Let’s Get This Party Started! (Analog Ambassador)

I love getting mail. In this digital age, receiving a package–even one I know is coming–is just like Christmas!  And Christmas this year has come early, in the form of my Analog Ambassador kit from Old School Photo Lab!  Now I have to admit, after a somewhat bumpy start with 35mm film (read Film Fail #1 for more on that) I had some trepidation about even loading the Holga I received.  When I opened her up and took a look at her guts she didn’t seem that different from any of my 35mm cameras, but I still poked around on YouTube for a video showing me how to load my new toy.

Now, let me start by saying that I did, in fact, get my Holga loaded (with Fujicolor Pro 400H).  I did, however, need to make several attempts.  I stuck the end of the film into the intake slot on the other side, however turning the knob to advance it didn’t seem to really get the film to take, so I took out the doohickey on the right side, wound the film around it a few times until I felt like it was secure, then put it back in and started advancing.  That seemed to work, so I put the camera back on and advanced some more.  Didn’t look like I was seeing anything happen (there’s a tiny little window that’s supposed to show you arrows and numbers) so I opened the back, and of course I saw the word START, so I quickly closed the back again and advanced to that point.  Then I looked at the video again, which said I should see some numbers show up, but all I was getting were lines, so I advanced some more…then realized that maybe the film types were different and lines are Fujifilm’s version of numbers.  I’m still not sure on this, but I stopped winding and am now off to adventure with a camera I hope is loaded that may or may not be wound to the beginning.

Hooray for new adventures!

One High-Maintenance Lady

About a week ago, I picked up a Diana Mini.  I was excited by the prospect of a fun toy camera and neat films, plus her retro aesthetic appealed to my anachronistic nature.  I can’t help but laugh at myself for this purchase since she essentially creates Hipstamatic shots, and I was not particularly into Hipstamatic.  Several rolls of film have gone through the Diana Mini while in my hands, and I feel like I can give some sort of a review about her now.

The Good:  The Diana Mini is a fun camera to use.  Every time I look at her I can’t help but giggle–she’s so tiny and cute!  That sense of fun shows up in her images, which have an obvious style that is easily recognized.  She’s got an adjustable focus, allowing you to have a bit more personality than in some other plastic cameras I’ve used that have a fixed focus. It’s a nice idea to have the ability to shoot both square and rectangular shots, allowing for some diversity in your images.

The Bad:  The Diana Mini is one fussy lady.  Focusing is difficult to manipulate (and I often forget to adjust it for each shot), after the first role her advancing became tricky and I got a lot of accidental double exposures as well as chopped off shots because even though I set the camera to shoot square it actually shot rectangular, and the lens cap falls off constantly (it’s taken me one week to lose it, and I’m one of the few photographers I know who still has the plastic bit for their SLR hot shoe which shows I don’t lose much).  Because of the problems with advancing and sizes, I would need to sort out a set-up for scanning my own film if I wanted to shoot seriously with the Diana since the image placement on the film has become so sporadic and uneven.

The Conclusion:  I like my Diana Mini, but I don’t love her.  When I’m going somewhere wacky, I’ll bring her along to get some quirky shots, but I would never trust her to capture the image I intended the way I intended it, so she’ll never be top of the list for me.