Killer feature fails

[zou]

Have you ever bought a camera for its unique feature only to find it was either useless, a gimmick, or actually the camera's Achilles's heel?

There's much I really liked about my Pentax K100D and the fact it could be run off AA batteries was a major bonus in the buying decision. But the reality was that's definitely the camera's weak point - after a couple of years unless batteries were fully charged it wouldn't run. Eneloop style batteries helped but not a lot. There is the possibility to use a CRsomething instead but they are dear and if I recall correctly rechargeable wasn't available.

[squeamishossifrage]

Yes - the waist-level finder on the Rollei 2000. It put the price up considerably,  as became apparent when the 3003 and 3001 came out, but it really was bloody useless. You still had to flip out the magnifier and put your eye down to it to see anything.

[andy]

I still think eye controlled focus was cool although not everyone got on well with it. Better AI seems to have superceded it.

These days my auntie with MND communicates with an eye controlled keyboard on a tablet.

[nickr]

Jan 30, 2023 19:56:10 GMT squeamishossifrage said:

Yes - the waist-level finder on the Rollei 2000. It put the price up considerably,  as became apparent when the 3003 and 3001 came out, but it really was bloody useless. You still had to flip out the magnifier and put your eye down to it to see anything.

I like it - don't have the 3001, so both of my cameras have it. I use both the WLF and the magnifying finder on my Praktica VLCs a fair bit. And my favourite feature on the Pentax LX is the FB-1/FC-1 system finder/action finder combo, which is both a normal finder and a built-in right angle finder.

Wouldn't say it was useless - I find using a WLF makes me see the subject quite differently.

[nickr]

Jan 30, 2023 20:14:31 GMT andy said:

I still think eye controlled focus was cool although not everyone got on well with it. Better AI seems to have superceded it.

These days my auntie with MND communicates with an eye controlled keyboard on a tablet.

Always worked well for me. The EOS R3 has an updated version for selecting the start point for AF.

[nickr]

My first EOS, the 100, and the slightly earlier EOS 10 (previous model to the 5, loads of innovation in it) both had the possibility of using a special barcode reader to select a specific subject programme from a barcode book. The reader and book were included with the 10, and the package was an optional extra for the 100. I didn't get it when the 100 was my main camera, but I did pick one up years later for a couple of quid. Tried it out for half an hour, have never used it since.

The 100's predecessor, the 600, had a back available that could so all sorts of tricks, had a separate keyboard available, and could be connected to either some computer running CP/M or very early IBM PCs - either the PC or the XT, from memory. Fantastic bit of kit, total overkill.

Late model Kodak DSLRs were designed to be upgradeable in terms of buffer, and even sensor. the 14N did get a buffer upgrade, nothing - beyond firmware - was available for the SLR/N or SLR/C.

The Lomography Belair X6-12 is a very odd camera. It's a 6x12 bellows panoramic on 120, it has interchangeable lenses and aperture priority. The camera came with 58mm and 90mm plastic lenses that aren't very good, so they - briefly - made 90mm and 112mm glass lenses available (but try finding one now!). But the oddest thing is that the camera comes with 6x9 and 6x6 masks. I mean the whole point of the camera is that it's panoramic, it's a very silly way of shooting 6x6. Well, it's a very silly way of shooting at all...

[gray1720]

Bringing this topic down to my level - no, not the gutter, for once - I'm guessing from its short life that Kodak's autographic feature, whereby you could make a note on the film rebate, must have faded fairly quickly.

From the same stable, I suspect that the Vanity Kodaks, coloured and in a matching vanity case, simply arrived at the wrong time just as the Great Depression hit.

As they are 620 (I think) the Teague-styled Beau Brownies must be that bit later, and I do wonder about the motivation there, would you pay for an admittedly beautiful box camera when you could get something better for the same price?

[nickr]

Jan 31, 2023 8:28:00 GMT gray1720 said:

Bringing this topic down to my level - no, not the gutter, for once - I'm guessing from its short life that Kodak's autographic feature, whereby you could make a note on the film rebate, must have faded fairly quickly.

Must admit I was thinking the same.

From the same stable, I suspect that the Vanity Kodaks, coloured and in a matching vanity case, simply arrived at the wrong time just as the Great Depression hit.

I would guess so.

As they are 620 (I think) the Teague-styled Beau Brownies must be that bit later, and I do wonder about the motivation there, would you pay for an admittedly beautiful box camera when you could get something better for the same price?

I had to look them up, because I didn't think they were that much later, and they're not - 1930-33, and they took 120 (No. 2) or 116 (No. 2A). Lovely indeed.

I guess there's a long list of cameras that fall into this area - gold Rollei 35s, no end of Leicas, Coronets and so on, but one much more modern camera that I think really falls into the category of fails would be the Pentax K-01 Marc Newson edition - a camera that in many ways failed in many ways, but especially bright yellow.