The original Diana, fingers crossed, that it really is an original, because I wanted one for a long time. There really isn’t anything good to say about the specifications on this camera, it’s all plastic, it has a crappy lens, not many setting options, but that’s just until you try it, because this camera is fantastic – and a legend in the toy camera world – of course it’s all a matter of taste, if you want your photo’s to be crisp sharp, then this camera is definitely not for you.
The whole reason I started analog photography again, after a long period of just shooting digital, was this kind of photography, the toy camera look.
My first toy camera was a Corina (read about that one here), but that was just to “good”. I also found a Diana F+ on eBay, it’s the new version made by Lomography, but I’m not that found of that one, even though it got a lot of accessories and can shot 35mm with sprockets holes.
One day I got lucky on one of my many flea market hunts, and found an original Diana, and for just 50 Dkr ($7,50) it was all mine.
It makes 4x4cm photos, which is less than the full height of a 120 film, which gives you plenty of space for frames for each photo. (I have cropped some photos in the gallery below, that’s why they are not all in square format)
It doesn’t use a zone focus system, which you often see on cameras like this. But instead you have three options for focusing 4 – 6 feet (1.22 – 1.83 meters), 6 – 12 feet (3.66 meters) or 12 feet – infinity.
It’s not that often I bring out this camera, but when I do, I always enjoy it.
- Info on Camera-wiki.org
- More info on wikipedia.org
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The Looks
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The Quality
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The Handling
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The Price
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The Output
In short!
This is the original Diana
Pros
- Fun to use
- Medium format
- Lightweight
Cons
- Plastic
- A bit expensive
- Don’t use the full height of the film
Photo Gallery
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