Further Adventures In Toy camera Photography

My friend William said, once I acquired my Diana camera, that once I was under the spell of toy cameras I would end up with at least two toy cameras, perhaps more. Sure enough, I have acquired another toy camera: a Kodak Duaflex.

I'd like to get an Ansco Panda. I mean, look at it. It's beyond cool! And the images it produces are swellegant, too. The Ansco Panda was Ansco's answer to the popular Kodak Hawkeye and, like the Diana camera, the Ansco Panda has a certain cache to it that makes it highly popular on ebay. For the moment I'll content myself with the Kodak Duaflex.

I spent some part of the afternoon looking on eBay for vintage cameras and then combing Google for any information on them. I found several nifty sites including this one and this one. The images some of these cameras take are quite remarkable, though ultimately there is a certain similarity: the wacky focus, the vignetting, the super saturation of colour film or lack thereof (which may be a symptom of the film itself and not necesarily the camera ... but I'm sure the camera helps!) one could have an array of these cameras and end up taking the same photograph.

Another problem is the film these vintage cameras require. Some exotic films are no longer made, 660 for example, while others such as 127 and 620 are being remade, but are spendy. 620 film is really 120 film on a thinner spool. One can un-spool a roll of 120 and carefully re-spool it onto a 620 spool. That's great if one has a darkroom, otherwise one is looking at a bit of an investment. Both the Ansco Panda and the Kodak Duaflex take 620 film.

Some of these vintage look amazing, with their Art Deco styling. Some of the names are amazing. Personally, I'm a sucker for any camera which has a name ending in -flex.

Rest assured, though, that I am not abandoning my Diana camera! I went over to Port Townsend this weekend with my Diana camera loaded with colour film. I'm eager to see the results, so tune in tomorrow when I'll post whatever came out. I went back to some favourite locations and took an approximation of the original photo ... will colour film make a big difference?