The oddest/quirkiest/most unusual camera you have ever used...

I have 3 Contax 1 cameras, and have never considered them to be quirky, although the front wind shutter and speed setting is unusual. I have used these cameras enough to be familiar with the wind mechanism, so perhaps I am too used to it. The single weirdest thing I find common to all classic Contax RF cameras is the focus lock/focus wheel mechanism, which is unique.
 
Ah ha ha ha - well, as a teenager I learned about SLR’s from reading about them in a book at my local library. The book? The Exakta Camera. So, they seem normal to me, although I waited about 40 years before buying one. I now have five and I truly love them.

So the oddest, quirkiest, most unusual camera I’ve used? It’s my Fuji X-Pro1. I like the shutter speed dial, the lens aperture ring, the compensation dial, and the viewfinder. But actually using the camera is an adventure in five steps forward, four steps back with its plethora of rear buttons that always get inadvertently pressed and which turns the camera into a sewing machine or something.

My Fuji Neo 90 Classic may eventually win the title, however. Unless the default settings fit your photographic situation closely, you’ll be spending time enabling and disabling the myriad modes and functions on the back buttons. By then, either your photo opportunity will have disappeared or you’ll have forgotten to set or unset the one critical thing you needed. Although the film quality and resolution is excellent, my keeper rate hovers around 30%.
 
Probably Alpa Model 6, with its odd viewfinders: both RF-coupled optical (for 50mm) and a reflex viewfinder, which had a 45 degree viewing angle. Later models had reverse mounted wind levers.
 
Vince Lupo, as you probably know, that Ermanox was the camera with which Erich Solomon did his great, pioneering, photojournalistic work.

For me, without a doubt, the quirkiest and worst was a dumbed-down Exacta called the Exa.
 
Pál_K said:
So the oddest, quirkiest, most unusual camera I’ve used? It’s my Fuji X-Pro1. I like the shutter speed dial, the lens aperture ring, the compensation dial, and the viewfinder. But actually using the camera is an adventure in five steps forward, four steps back with its plethora of rear buttons that always get inadvertently pressed and which turns the camera into a sewing machine or something.
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I love my X-Pro1 and have no trouble with the rear buttons, except the Q button, which I never use, yet which gets frequent, accidental presses. I should put some tape on it.
 
An Exakta of some sort in my early twenties. I didn’t understand it enough think it was quirky (no manual), I just thought it was moderately unusable (not true) so gave it away.

An Aero Ektar which isn’t quirky, but is unusual.
 
dexdog said:
I have 3 Contax 1 cameras, and have never considered them to be quirky, although the front wind shutter and speed setting is unusual.
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So you have three working Contax I cameras! Well, that is unique! Congratulations.

The front wind and speed setting are indeed unusual, but I would say that these are quirky too.

I have one working Contax I (type III) camera, so I know that they can work. When they work, they can produce nice pictures.

Erik.
 
I tried the Rollei 35SE on two occasions but never really came to terms with it, whereas I had no real problems with the Minox 35.

Not yet field-tested: I got a busted Alpa 5 and nice 11E but need a lens or at least a lens adapter to get started. Impression is that the older camera with wind knob makes a certain sense, and mirror slap is virtually nil as the movement of said mirror is driven by your finger - it's clever in it's own way. The newer camera is a curious attempt to modernize the older one, and I'm not sure that a forward-facing wind lever is superior to a knob.
 
Erik van Straten said:
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The front wind and speed setting are indeed unusual, but I would say that these are quirky too.

Erik.
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My Contax1a, 1c and 1f were overhauled by Henry Scherer in 2006. Quirkiness is in the eye of the beholder, but I would not argue your point about the front wind and speed settings.
 
I currently have the Contax 1a loaded with Fujicolor 400 to take pics of spring wildflowers, as well as stuff in my flower beds. Mostly using the 1933 50/2 Sonnar, but will bring out the 1934 85/2 Sonnar as well.
 
splitimageview said:
Probably Alpa Model 6, with its odd viewfinders: both RF-coupled optical (for 50mm) and a reflex viewfinder, which had a 45 degree viewing angle. Later models had reverse mounted wind levers.
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In 1999 a colleague loaned me an Alpa because I really wanted to try the Kern Macro-Switar. I don't know which model Alpa it was, but it had an RF and a reflex finder and _everything_ was backwards. You wound with your left hand from the front, shutter button was somewhere over there, shutter speeds were reversed etc etc. It was like the head engineer at the factory received the designs but read the plan in a mirror. Crazy. The lens was amazing. Really beautiful output. But the camera was insane.

