Plastic Cameras

Plastic Cameras

What fun, no real F stops, sunny or cloudy line drawings to set exposure, that I can figure out. Focusing - line drawings of a tight head shot, two people, a group of people or a mountain far away (again within the scope of my intelligence, especially with the line drawings as guides!

Photography on a budget, all ones needs is a camera, from $15.00 to $65.00, a roll of black tape and a roll of film. I have been working with them since early 1998 and have re-discovered some of the initial joys of photography, that where lost due to big budgets, deadlines and all the equipment we all seem to need to make a photograph. No thinking about the technical, just looking through the view finder and rediscovering the joy of seeing.

I am no expert with them, other than I know to tape the camera big time to help stop light leaks! I have given you some links to people who are experts and I have found their pages especially helpful in my quest to re-discover the simple joys of just making photographs.

A few technical notes: The cameras I use are The Holga (my personal favorite with all the inserts removed), the Debonair and The Banner. I have a Diana but it doesn't seem to feel right. I shoot tri-x film and have crazy glued a 25 red gel filter inside each of my bodies right behind the lens. Hence I always use the "shade" f stop. Also I have JB Welded screw adaptors onto the bottoms of my cameras so I can mount them to my tripod. I put the end tab (sometimes two) off the 120 film box under the spool that has the film on it. This helps to keep the film winding tight, so that when you open the camera back the rolled film is fairly tight on the take up spool. To help control light leaks even more, I have also made the red viewing area (frame counter) in the back of the camera much smaller with black gaffers tape. Then again, with black gaffers tape I cover what's left of the red viewing area, until I wind the film and need to see the numbers to find the next frame at which time I lift the tab until I've advance the film to the next frame, then recover.

Other than that I develop the film in Rodional 1-50 for 15 mins. unless I want to push it in which case I use Dektol 1-3 for about 4 mins. I print in Palladium.

You can usually find some for sale on ebay on line auction.