Raynox ME-606: Great for people, or simulating astigmatism

[updated 2 Jul with an additional photo] I got the Raynox ME-606 in a random Hard-Off junk section (more precisely, Hard-Off at Hirata in Matsumoto) for the princely sum of 300 yen, with no real guarantees about whether it would work. This was before I wisened up and started bringing my own batteries for thrifting cameras, so all I knew was that it had corroded battery contacts and a battery flap that wouldn’t shut....

June 22, 2024 · 3 min

5 Frames with the Konica TZ-635 & Kodak Gold 200

The strange thing about cameras is that brands keep calling the same thing by different names. Why can’t we just have a unique identifier for each thing that exists? It’s like how the Canon EOS 750D is also called the Rebel T6i (see Wikipedia). The Konica TZ-635 is no different - It appears to be called the Konica Zoom FR 635 too (like in this Youtube video by Meracasee or this random ebay listing)....

September 4, 2023 · 3 min

Fuji Zoom Cardia Super 115 - a Samsung Slim Zoom 1150 by any other name would shoot the same

TL;DR: These two cameras are the same. If you can’t find manuals for the Fuji, use this Samsung one: https://cameramanuals.org/samsung/samsung_af-slim-zoom-e-s.pdf (Credits to Michael Butkus Jr, who’s been archiving camera manuals since 1997 with https://butkus.org/chinon/index.html) What ever happened? I had thrifted some cameras, and was unable to find any manuals for the Fuji Zoom Cardia Super 115 I got. It has a ton of modes like Fuzzy, Portrait, and something that looked like a self-timer and interval shooting....

August 6, 2023 · 4 min