Low Tech Cameras

Originally appeared in Shutterbug magazine, July 2009

Low Tech Cameras for Everyone

The Diana Camera was the first low tech camera to be widely adopted by fine art photographers. Although the original Diana camera is no longer being made a working replica, with more features than the original (such as pinhole capability) is available in the U.S. from Freestyle Photographic Supplies. The model shown here is the DianaF+ which includes an integral flash.

Low tech cameras, aka toy cameras, aka plastic cameras, aka “you can’t be serious” cameras, have been around for a very long time. The first one to seize the imagination of fine art photographers was the Diana Camera. First made in Hong Kong circa 1960s, the Diana gained legitimacy in 1980 when the Friends of Photography, a not-for-profit founded by Ansel Adams and his associates in Carmel, California, held a group show of work exclusively made with the camera. The Diana, which originally sold for less than ten dollars, had already ceased being made at the time of the show. Even so, the legend of the Diana continues to this day, and no other low tech camera has ever captured the imagination of “toy camera” devotees to the same extent. A working replica, the Diana+, is now being made and distributed in the U.S. by Freestyle Photographic Supplies.

Red Ride, 1983. This is one of my first images made with a Diana camera in 1983 recorded on Ektachrome color transparency film. The image is reproduced full-frame. The light areas which surround the image are caused by light leaks. At the time I did not know to use tape in order to prevent this. Photo by Steve Anchell. Copyright © 2009, Steve Anchell.

Low tech cameras are for everyone, effectively bridging the gap between film and digital photographers. They are the one camera any photographer can use to improve their vision while having fun–that elusive activity which got us into photography in the first place.

There is almost nothing you will ever do that will improve your ability to see more than a low tech camera. A point ‘n click, as I call them. A camera that does nothing except record what you see. There is no auto white balance, exposure compensation, aperture priority, program mode, auto advance, no histogram . . . no nothin’. Just you and your subject. To zoom in you walk closer, to zoom out you lean backwards. Auto exposure is “click.” You are automatically exposed correctly or automatically exposed incorrectly. What this means is that the success of your image is largely dependent on the strength of your composition.

But wait, I hear you cry, “I don’t develop film! What good does it do me to make good compositions if I can’t get them out of the camera?"

There are two ways to use low tech cameras which do not require you to develop film. The first is to use color negative film which can be taken to any one hour lab for development. If you prefer black and white you can use Ilford XP2 chromogenic film which comes in 35mm and 120 sizes. This, too, can be developed at a one hour photo lab. In both cases you can have the lab provide you with scans on a disk, or you can scan the prints or original negatives yourself.

HOLGA CAMERAS

Another method is to use the 120 format Holga camera with the optional Holgaroid instant film back. You can use FujiFilm FP-100C instant film to take your creativity even further by doing emulsion lifts and image transfers.

Holga 120FN has a built-in flash above the lens, guaranteed to create stunning red-eye effects with color film.

The Holga is probably the most well-known low tech camera currently available. Using ancient methods of design and construction found only in the mysterious Orient, the Holga camera company has been producing their fine line of plastic cameras since 1982. Originally the Holga was meant to be an inexpensive mass-market camera for consumption in China. However, the vignetting, blur, and other distortions caused by its single meniscus lens, and light leaks which result from ill fitting parts, create a unique identity for each camera prized by fine art photographers who use the camera.

If you’re picking up what I’m putting down you’ll want to check out the Holgawood collection. What makes Holgawoods special is that they come in ten different colors and are named after famous Hollywood icons and include a cool collectible story card to go along with each name. For example, there is a blue Holgawood which is known as the Blooze Brothers, and a white Holgawood known as Casablanco. If the bug has bitten you there is a boxed collection of all ten available!

The 120 Holgas come with two plastic masks to create either 6x4.5cm or 6x6cm images. You can extend the versatility, as well as the number of single images made by the 120 Holga by adding a 35mm film adapter kit or a fisheye lens.

LOMOGRAPHIC SOCIETY CAMERAS

If you wanna act foolish, use the Holga. If you wanna go crazy you need a Lomographic camera–any Lomographic camera. The original Lomo LC-A Compact Automat camera was made by the former state-run optics manufacturer LOMO PLC of St. Petersburg, Russia. This camera made its first appearance in the 1980s and was loosely based upon the Cosina CX-1. The design was picked up by an Austrian firm which continued to make the LC-A until 2005 when they replaced it with the LC-A+, made in China instead of Russia.

