Novelty Camera Experiments

Meet the Split Cam – I think it was a product from the late ‘90s or early 2000’s. I got mine off Ebay for USD$9.95 but with shipping it was $16.45. It’s also stocked periodically on the lomography shop online and there’s an amazing gallery of what the Split-Cam can do here.

The camera basics are like most 35mm plastic P&S. You have your shutter release, frame counter, film advance and rewind wheels. However, what this plastic camera can do is image fusion – “using a dual-blind lens system and multiple exposure mechanics, the Split cam allows you to shoot half your photo with one subject and half with another.” So, thanks to image fusion, the brochure extols the possibility of imposing “a dog’s head over a man’s body” (or something to that effect.).

While operating the camera is simple enough, it’s quite a tedious process to achieve image fusion. Based on the instruction manual, there’re 9 steps the user has to take to create that effect and it involves, resetting the shutter, covering and uncovering the viewfinder and lens sliders and making sure you don’t advance the film at the wrong time.

Never having been able to take instructions really well, I was lost by the time I exposed my film for the 4^th time. I lost count of when I had pushed the shutter reset button to the left, when I had rewound the film, whether it was the upper or lower part of the image I was blocking out. After that, I found it easier to shoot randomly for experimentation, abiding by the opening pitch of the Split-Cam’s manual which stated, “taking pictures with the Split-Cam is about trial and error, imagination and experimentation. Forget everything you’ve been taught about “good” photography, this is fun photography, this is art photography….”

What’s great about this camera when you take it outdoors on a sunny day, is also the fact that it can take standard, full 35mm images when you’re tired of fiddling around with the buttons and levers. Overall though, I do think this is a nifty camera and great fun.

It was great fun for me when I didn’t have to keep track of the gadgety steps I had to do to create image fusion. Having seen the results of the first roll I put through, I can imagine the possibilities that can be created with this camera and am waiting for an opportunity to try it out again….just don’t ask me to give my best friend the face of her pet terrier.

---------------------------------

The full album for this review can be accessed here:

http://photo.xanga.com/toycamper/albums/f11fc146231f3c

I’ve recently become intrigued by the larger universe of Soviet cameras when an old companion, my LC-A, came out from hiding.  It rekindled images of a world I sought to explore further. It was time, to get a new camera.

There were hundreds of Soviet cameras waiting to find new owners on Ebay. I finally settled on the Zorki 10 because as its English translated manual list it -  has “fully automatic exposure settings”.

I’d be lying if I said looks didn’t matter. Amongst all the Soviet cameras that were available on Ebay, the Zorki’s sleek silver body and minimalism stood out distinctly. That it won a gold medal at the 1965 Leipzig World Fair gave that added gleam to its cool steel looks and I was sold - for US$35.

When I first held the Zorki 10, encased in its boxy, original leather casing, I was surprised by how large and heavy it was for a 35mm autofocus. (The manual list it as 750g without casing, it weighs like 2kg to me!) It was probably the heaviest autofocus camera I’ve ever handled - it sure was generations ahead of “compacts”.

Unlike “compacts” which allow you to use the “single hand hold”, the Zorki 10 isn’t a camera that can be held with one hand for quick snapshots. In fact, half the time when I was trying to get to know this camera, I realised that my hands were all fumbly and unsteady. While its size is part of the reason, this awkwardness was mainly because of how it’s built. Its shutter release wasn’t a press button like most, but a lever. So I needed my right hand to pull the shutter release lever on the right, and then I need my left hand to crank the film advance – it was all hands onboard with this one!

The Zorki 10 was “designed for versatile amateur photography, for photographing architectural ensembles, landscapes, portraits etc.”  So that’s how I decided to let it prove itself, and took it out to Vivocity – one of Singapore’s latest mega malls. Well, for a camera in its 40s, it doesn’t seem to have slowed down much. In fact, it gave some pretty good results that left me gasping for more.

I guess as they say, practice makes perfect and we just need to get more comfortable with each other for some amazing times.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

images from the test shoot can be accessed here :

http://photo.xanga.com/toycamper/albums/f164d612371c3c

 Epic Edit's $50 Film Camera Project :

Souping up a $1 Point & Shoot

This is my 3^rd review on cheapo simply basic plastic P&S. (And I really should stop buying anymore of these plastic cameras…even if they cost me only $1). With the similar features of these basic P & S, it’s not that sweeping a statement to say that if you’ve used one, you’ve used them all. 

Other than the $1 price-tag, I bought it because I was curious about the Meikai brand. In its early days, Meikai was a Japanese brand making its cameras in Japan. Over the years, as production costs became higher in Japan, and Japan became increasingly associated with superior consumer technology, Meikai cameras were produced in different lower-cost locales. This camera under review was Made-In-China.

Perhaps subconsciously, I was hoping that the Meikai heritage would produce another surprise find like Vivitar’s Ultra Wide & Slim. Unfortunately, the camera fell short on this point. It was a drizzly day when I took this Meikai out for it’s maiden shoot, and without the aid of a flash, the images were well, all washed out. (I've included 2 photos from the maiden shoot for comparison against the roll submitted for review.)

To soup up this $1 plastic, China-made camera, I paired it with my US$65 lomography ringflash (which is incidentally is also made in China.) I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Since the ringflash wasn’t securely attached to the Meikai, I also experimented with using it above the lens, as well as a simulated “slave flash”. Lesson learnt ? Use the ringflash as it is meant to be used, around the lens.

As a final comparison, I have also slipped in 2 shots from that same session which was shot on the LC-A with the ringflash. Both cameras used same batch generic 200 film made by Ferrania, Italy.

Can you spot which ones were shot on the LC-A ? 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The album for this review can be accessed here :

http://photo.xanga.com/toycamper/albums/f2ced02c37283d