Using Toy Cameras

Me and my Marwin! Diana Camera - Tim Irving

I'm a big fan of toy cameras. Dianas and Holgas have been my tools of choice for many years. They used to be really cheap, I'm talking pennies, or even given away in promotions. Today they're very trendy and very exclusive, I've seen them for sale at MOMA and the Pompidou Centre, in fact if you want one you'll probably pick one up at your local museum. They're not real cheap anymore, but they are affordable and they're great fun.

There's no doubt that these cameras can produce wonderful images. For the photographer the simplicity allows you to concentrate on the subject and composition. Overall though, toy cameras seem to be misunderstood. The reason is, in normal use you wont see a lot of difference between the photographs of a toy camera and any other camera. Of course if you look carefully, you will see a softer image and maybe a little colour fringing, but at standard print sizes that you'll get from the lab, the difference can be hard to see.

These cameras are bought on myths and half truths. "The photos look vintage" Not true. "They produce unpredictable results and colours" Not true. "The photographs look arty" Not true. What is true is that toy cameras tend to share certain traits; The images are softer, especially around the edges. Contrast is low. And some cameras produce definite colour fringing. One thing that is usually consistent is they all produce flare.

Once you know these characteristics you can get the best (or worst), out of the camera  by exploiting these traits. Shooting high contrast or very low contrast subjects. Shoot very saturated or very subdued colours. And, shooting facing the sun to make the most of that flare. Another trick to exploit lens distortion is to compose your subject close to the edge of the frame like I did with Liverpool, below.

There you go, just some thoughts for you. Good luck and have a great weekend.

Liverpool with Pidgeons - Tim Irving

CODEG a Diana Camera Clone

Hello to everyone - wherever you are!
It's St. George's Day here in England, a great day to kick off this new blog.

Suffolk coast - From a Diana clone, CODEG camera

Let me introduce you to the Diana clone.

This particular one is a CODEG, number 151, made in Hong Kong. However, there are dozens of other brands from ACME to Zodiac. These Diana cameras were re-badged and given given away as promotional gifts by companies like Readers Digest and Avis cars, some were branded by shops and sold under thier own name. All Diana's and her clones are very similar and they're usually very good cameras.

These cameras take 120 film and you get 16 photographs from a roll. A nice touch is that the negative is square and measures 425mm x 425mm. I don't know if this was an intentional design feature but by not exposing the edge of the negative there's no vignetting (dark corners), that you get on some toy cameras. Also the image isn't central on the negative, quirky eh!

Negative showing edge fog

Except for the shutter and the control levers, everything on this camera including the lens and viewfinder is honest plastic. The controls are:
Aperture - sunny, sun with cloud and cloudy.
Focusing - 4-6 ft, 6-12 ft, 12ft to infinity.
Shutter - B and I.
Other features, err no!

I've used my CODEG on three outings, sticking with Kodak Ektar film each time, the results have been consistantly to my liking. I set the exposure to suit the weather, the distance is left on 6-12ft and the shutter on I and that's it.

I discovered after my first roll of film that you have to take care loading the film, make sure it's nice and snug on the spool otherwise it becomes slack and you get edge fogging. Having said that, because the image is away from the edge of the film the fogging is minimal.

The lens on my camera is very nice. Unique, low image contrast and full of charm.

To sum up, I'd say the Diana and her clones are very elegant cameras allowing you to concentrate on the picture. After you've seen the results from a couple of rolls of film you'll get a feeling for what works and what doesn't, when to use it and when to go home.

Don't forget to wind on after each shot!