Lo-Fi Winter Photos with a Crappy Vintage Camera

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.

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My First 16mm Film in 4K

2007, March: my best friend Mike and I trudge up a North Carolina mountain to a long narrow bridge over a rushing mountain stream. I’m carrying my newly purchased 1960’s Bell and Howell Filmo 70 loaded with 16mm black and white reversal film. It’s really heavy and I’m panting. We find a stone in the dangerously fast flowing stream for Mike to stand on, I wedge the heavy tank of a camera and flimsy tripod into a bolder on the shore, meter the shot with a Super 8 camera–I don’t own a light meter–set the lens’s focus and aperture, crank the camera’s spring motor drive and shout action! Almost 12 years later I’m finally releasing the short film we shot that day in the quality it was meant to be seen in.

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