waterproof to about 15ft. I bought it for Hawaii.

 

[DougK]

I'm using a Chinese Great Wall DF-2 SLR (below right) a lot lately--it's basically a low-rent Kowa 66 with a shutter similar to the Exa SLR. It has a 39mm lens thread, so a LTM lens can screw in for extreme macro.

Where did you find this lovely (well, lovely in a cheap Chinese camera sorta way) beast? I think one would be the perfect complement to my Lubitel... considering the single best photo I've ever taken came out of my Lubitel, I'm certainly not willing to overlook cheap cameras. Besides, my significant other won't freak out over a cheap camera... it's the expensive ones that I hear about.

 

[Rico]

In the "Cool" category, I nominate the Contax T: 35mm folder, titanium case, manual focus, optical RF. Streetworthy, too!

​

 

[fgianni]

It's gotta be my Revue cam-watch M1

http://www.submin.com/8x11/collection/chadt/cameras/revue_m1.htm

That is really weird, and is probaby one of the smallest film cameras ever.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I rather fancy a Yasuhara.

 

[oftheherd]

I have a weird idea for a camera, does that count?

Take an old TLR, cut the back off it.
Take an old solid body Polaroid, cut the front off it.
Find a way to attach the two.

If it actually worked, it would be cool.

Anybody got an old TLR they don't want? Anybody got an old Polaroid they don't want?

When I was a youngster I remember watching my father, in fact I may have helped him with some part of it, take a cheap plastic camera and cut off the lens. I don't remember for sure, but it may have been 127 or some roll film camera that used a little larger roll film. It could have been a 6x7 or 6x9, but I don't think it was that big. He cut a piece of the kind of fiber board that is smooth on one side, but textured on the other, with a tube made from something that was rigid. As I recall, the fiber board was cut to fit a (I don't remember, but I guess was a) 9x12 folding camera, and the edges were sanded in in a bevel that allowed it to fit light tight into the folder. The tube was glued to that board and to the body of the camera. I don't remember, but I guess he then marked the ground glass of the folder to match the size of the negative of the camera. It allowed ground glass focusing for the use of smaller (and cheaper) roll film. As I recall, he read about the project in a photo magazine, or heard about it from the camera club he was a member of. I don't remember how he measured everything so focus would be correct at the film plane.

I guess it sounds hokey, but several years after he died, when I was in my first year of college, I used it for shooting paintings and life-sized dioramas at our local museum, with excellent results. At least it seemed to impress the director. Unfortunately, I left that camera at a place I was unable to recover it from when I went to Vietnam the first time. Sure wish I had taken it with me. He put it in a metal case with some other accessories.

So, to answer your question, yes it could be done, and could be fun. In fact, if you wanted to use a TLR instead of a 9x12 (9x12s might be cheaper), Rollei made at least one model with a removable back. At least one could be used with cut film and at least one was for the 35mm back, or they may have been the same model.

You know, I guess that would be my candidate for the weirdest I ever used, but it was almost too good a picture taker to be called weird, for all that it was weird. As I said, I wish I still had it to use, then I could show a photo of it too. Who knows, one day maybe I will make one with one of my 9x12 folders.

Thanks Clevername, for reviving that memory.

 

[trittium]

The weirdest camera I have ever seen is a Thompson revolver camera. I saw it go on ebay live auctions, and boy did it sell for a lot ($50,000+). Here is a link to the camera....

http://www.nmpft.org.uk/insight/onexhib_photoequip.asp