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I was given a camera the other day, passed
through a third party to me, as the person handed it over and I opened the box a
smiled.. it was a Minolta X-300.
the reason I smiled? long story short, these
cameras are one of the few I thoathed.*
It got me thinking first how many wonderful cameras
there were/are, and how often I'm impressed by the features various
manufacturers included and innovations they made. And as I thought
about all the marvelous cameras I've encountered over the years it also got me
wondering, for all the assertions we make about how great (insert the brand name
of the camera one owns) are - how many truly awful cameras or photographic bits
are there that have made life hard for us?
* - Short story
long.. My first camera was a Pentax Spotmatic with the standard 50mm lens.. and
as much as I loved using it, the photos I got back were alway too fuzzy for my
liking and I aspired to a 'better camera'. Taking advice from people who
were in the know, I saved up and bought the new-at-the-time, Minolta X 300 and
convinced myself the images I shot were sharper and better
- It was only later when after much frustration and
needless shooting of test targets that I actually learned to develop and print
film - and this is where I discovered the fault lay not with my many camera
lenses but rather with poorly focussed enlargers making the print
In the meantime I fought and fought with the odd
layout of the X-300 and the habit I had of inadvertantly adjusting the shutter
speed every time I picked the camera up - which always assured only about 10% of
a roll was successful whenever I had a flash mounted.
In the end I realised this camera had been an utter
waste of money and I passed it to someone else who appreciated it more than
I
I had a similar experience when I sold my trusty
Mamiya C-330 to buy a Hasselblad ELM .. my god, double exposures required the
back to be removed, long shutter speed shots taken required the operator to hold
the shutter for the duration of the shot lest the camera advance while the
exposure was being made .. and if you weren't nible enough to release at
precisely the right moment then a second exposure would begin (!) I sold
it and bought anothe C-330 in the end.
Digitally, the worst product I've ever owned was a
Umax scanner..
So those are my duds .. an X-300, the ELM and a
Umax. I'd add that I won't work on Minolta cameras.. their internals are
counter to any logic i've ever experienced.. and I've also been unimpressed by
the viscera that lies beneath the shell of Nikons. However, the Nikon's
kin (Konica and Topcon) were all both extremely rugged and logical in their
mechanics.
what about you - what have been your worst
experiences?
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