While the Diana Mini is supposed to be a half frame camera (with square photo capability) that allows you to shoot double the amount of frames per roll …. mine acted the opposite. I shot my roll using the square format and was supposed to get 36 exposures from the roll of redscale film … I ended up getting about half the amount only! Argh! Damn! First was the problem of forgetting to fire the camera before loading the film. This caused the camera to tear some of the sprockets when I advanced it. Argh! Then later … it somehow stopped advancing! It was partly my mistake too … because I wasn’t looking at the film counter and thought I had finished the entire roll when the film refused to advanced anymore.
Despite the disaster … I love this multi exposure of the duckies!
Oh well … I still haven’t figured out why it stopped advancing halfway. Maybe some of those little pieces of the film got stuck in the gears when the sprockets got torn … or is my Mini a lemon? Guess I’ll have to try another roll to find out.
What made things worse was lots of the shots were underexposed! They were taken last weekend at the Animals Resort when I brought Fitzand there to have some fun. The weather was gloomy and the Mini was the only camera I had with me and it was loaded with a roll of ISO100 redscale film. Desperate to cure my itch (fingers!) … I emptied the roll there and thus the many underexposed shots. Argh!!! I’m a fool!
Click on this image above to view a larger pano …
not that bad 😀 even thou its screwed
@mijonju : Guess I’ll just forget about those wasted shots and move on. Hahaha. At least I’m damn happy with the shot with the ducks (the 1st one in this entry). Hahha.
actually, they still look pretty okay!
@ndroo why screwed?? i like it.
@ndroo it looks like a 3D picture.
yah i agree with solace.. like 3D picture.. probably u can try use that 3D glasses… and see.. hehehhe
don’t blame yourself, blame LSI. seems a lot of people are having some problems with this cam.
Hahaha! I’m glad some of you find the survivors pretty okay. I actually like some of these. It’s just that most of the frames were wasted … thus the ‘screwed’. 😀
I’ll try stare at these ‘3D images’ and hope I won’t go cock-eyed by end of the day.
@Diesel : Really? I’ve not come across any complains about it. Any link? Will run another roll thru it before deciding if I should contact the customer service.
nics review over at fourcorners sticks out and i seem to be coming across a lot of general disdain for the build quality of both the mini and (mostly) the..uh..is it called…the “mega” diana. but i think this is generally the rule with cams like this. i pretty sure a few first run bbfs probably still had some unwanted quirks that probably got ironed out in secret. even the first holga bc’s had a different mask in them than they do now. but i think its the limitations of the tools that make a photographer shine or not and even these “screw ups” are really nice (especially the chair).
btw, does the lens come off like the d+?
@Diesel : Thanks. Yeah I read Nic’s review. The lens is not removable like the ‘mega’ Dianas 😀
for the record i coined the term mega diana 😉
@Diesel : Thanks a mega name for the cam. LOL
I get mine in the mail today. Hopefully there aren’t too many problems with it. I hope I don’t have to be too gentle with it. And if it does get screwed up hopefully LSI will fix it or replace it. Great shots! Redscale film looks fun.
Shots look great! Glad you had better luck then I did!
@tylercorc : Great to hear that your Mini has arrived. Be gentle with it. Hahaha. It doesn’t seem to like rough treatment from the owners. 😀 Yeah … the good thing is that it comes with 2 years warranty. Kinda cool because it looks (and feels) like the kind of cam that might die anytime (despite being super cute).
@Nic : Thanks. Was just lucky some of these turned out okay. Read your review and I know what you mean. Haha. Thanks for the ratings for the 36 Frames challenge. Will be posting the results later today.
not bad, i still like it 🙂
@Photoblog of Renezar : Thanks