While at the Barras a few weeks ago I saw an old camera lurking in a mahoosive box of old camera junk:
It was a Cosmic Symbol , it was covered in dirt and bits of dust (and possible old food, urgh), but I bought it anyway for a few quid and cleaned it up. Finally got round to actually taking some pics with it, and it’s pretty good! It totally makes up for the Belomo Vilia dissapointment I had last month.
The colours from the Symbol (using cheap-ass 400 Tesco film) are great. Bright and warm. I’m not sure about 35mm format though, I much prefer square medium format photos, but that’s maybe due to getting used to it!
There is a problem in that it doesn’t like to rewind, so needs to be rewound in the dark room. But still a pretty good wee camera when you want to take a few extra photos! Well worth tracking down. Clicky for larger:
And here’s some comparison shots with the Holga (the first ones are the symbol obviously!)
Comments
i like the holga shots better but i might just be used to the square also. the last one is great though
cheers Diesel, for some reason I completely missed your comment! Anyway, Yeah, I prefer squareness too, although pretty chuffed with a the camera that only cost a few ££ (and tesco film!). Keep meaning to use it again, but I dont think it rewinds the film so I have to rewind it manually in the dark which is annoying!
I got my first film camera, a Smena 8m, from the Barras at the beginning of ’08 and I’m fairly certain it was in that same box of cameras. I didn’t know much about cameras/photography at the time but i had read about the 8m so snapped it up for a fiver with Lomo case. Nice to see someone else found a treasure in that box as well.
hi dave, how bizarre! That box is always great. you see so many old (expensive!) cameras, in there, just getting rained upon. It’s a real shame, but glad they are being saved.
Have you visited the stall run by some 90 year old guy in one of the indoor markets? Has LOADS of old cameras, ranging from beautiful medium format folders right up to 1990′s SLR’s. It’s great, but he seems to know what the cameras are worth so not many bargains, but good to look around
ps, this captcha box I added below is a bit hard to read isn’t it!!
[...] to win one of two near MINT Smena/Cosmic Symbol cameras, along with faux leather cases. We have written about the Symbol before, and we loved it! Paired with cheap film, the colours and tones it produces are lovely. [...]