Sunday, 07 September 2008
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Epic Edit’s $50 Camera Project : The Split-Cam
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 4th 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.
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The full album for this review can be accessed here:
http://photo.xanga.com/toycamper/albums/f11fc146231f3c
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