Over the past 18 years, I have used my share of "toy cameras." Usually, I expect the results to be typical for cameras deserving of that classification. A few months ago, I was given a Halina 35 camera. If you do any searches, you'll see all sorts of Halina-branded cameras, most of which were manufactured in Hong Kong by Haking Co. I have previously owned a Halina TLR, which was similar to one of the Ricohflex models. It was charming, but not exactly in the league with a Ricohflex. The Halina 35 appeared in the early 1980s as a premium camera, often under other names, and with slight cosmetic changes. Don't confuse this with the metal-bodied Halina 35mm cameras. The model that I have is typical of a simple "optical lens" premium camera with few controls. It looks better than it ought to, and I figured that I would test it with a roll of Kodak Vision 100T film from the Film Photography Podcast. The shutter speed is about 1/100th sec, and with aperture control for sunny to cloudy and flash, I figured that would work out okay. I shot the roll back in late summer-early fall, and it wasn't until last week that I finally processed the film at home with a home-brew ECN-2 kit that I got from August Kelm.
The Halina 35 is a simple camera, and I certainly expected my images to look like something from a Time camera -- soft, and lacking in contrast. However, after looking at the scans from the negatives, I am fairly impressed with the results. I did have a few frames with double exposures, and I am not sure if it was my fault or the camera. I'll try a roll of b&w and see if the problem is with the camera.
Here are some of the best images from the camera that I shot on the Kodak Vision 100T film.
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| double-exposure |
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| light-pole flyers |
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| bricks with words |
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| new hotel downtown |
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| old Muskegon train station |
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| old Muskegon train station |
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| farm stuff |
Not too bad for a "crappy camera."
Over the past 18 years, I have used my share of "toy cameras." Usually, I expect the results to be typical for cameras deserving of that classification. A few months ago, I was given a Halina 35 camera. If you do any searches, you'll see all sorts of Halina-branded cameras, most of which were manufactured in Hong Kong by Haking Co. I have previously owned a Halina TLR, which was similar to one of the Ricohflex models. It was charming, but not exactly in the league with a Ricohflex. The Halina 35 appeared in the early 1980s as a premium camera, often under other names, and with slight cosmetic changes. Don't confuse this with the metal-bodied Halina 35mm cameras. The model that I have is typical of a simple "optical lens" premium camera with few controls. It looks better than it ought to, and I figured that I would test it with a roll of Kodak Vision 100T film from the Film Photography Podcast. The shutter speed is about 1/100th sec, and with aperture control for sunny to cloudy and flash, I figured that would work out okay. I shot the roll back in late summer-early fall, and it wasn't until last week that I finally processed the film at home with a home-brew ECN-2 kit that I got from August Kelm. 
That's a mighty good crappy camera.
ReplyDeleteMuskegon! I haven't been there since 1976.