Pano-rific!

I was up in Seattle over the summer and I found myself in a Goodwill hunting for cameras. This particular Goodwill was pretty big with a wide selection of cheap, cheaper and even super-cheaper cameras. I was only really looking for any Polaroid camera's I didn't have, but one little plastic black 35mm, an "Ansco Panoramic" camera, caught my eye. Here's one out of the package, brand-spanking new. I bought it for a whopping $2, packed it up and took it home with me to sunny California.

I honestly really didn't think too much of the camera and forgot all about it for a few months. However, I ended up heading back to the Salton Sea area last month so I decided to take my little pano with me.

Ch...I'm pretty stoked I did. I really like what I got with the first roll. I have never shot with a pano-type camera before and I really like wide frame! The colors, for the most part, are pretty so-so, but I chalk that up to my crappy expired Kodak I loaded into it. I think some b&w would look sweet.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my new cheap little plastic pano :)

Meet Miss Diana...

I recently adopted a new camera into my family... An authentic Diana F! I found her all alone and abandoned in a house full of single bachelors. She was up on a mantle, dusty, unused, and broken. She cried out for a good home! I gladly embraced Miss Diana into my lovely little fold of cameras...

Mind you, Lomography lovers, that this is one of the original Diana cameras, created way before Lomography was ever created. The camera itself is a medium format toy camera completely made out of plastic. They were originally produced in the 1960's to the 1970's in Hong Kong by the Great Wall Plastic Company. Other then that, there is little else known about the true history of the Diana camera. She is still somewhat of a mystery. After the Great Wall Plastic Company started producing the Diana, many variations of the camera started becoming popular as well. These 'variations' are commonly known as Diana Clones. Even though all of the clones have slight differences, they all, for the most part, take 120mm film and take 4cmX4cm sized negatives. My Diana F is an "F" because it originally came with a flash attached to the top of the body. My new Diana's flash, unfortunately, was completely broken and was left in pieces. I decided to take it off of the camera for both shooting connivence and for aesthetics. 

I was, at first, unsure of the Diana, even though it was an 'original'. A while back, before I knew any better, I purchased a Diana+ recreated  by Lomography. It lasted a whole two rolls of film. And the images it produced were nothing to get excited about. But this new Diana was authentic and even better, absolutely free. So, I decided to give her a chance.  

I took her along with me on my last trip to The Salton Sea. Here's some results: 

All in all, not too shabby! I was quite surprised when I looked at the negatives. She created some classic light leaks and some random out-of-focus soft vignetting throughout the pictures. The verdict (so far)... she's a keeper!