Topic: What's the worst piece of photo gear you've ever owned, and why?

[gregor]

Every Leica I have owned from the M2 thought the M7.  Great ergonomics, wonderful lenses. And so many compliments/attention (I recall shooting an event and someone came up and told me my M4-P was the best piece of jewelry in the house).

However regular CLAs and repairs (especially the finder alignment) make cameras like the Konica Hexar RF or a MF RF and other cameras so much more appealing.   

[Terry]

James' 6x9 thread reminded me of my Moskva experience.  I was intrigued by the idea of widescreen 120 so I picked up a Moskva (4 I think) on evilbay and ran several rolls of film through it.  Despite my best efforts with liquid electrical tape, it kept popping up new light leaks every time I used it.  I think I got one useable frame out of half a dozen rolls.  I'm sure if I'd been more patient/obsessive I could have made it work, but the overall clunkiness and the complicated focussing linkage made me think I could use my time more wisely elsewhere.  In the event, I went to a baby Speed Graphic with a 120 back and shot a bunch of 6x7.  Better optics and better mechanics.

[Francois]

This reminds me of my Cosmic35.
I really wanted a soviet camera. When I got it, I kind of liked its clunkiness until I tried to rewind the film!
This thing is such a pain. I think there has to be some skin left on the knurlings even after all these years!
I then put a second roll through it when suddenly the shutter winder went strangely loose...
I took the thing apart only to discover the lever's pinion hole was worn through and the hole was bigger than the screw head. No matter what I tried, the shutter just wouldn't work anymore. I eventually took it all apart and adapted the lens so it would work on an M32 camera.

[imagesfrugales]

Samsung ECX 1, the Darth Vader of p+s "compacts".

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Samsung_ECX_1

Just bought one for 1 Eur. Bulky like hell, but feature packed and shall have a very good lens. I will never use it, wasted time. You need to click six times to disable the flash!!! Of course no setting memory. + 2 times to get the otherwise very useful feature of a snapshot fixfocus. You can`t use the exposure or backlight compensation (has both!) together with disabled flash. WHAT??? Almost unusable viewfinder. Manual focus up to 199 meters, but close focus (auto or not) 1.2 m. Below macro setting from 0.6 - 1.2 m, but only at 140 mm focal distance! Other bells and whistles nobody needs. I thought the Nikon VR700 was the biggest bs, but this crap beats everything hands down. Very expensive when launched in the 90s, designed by Porsche! Holy crap! I'm 100 % sure none of the engeneers had the slightes clue of photography.

[Late Developer]

Samsung ECX 1, the Darth Vader of p+s "compacts".

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Samsung_ECX_1

Just bought one for 1 Eur. Bulky like hell, but feature packed and shall have a very good lens. I will never use it, wasted time. You need to click six times to disable the flash!!! Of course no setting memory. + 2 times to get the otherwise very useful feature of a snapshot fixfocus. You can`t use the exposure or backlight compensation (has both!) together with disabled flash. WHAT??? Almost unusable viewfinder. Manual focus up to 199 meters, but close focus (auto or not) 1.2 m. Below macro setting from 0.6 - 1.2 m, but only at 140 mm focal distance! Other bells and whistles nobody needs. I thought the Nikon VR700 was the biggest bs, but this crap beats everything hands down. Very expensive when launched in the 90s, designed by Porsche! Holy crap! I'm 100 % sure none of the engeneers had the slightes clue of photography.

Designed by Porsche; so was the Panamera. The car may actually be a good drive but, like the ECX 1, it is fugly.  I'm sort of expecting there wasn't an ECX 2.....

[rotarysmp]

Polaroid 250. Got the bug way to late (2015) and as soon as I bought it, FP-3000B was unavailable, and FP-100C terminated soon afterwards. Not the polaroids fault, but why didn't I get an NPC 185 in 1988 instead of the awesome Canon T90?

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Horizont
I've got a Horizont pano camera. The old metal one. Really badly made. Roughly made parts, poor fit and finish. The shutter release button sometimes connects and releases, and sometimes doesn't. I pulled it down to repair it, but the button guide is swaged, and not easily repairable.

The Canon T50 + 35-70 I traded in a Pentax S1A plus lenses for, as a 16 year old, was also not the camera fault. But as the only was to modify exposure was to change the ASA, it was a terrible camera to learn with.
Mark

[Indofunk]

Polaroid 250. Got the bug way to late (2015) and as soon as I bought it, FP-3000B was unavailable, and FP-100C terminated soon afterwards.

You and me both I do love my/Adam's Polaroid 100, but now it is all but obsolete I suppose maybe there's a way to rig it to take 4x5 paper, but I don't really want to be arsed with that...

[Adam Doe]

Polaroid 250. Got the bug way to late (2015) and as soon as I bought it, FP-3000B was unavailable, and FP-100C terminated soon afterwards.

You and me both I do love my/Adam's Polaroid 100, but now it is all but obsolete I suppose maybe there's a way to rig it to take 4x5 paper, but I don't really want to be arsed with that...

Get out and enjoy shooting the pack film you've got! It's not going to be good forever. Hell, I just bought a 195 to shoot through the stock I have (granted it's a bunch).

[Indofunk]

Polaroid 250. Got the bug way to late (2015) and as soon as I bought it, FP-3000B was unavailable, and FP-100C terminated soon afterwards.

You and me both I do love my/Adam's Polaroid 100, but now it is all but obsolete I suppose maybe there's a way to rig it to take 4x5 paper, but I don't really want to be arsed with that...

Get out and enjoy shooting the pack film you've got! It's not going to be good forever. Hell, I just bought a 195 to shoot through the stock I have (granted it's a bunch).

Yes sir!!

[Indofunk]

Ok! Due to Adam's chiding, I took out the Polaroid 100 and shot some shots! On this one, the positive came out underexposed, so I tried negative recovery. I'm starting to get the technique down a little better. Most important thing: use good tape that seals all the edges well before diving in with the bleach. (You'll notice that only a little spot at the bottom left got hit with a bit of bleach)



God I love this thing. Sorry I'm posting "best piece of photo gear" in the worst piece of photo gear thread