What takes good photos that takes good photos?

June 25, 2009 1:30 PM

Help me find a good-looking (retro?) and affordable camera for a present.

I'm looking to buy a digital camera as a present for someone who is not so much into photography as she is into lovely-looking objects.

Therefore, I'm looking for a retro-styled point-and-shoot camera. It should take decent pictures (I don't want a novelty toy) but shouldn't be too complicated to use.

This is the most stylish camera I've found in my searches, but I don't think it's available yet and anyway it'll probably be beyond my budget. I can afford to spend around £200, maybe slightly more.

posted by cincinnatus c to shopping (10 comments total)

Definitely stylish, though a bit more expensive: MINOX Mini Leica and Rolleiflex Mini.
posted by you're a kitty! at 1:54 PM on June 25, 2009

How married are you to the digital part? The Lomography Online Store has tons of lovely-looking objects that also happen to take unique and wonderful pictures. I received a point and click instant model (like a Polaroid, but not) and a bunch of film as a gift once and it was much appreciated.
posted by telegraph at 2:29 PM on June 25, 2009

That Minox Mini-Leica is a serious piece of shit. It looks cool in the picture, but in person it looks like (and is) a cheap, shitty plastic piece of garbage with a added advantage of taking truly terrible photos-- grainy, muddy, useless combinations of way fewer pixels than they claim (it's a 2 MP sensor that reaches the advertised 5MP only through [deeply incompetent] interpolation.) I can't imagine the mini-Rollei is any better. I wouldn't buy that camera for my worst enemy.

OK, I would buy it for my worst enemy, but only so he could feel as angry and disappointed by its overwhelming shittiness as I was.
posted by dersins at 2:36 PM on June 25, 2009

In terms of industrial design, there isn't really much out there that's remotely interesting, especially not in your price range. There were some well-made camera a few years back, but it's all been tedium street for a while now.

If you don't mind using a film camera, something like a good condition Olympus Trip or Canon Q17 (if you can sort the battery issue) would be a lovely thing to own. I'd stay away from Lomo stuff unless you can source a serious bargain of an LC-A.

The only modern cameras that have interesting construction are the aforementioned EP-1, possibly one of the Ricohs, perhaps the Panasonic LX-3 and maybe the Canon G10, at a push. And the Leica M8, but let's not go there.
posted by Magnakai at 3:35 PM on June 25, 2009

Ricoh CX-1, since the GR Digital II is out of your budget.

But you can get some really sweet bits of solid industrial design if you're prepared to go with film.
posted by holgate at 5:21 PM on June 25, 2009

The terms "retro" and "digital" are diametrically opposed when it comes to digital cameras at this particular point in time.

That is, unless you want to drop a minimum of around $2500 for a used Leica M8 body plus at least an additional $500 or so for a lens.

In my personal opinion this would be a huge waste of money unless the camera's appearance was paramount over functionality.
posted by imjustsaying at 5:46 PM on June 25, 2009

Why don't you buy her a sweet old film camera on Ebay? If she's not that into taking pictures, you can get a beautiful object real cheap...film cameras aren't worth much. And they still use film, and you can still get it processed.

Fed cameras are russian copies of Leicas, the best cameras ever made, and are crazy cheap. And really fun and can actually take great pictures.
posted by sully75 at 9:59 PM on June 25, 2009

As others have pointed out, you won't be able to find a retro looking digital camera without paying the "hey-this-camera-looks-cool-and-retro" tax associated with it. If you're willing to spend the $900, the Olympus Pen you linked to is quite a beaut (I want one!).

If price is a big issue for you, then the Lomography cameras that telegraph linked to are a great choice. Holgas and Dianas are both really chic looking and take great unique photos.

If you do lean more towards Lomography, I'd also suggest looking at Blackbirds, which are plastic TLRs that look super cool.

Good luck with your search! I'd be curious to see what you finally decide on.
posted by carpyful at 1:46 AM on June 26, 2009

To echo my own post, this would be pretty sweet.
posted by sully75 at 7:30 AM on June 26, 2009

Kodak Retina IIa.
Shoots 35mm film. I picked one up cleaning out a dusty old closet years ago and shot B&W around San Francisco that weekend and it was awesome!
posted by Lukenlogs at 7:03 PM on July 1, 2009