survey

A Flickr user is investigating toy cameras:

= Toy Camera Questionare =

Name: paul beard

Age:44

City / Country: seattle, washington

Are you a professional photographer or hobbyist?:
hobbyist

What type of toy camera(s) do you own?:
Holga 120 (2)

Do you own any other types of cameras?:
no, not yet 😉

Who/What got you interested into using toy cameras?:
I saw some interesting work on Flickr and wanted to learn more about it. I was re-introducing myself to film photography and this was a good way to learn more about medium format film.

What differences do you notice between film/digital photography?:
Well, let’s avoid the “better/worse” dichotomy and consider the differences. Film offers a higher level of detail and greater sensitivity (at 4000 lines per inch, a 4×5 is a 320 megapixel camera). Digital offers immediacy, the ability to cull bad shots, ease of sharing and distribution. What I like about film, especially toy cameras and pinhole, is the conscious aspect, the contemplative nature of making images that way. You have limitations, both in the equipment, and in the amount of images you can make. Where a digital photographer might take 10 shots of a flower or animal, a film camera user might take 4 or 5. While a digital camera might take a whole sequence of images of a sunrise, using film would permit a lot fewer, maybe only one.

As can be said of most things, a digital camera is a good servant but a bad master. Better to understand your process and use your tools well than waste your time and money.

What is the charm of toy cameras?:
Simplicity, the inability to predict or know what you are going to get.

Why are normal flaws with other cameras (vignetting, blurs, light leaks, and other distortions) alright, even favored, when shooting with toy cameras?:
Well, the answer is in the question: in a more expensive/more polished camera, those aberrations would be flaws. In a $20 toy camera, they are part of the experience. You don’t expect consistency from a toy camera anymore than you would from a toy version of anything.

Do you take your toy camera with you everywhere? why or why not?:
I don’t: it’s a little too bulky, something that bothers me. When I have taken it along, I have almost always found something to take a picture of.

What has using a toy camera taught you about photography?:
That there is no such thing as perfection, that all recordings of reality, be they photographs, paintings, audio recordings, are imperfect. The imperfections can add to, rather than detract from, the experience of replaying or reliving the captured moment.

Any other comments you care to make about toy cameras in general?:
I think they should be more widely experimented with. People don’t like the expense of ongoing film use, but with a $20 Holga and film @ $1.50 a roll, you need to shoot a lot before you approach the cost of a Nikon D50 or better.