|
|
|
-
Worst camera designs
What do you think are the worst cameras ever produced in terms of design and function? Top of the list for me would have to be the Zenith, as it is the only camera I know that when you look through the viewfinder, you can look round the edges of the pentaprism and when you wind it on, it sounds like a couple of house bricks grinding together.
“The contemplation of things as they are, without error or confusion, without substitution or imposture, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention”
Francis Bacon
-
Nice description of the cocking lever sound.
-
not a bad design, just bad construction and materials and for the price it´s excellent as are the lenses... i bought one for 5 euros and the biotar clone helios 58mm is a must.
bad designs aren´t that usual, quality control materials and price target are more likely to make a bad camera.
-
Yes, the Zenit is noteworthy for its rude clunkiness and overall unfriendly design. After adoringlly casing one in a glass cabinet in the shop 34 years ago, I bought it with pocket money earned from a paper round in 1978 ($75 I think, with a lens), proudly hurrying home with it balancing on the luggage rack of my bike, held down with a single bungee cord. When my Dad saw it he was livid. "A...Zenit!? No! Take it back, now!", he barked. He and Mum had previously thought about getting me a Ricoh SLR for my birthday, but I had no idea about this. He knew the Zenit was Russian and he wasn't going to have "that Commo junk in this house!". After a verbal stoush, he came with me back to the store next morning and he told the owner there in no uncertain terms to give a refund. And that's what happened. That afternoon he and I settled on an Olympus OM10 and he (more than me!) was really, really pleased. I learned to have an eye for quality and refinement from that single cathartic incident. The Olympus OM10 was an excellent introduction and over the years I moved up to the OM1N, OM2 and finally OM4Ti.
Last edited by Poisson Du Jour; 05-11-2012 at 08:18 PM. Click to view previous post history.
.::Garyh
♦
Canon EOS1N ('Brutus', 1993—), TS-E 24mm f3.5L, 20mm f2.8, 17-40 f4L, 70-200 f2.8L
Pentax 67 ('Pentaximus', 2010—) + SMCP 45mm f4, 55mm f4 & 165mm f4LS;
Zero Image 6x9 multi-format pinhole (2008—); Sekonic L758D;
Olympus XA, Nikon Coolpix P7700
"If you're not having fun, then you're not doing it right!"
♦
-
Warning!! Handling a Hasselblad can be harmful to your financial well being!
Nothing beats a great piece of glass!
I leave the digital work for the urologists and proctologists.
-
Sponsored Ad. (Subscribers to APUG have the option to remove this ad.)
-
Sometimes, just sometimes, I remember the industrial clunkiness of the Zenit and make an unfair comparison of the Pentax 67 to it when it fires with those twin THWACK-KWACK of mirror/shutter that sends digimobs diving for cover. Hear, hear! I must get over the cruel comparison... 
.::Garyh
♦
Canon EOS1N ('Brutus', 1993—), TS-E 24mm f3.5L, 20mm f2.8, 17-40 f4L, 70-200 f2.8L
Pentax 67 ('Pentaximus', 2010—) + SMCP 45mm f4, 55mm f4 & 165mm f4LS;
Zero Image 6x9 multi-format pinhole (2008—); Sekonic L758D;
Olympus XA, Nikon Coolpix P7700
"If you're not having fun, then you're not doing it right!"
♦
-
is this just zenit bashing or can i suggest something else?
The Mercury, I and II -- totally ugly. Completely inconvenient shutter speed and film wind dials, weird circular shutter that requires a half-moon housing on top, half frame but larger than a Leica. No rangefinder, but MADE IN USA!!!
-
Gotta admit, my Zenit-E is a piece of crap. The lens, however is pretty cool. Swirls a bit.
-
Zenit bashing! My friends called it a Burkmatic. Like Poisson Du Jour I had to have an SLR instead of the Rollei 35 I could have had for the same money. Now I would be able to appreciate the pictoral quality of the lens but at the time flare drove me nuts. Reliability it had none. Within a year it broke and I had it in pieces trying to get it to work again but it was not to be.
-
Kodak disc cameras. Small, impossible to use viewfinders, and minuscule film size.
|
|
Adv Reply
