Like Huss had eluded to, there are a lot of great sub-$30 point and shoot cameras from days gone by out there at your local antique barns, yard sales and, if your from England, - boot sales. I found this one, a Minolta Freedom Tele for $18.95 with its original carrying case and instructions, at my local multi-bay antique joint in town today. Nearly perfect condition. I need to source its odd battery (2CR5). I went to two stores and no luck, but I'll try again tomorrow. If it works under power I'll be very happy. It seems similar in approach to the Samsung AF Slim Dual which I've heard is a good camera. BTW the Freedom Tele is really a Leica AF-C1 so it's got to be at least decent. ;-) I'll report back once I get it a battery and develop my first roll. I'm expecting great things! Go out and find some of these gems in your neck of the woods.
Thanks. Allegedly my local Walmart has a few in stock. I'll try there and then Amazon. Amazon will be cheaper than all the gas I'm using to find it anyway.
geekcop wrote:
Like Huss had eluded to, there are a lot of great sub-$30 point and shoot cameras from days gone by out there at your local antique barns, yard sales and, if your from England, - boot sales. I found this one, a Minolta Freedom Tele for $18.95 with its original carrying case and instructions, at my local multi-bay antique joint in town today. Nearly perfect condition. I need to source its odd battery (2CR5). I went to two stores and no luck, but I'll try again tomorrow. If it works under power I'll be very happy. It seems similar in approach to the Samsung AF Slim Dual which I've heard is a good camera. BTW the Freedom Tele is really a Leica AF-C1 so it's got to be at least decent. ;-) I'll report back once I get it a battery and develop my first roll. I'm expecting great things! Go out and find some of these gems in your neck of the woods....Show more →
I had the Leica version of this camera! Same exact camera bar slight cosmetic changes. Leica claims ‘their’ lens is a 40-80 dual focal length in order to pretend it is not the exact same camera as the Minolta. I sold my Leica AFC1 for about $300 when I found out I could get the same thing from Minolta for $20!
I also have the Samsung AF Slim Dual, and it too is fun. IIRC the Minolta has a better lens.
Desmolicious wrote:
I had the Leica version of this camera! Same exact camera bar slight cosmetic changes. Leica claims ‘their’ lens is a 40-80 dual focal length in order to pretend it is not the exact same camera as the Minolta. I sold my Leica AFC1 for about $300 when I found out I could get the same thing from Minolta for $20!
I also have the Samsung AF Slim Dual, and it too is fun. IIRC the Minolta has a better lens.
I'm going thru the Flickr Group for the AF-C1 now. Nice sharpness for a PNS IMHO.
How many of these compacts allow you to take full control over the exposure triangle?
And manual focus (or rather pre-set focus distances)?
And exposure compensation in a split second?
Those cameras which can do that - how much do they cost?
How high is the risk that you'll pay for a brick because 30-40 year-old electronics fail?
Sure not everyone "needs" all those features, but it's also not a like-for-like comparison. Once you match the feature set of the Lomo, you land in the same price range with used compacts.
(btw I paid about the same for the repair of my Grandpa's Leica Minilux than I did for the Lomo MC-A. Not sure if there is a permanent fix for the E02 on the Minilux, more likely it will die on me again at some point..)
And I think anyone interested in film photography in the long run "needs" new products to be developed, released and be financially successful. I'd like to continue with this hobby for the next 40+ years, so relying on 1990s consumer electronics does not strike me as a viable longterm strategy..
fjablo wrote:
So far I could only think of three cameras matching the feature set (at least in terms of exposure control):
Rollei QZ 35
Leica CM
Mint Rollei 35 AF
There are more options which offer aperture priority only (Leica Minilux, Contax T2/T3, Ricoh GR 1v, Minolta TC-1, Fuji Klasse W, Nikon 28/35ti)
Akshully the Rollei QZ35 blows the Lomo away.
The Lomo has auto/program, manual and ae exposure modes.
The Rollei QZ35 has auto/program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual. As well as a shutter speed range from 1/8000 sec to 16 secs. You also see the shutter speeds in the VF, as well as focus lock confirmation. But wait, there's more! In manual focus mode it is stepless from min distance to infinity - the Lomo has defined zone areas.
And the Rollei in manual focus has arrows in the VF to show which way to focus with an in focus confirmation dot.
Plus it is built out of titanium!
To be fair though, I think the Rollei QZ35 was something like $2K when it was released back in the 1990s. Which makes the Lomo MC-A's $550 price now crazy cheap in comparison .
I think some have missed my ill-defined point. I agree that most compacts limit or eliminate your control of exposure opting for fully automatic settings in their place. However, they take good photos now, don't overlap frames, focus, and rewind without difficulty. I have compacts that allow ISO adjustment as well as exposure compensation +/- so I can exercise some control. I too am waiting for a nice new compact film camera to be introduced that has all the things mentioned above but it would be nice if it was full frame and actually worked out of the box. I'm also not going to pay used Leica prices for a new body like the Rollei QZ35 if it were to come out today. The point of my tongue-in-cheek naming of this thread was that there are nice cameras out there now that take good photos. Go and enjoy them. I am. The pictures of my kids from the early 2000's were all taken with point and shoots and they still looked great even though I had little to no control over exposure.
geekcop wrote:
I think some have missed my ill-defined point. I agree that most compacts limit or eliminate your control of exposure opting for fully automatic settings in their place. However, they take good photos now, don't overlap frames, focus, and rewind without difficulty. I have compacts that allow ISO adjustment as well as exposure compensation +/- so I can exercise some control. I too am waiting for a nice new compact film camera to be introduced that has all the things mentioned above but it would be nice if it was full frame and actually worked out of the box. I'm also not going to pay used Leica prices for a new body like the Rollei QZ35 if it were to come out today. The point of my tongue-in-cheek naming of this thread was that there are nice cameras out there now that take good photos. Go and enjoy them. I am. The pictures of my kids from the early 2000's were all taken with point and shoots and they still looked great even though I had little to no control over exposure. ...Show more →
I’m pretty sure we all got the point, we just like to quibble!
If your goal is to buy an awesome p&s camera that can take great images, there is no need to buy any new camera. With a budget of $20 you are set
My two Nikon n80s w the 28-80 zoom both were under $30! And those basically are professional level cameras.
But if you want a new camera, then there is no reasonable way to think a versatile one will be less than several hundred dollars. Super basic plastic fixed focus fixed exposure cameras are in the $30-$50 range.
Taking inflation into account the new Lomo is a screaming deal given the feature set and build. It would be an absolute home run if they get it to work correctly. But it is worrying when one reviewer said his first three rolls were fine, then the frame spacing issue appeared on roll four.
That suggests the film transport mechanism is not robust.
Some of you were proved correct by being suspicious of old point and shoot electronics. I got a battery for the camera from Amazon yesterday, but the camera's electronics are fried. There's a bunch of stuff wrong with it. Flash doesn't work, Stops taking photos after one shot. Then the info screen just flashes and advances all the way to the end of the roll. So, 1-shot per roll. Fortunately no good film was wasted testing the camera. I used some junk test rolls I have for just this purpose.
It makes me miss my 35mm fixed lens Samsung AF Slims. Both of mine worked perfectly, but like a dodo I sold them both. I have other point and shoot cameras, but I admit I am bummed.
Sorry to hear it isn't working as it should - sure looked like it would be good for years to come (and Freedom Tele is just a fantastic name for a camera!
It's just always a bit of a gamble with cameras from that era, sometimes you win, sometimes you loose..