Marty
 
The Minolta 9xi. Minolta tried to design a "one hand interface" where all modes can be changed with your right hand. Took a lot of time for me to get used to it and many times I would scratch me head for simple things like "switch to focus priority". In many ways the Pentax Z1 was just as messy.

e-thesis+075.jpg
 
I was out with my Exakta Varex IIb just yesterday. About the only thing I struggle with is the left handed operation. Principally now because my right arm has severe shoulder issues, so I carry everything with my left and it is awkward.

But a waist level finder is no big deal and really quite fun for street photography, except in the pouring rain obviously. Lenses are great!

The most frustrating camera I have found to use was my Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta. That awful razor sharp serrated EV linked shutter / aperture dial was such a bore, especially moving it as the spring to lift was strong, the serrations always digging in, and the results never satisfying enough to justify it. Plus a tiny viewfinder that made me squint all the time.
 
dexdog said:
I currently have the Contax 1a loaded with Fujicolor 400 to take pics of spring wildflowers, as well as stuff in my flower beds. Mostly using the 1933 50/2 Sonnar, but will bring out the 1934 85/2 Sonnar as well.
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I can imagine that the Contax 1a and 1b are less quirky because these cameras have no long times. I presume they are much simpler. However, they are hard to find.


Erik.
 
Dave Jenkins said:
Vince Lupo, as you probably know, that Ermanox was the camera with which Erich Solomon did his great, pioneering, photojournalistic work.
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Oh yes I know it quite well - I even spoke with Alfred Eisenstaedt back in 1990 about his Ermanox and that conversation planted the seed.

The Technical Museum in Dresden (it's located in the former Ernemann building which has the famous Ernemann tower) is interested to have copies of photos that I take with this camera for their display. I'm just waiting for the camera's return from being overhauled!
 
Forgot to mention a "quirky" feature on the Exaktas - a sliding knife - (one I have never used):

In classic Exaktas—made between 1936 and 1969—two film canisters can be used, one containing unexposed film and a second into which is wound the exposed film. A sliding knife built into the bottom of the camera can be used to slice the film so that the canister containing the exposed film can be removed while preserving the unexposed film in the main canister. The knife was omitted in the Exakta VX500, one of the last "official" Exakta cameras.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exakta

Seen on the right:
Exacta-Varex-IIb-Open-Back.jpg

Credit: https://emulsive.org/reviews/camera-reviews/exakta-camera-reviews/exakta-varex-iib-by-louis-sousa
 
Periflex based on the focusing thing.

The Cosmic Symbol gets a special mention for being sensible and generally ignored. And no batteries required.

Compared to digital which is now the norm, any straightforward film camera is quirky. And as for those things called analogue; isn't that name extra quirky? They are film cameras and have been for decades...

Regards, David
 
David, for me digital cameras are always more quirky than analoge ones. Maybe because I have an aversion to digital devices and probably because I can't remember how to operate them.


Erik.
 
Dave Jenkins said:
For me, without a doubt, the quirkiest and worst was a dumbed-down Exacta called the Exa.
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Ah yes, the Exa. This post brings back more long ago memories.

A cousin of mine had one in he 1960s when I was getting serious about photography - he bought it cheaply off a friend who had been with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Germany. I was getting into photography at that time and had just bought a Yashica D TLR, so on Sundays we often went out shooting B&W landscapes together in the eastern Canada countryside.

Nothing about that Exa ever worked right. Most of the time it did not even run the film through its innards, tho' I now believe that was the fault of the photographer and not the equipment. It focused badly and the exposures were consistently off. I processed his films for him and of course he blamed me (at first) for the poor results until I showed him my 120 negatives of the same 'scapes, which were fine.

One day he got so exasperated with it that he threw it against a barn door. It bounced and landed heavily on the ground but his effort did no visible damage. It kept working but the results were as bad as before.

He and that camera just did not get along. I could not be bothered to try it out as I wasn't into 35mm at the time, so I never know if the fault lay with him or with the Exa.

A few years later he found religion and became a lay preacher. The camera went into the cupboard in my grandparents' house. It may yet be there for all I know but as I now live in Australia I will likely never get to find out.

The only other Exa I ever saw in my entire life was one a co-worker in Sydney in 1977 wanted to sell me. He was German and it has come to Australia with him. I passed on it.

I did think it was rather a cute small camera, if dysfunctional - odd for something made in Germany.
 
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