Photos from my first roll of film from my first dedicated Toy Camera. One could argue that all of my cameras are toys, but at least this all-plastic one weighs almost nothing and is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. It's also cheap enough that it doesn't matter if anything happens to it, so for the winter (at least) it will be my carry-everywhere camera that I always have with me.

In terms of quality its results are mostly around the disposable-camera level. One could also argue that all of my cameras produce mostly-disposable photos, so you can't fault the machine for that.

There's a central area of sharpish that quickly falls off; in the lead photo the sign with the street name is legible, but the streetcar is smeared. It seems happiest with things that are between five and fifteen feet away, but given that the image quality is never going to be astounding, that's hardly a limitation. The 1/125ish shutter speed means it can stop action and doesn't need to be held particularly still, while the little viewfinder window is helpful for aiming.

It actually has two apertures to choose from. These photos are all with the normal aperture, which I'm told is about f/10 on a 30mm-ish lens. There's also a wider one, diameter unknown but still small, that slides into place when the flash is turned on. Pulling the single AAA battery disables the flash but not the shutter, so this is actually usable. Coupled with faster film (it needs a minimum of 400, and nothing but the aperture can be changed) this might mean that it can shoot in something other than bright light, but probably not. Overexposure is always best, and use forgiving film. Portra 800 would be great, but three rolls of it cost as much as the camera.

The punchline to all of this is that I've spent quite some time with a crush on the Leica M-A, an all-mechanical meterless camera that can't even take a bettery. And now I finally own an all-mechanical meterless camera that doesn't need a battery. Yay me.