sllɐqǝʎǝʎzznɟ

This ugly plastic camera is one I thought I’ll never bring it out again. Really. I was on the hunt for a compact film camera that allow me to take closeup of subjects and I bought it based on photos of it online (that didn’t look too bad) but my first impression when I collected the camera was … ‘What the hell! This is one ugly crap!’. Oh, and it didn’t end there. I took it home, loaded it with batteries … and I had to use the 4 letter word another couple of hundred times before I cooled down and loaded a roll of film into it for a test. Why? There is a light on the front of the camera that blinks in red and blue … non stop! At first, I thought it was a sign of the flash being charged but after minutes of waiting … it stayed on! It’s blinking! Ugly? Yeah it is!! I’m gonna tape up that damn light soon.

It is this little camera called Skina aka Mr Macro. I heard that it was originally called Skina but later rebranded as Mr Macro. Whatever.

As usual, some random shots to test the ‘capability’ of this camera. Can’t find much sample photos online, so I had to pray hard at least it can take something decent. As the name implies, it’s supposed to be a macro camera. Not really macro, I’d say … it’s more for closeup photography. Close but not too close. Confused? Haha! The closest focusing distance is 0.4 meter and this is achieved by leaving the front cover on. There is a closeup ‘lens’ on the front cover, thus allowing the close focusing. Worried about having to gauge how far/close is 0.4 meter? Just use the supplied hand strap to ‘measure’ … as it’s meant to assist in estimating how far your camera should be from the subject in closeup mode.

It has a 28mm f/8 lens and a speed of 1/100. For those who are obsessed with themselves, there is also a ‘self portrait mirror’ on the front of the camera (sorry I did not test out this feature as I can’t stand the sight of myself). To use it like a normal 28mm camera, just press the ‘pop up’ button and the front cover will pop up and you can use it like any point and shoot camera. One thing though … the camera doesn’t auto rewind at the end of the roll. There is a button you have to push to the left (at the back) to rewind the film and … it even leave the film leader outside the canister! This means it’s easy to do double exposures with it! Cool!

After looking at the results, I think I was very wrong about it. Despite it being stupidly ugly with the darn blinking light, it performs great! I was amazed at the sharpness of some of the shots (closeups) and for normal shots … you can find some ‘dreamy-ness’ on the sides that sometimes remind me of a Holga lens. Cool ain’t it? If that’s not enough reason to own this ugly bitch … it just costs about $50 (Singapore dollars)!!!