In order to foster their own unique approach to photography, which could best be described as photographic anarchy, the Austrian-based Lomo camera company established the ubiquitous Lomographic Society, which encompasses and encourages the use of all low tech cameras, not just their own. The motto of the Society is “don’t think, just shoot” which presumes spontaneity while deemphasizing formal technique. Indeed the hallmark of Lomo-style photos are over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, “happy accidents,” and alternative film processing.

Lomo Action Sampler 2.0 takes four photographs on one piece of film with a single press of the shutter release.

Any one can join the Lomographic Society by enrolling on their web site. Once you become a member you can join the worldwide community that includes thousands of photographers who share their low tech images on the Society’s web site and compete in online competitions. In no time at all you will be as weird and wacky as the rest of the Society members.

PINHOLE CAMERAS

The 6x9 Pinhole Camera comes as a do-it-yourself cardboard kit. It uses 120 roll film, is reusable, has a precision, laser-cut metal pinhole, and yields a 6 x 9cm negative.

Not quite ready for the “Lomo experience?” There are a number of pinhole cameras available, and even the Lomo and Holga don’t get more low tech than pinhole photography.

Pinhole cameras came into existence several hundred years before the invention of photography as a means to project an image onto a wall or canvas. This was done for amusement at carnivals, and by artists to project an image they could trace in order to create realistic paintings. It was not until the wide spread use of gelatin-coated emulsions at the end of the nineteenth century that pinhole cameras became a viable means of permanently recording images.

Pinhole cameras come in a variety of film formats, from 35mm to 8x10”. Some of them come as build-it-yourself kits. The larger ones use either cut sheet film, FujiFilm FPC-100 instant film, or both. The sheet film models will require the use of a large format film holder and a darkroom or commercial lab for processing.

Lensless Pinhole Cameras are designed to take cut sheet film holders in sizes from 4x5” to 8x10”.

POWERSHOVEL CAMERAS

The Blackbird, fly is a TLR that comes in five colors. Although the lens is sharp the operation is simple making it a true low tech camera.

Powershovel is the newest contender in the low tech camera market. These cameras are not really toys, the lens is too sharp, but they are most definitely low tech and fun to use. Their camera is called the Blackbird, fly after the Beatles song. The Blackbird, fly is a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) available in five (count ‘em, five) colors. It can take pictures in standard 35mm film format (24x36), or by using a different (provided) mask, it can also produce square format pictures (24x24). You can remove the mask entirely and make a larger square format image (36x36), which fills up the entire width of the film, including the side sprocket holes.

Vacant Lot, Los Angeles, 2008. Made with a Blackbird, fly camera with the mask removed. Photo by Michael Tullberg. Copyright © 2009, Michael Tullberg.

For photographing during the day, you can alternate between f/7 and f/11, with a shutter speed of 1/125. At night, you can switch the shutter to B-mode to let in as much light as you need, or you could attach a flash for even more possibilities. The Blackbird, fly uses a wide-angle 33mm lens and allows you to take multiple exposure images.

LENSBABY

There are several models available, the one shown here is known as the Muse.

There is no dedicated low tech camera for digital photographers at this time. Perhaps Holga will someday make a digital model. But until then those that wish to remain purely digital have the Lensbaby which has a lens mount to fit almost any camera. Using the flexible selective-focus Lensbaby is a liberating experience for film or digital photographers who are fixated on their super sharp lenses.

If you want to learn more about low tech cameras and see some fine examples of what you can do with them, pick up a copy of Michelle Bates book, Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity, published in 2007 by Focal Press.

Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity by Michelle Bates. 2007, Focal Press.

In case you are still doubting whether low tech cameras are to be taken seriously check out the Toy Camera web site. After you’ve made some images with your own low tech camera you can enter the annual Krappy Kamera Competition held annually by the Soho Photo Gallery, the oldest artist run photography gallery in NYC.

Good luck in the competition and happy clickin’.

While the Lomographic Society distributes their extensive line of low tech cameras they can also be purchased in the U.S. from Freestyle Photographic Supplies, Freestyle also carries the Diana+, Holga, and all the pinhole cameras listed here.

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