Film Cameras

Many of the original instant-film cameras tended to be basic plasticky things, aimed at getting simple snapshots. Quite a few of their present-day descendants share that quality, although the aluminum-bodied full-manual SL645 is a big exception.

Like a lot of things, photographic film is getting expensive – especially since it's not as widely used as it once was. The Alfie Tych camera was designed with that problem in mind, as it lets you get twice as many exposures out of one roll of film.

An electronics hacker known as befinitiv recently posted a YouTube video demonstrating how he converted an old Cosina Hi-Lite 35-mm film camera into a digital snapper, using 3D printing, a Raspberry Pi Zero W and a Pi camera module.

Polaroid instant cameras of old were big, blocky snappers with one-press simplicity and the ability to throw out self-developing photos. The latest addition to the family follows the same design aesthetic, but the Go is a fraction of the size.

Long before the first 3D TVs or movies, people were enjoying three-dimensional stereoscopic photographs. The new Minuta Stereo camera allows users to create their own, in a decidedly vintage fashion.

Although many photographers like experimenting with old instant film cameras, the things typically lack the manual controls that are integral to serious photography. That's where the InstantKon SF70 Instant Camera is designed to come in.

Back in the heyday of analog point-and-shoot cameras, the better-quality models used 35mm film. Ilford's Sprite 35 was one of the classics, and it's now being reintroduced – sort of – in the form of the Sprite 35-II.

In 1859, British photographer Thomas Sutton created a camera with a unique water-filled lens – it allowed for some interesting effects. Low-fi camera company Lomography has replicated that lens, and included it in a 35-mm panoramic film camera.

Fully-manual analog film cameras can be fun and interesting to use, but it sucks when they don't have a built-in light meter. That's where the Hedeco Lime One comes in, as it's a digital light meter that can be added to such cameras.

Back in early 2018, Samuel Mello Medeiros launched the I'm Back project on Kickstarter to give modern relevance to old film cameras. It added a digital image sensor and more to 35-mm film cameras of old, and now the next generation has been revealed.

Although instant-film cameras have been making a comeback, they still tend to be simple point-and-shoots, like the original Polaroids. The SL42 is different, in that it's an SLR that uses interchangeable lenses and offers full manual control.

Champion of non-digital photography Lomography has launched a build-it-yourself kit for a cardboard medium-format camera which comes with a lens that you can fill with colored liquid to create a unique photographic feel.