My friend Bohus and I have made a tradition of meeting up at least once a year and going to antique stores to find interesting and unique vintage items. I’m always on the hunt for old cameras, and last winter I found this little crappy beauty for $7: a Meikai EL.
These cheap 35mm film cameras were made in Japan in the 60s. This version has a fixed shutter speed and focus, three exposure settings, and that’s about it. I threw some black and white film in it and took it out for a spin. Turns out it had a major light leak, so I had to edit the resulting photos by cropping out the leak, creating a faux panoramic look.
I love these little weird cameras, and the fact that no matter how crappy they are, with some decent film you can still use them to create interesting imagery.
Here’s a video I made for Fotodiox about shooting with this camera.