Fiddling with a cheap point-and-shoot

The quest for the ultimate tool to capture lasting and haunting images is an unending journey. Living in Doha is a blessing when it comes to the amount of time one has available that can be spent in the pursuit of different hobbies, granted the hobbies are practicable within the limitations of this small country. The souqs of Doha is where the soul of this city resides, particularly Souq Waqif - more on that in a later post. Today I want to write about a cheap Agfa digital point-and-shoot and a Vivitar from a bygone era.

One of my frequent haunts is a lesser-known discount store called 'Al Mushiri'. This is the only place in Qatar where you can buy good Swiss cutlery by Wenger as well as the new GXR camera systems from Ricoh. They also sell some obsolete Minolta stuff at throwaway prices. When I saw the collection of old Minolta manual SLR lenses and the cheap point-and-shoot cameras, I got an idea to rip one of these cameras and replace the cheap plastic lens with a real SLR lens - my own ultra-cheap SLR. At the price these were sold, experimenting was well within budget. I spent $25 for the equipment.

The above photo is that of my son. This image was shot with an Agfa Sensor 505 with the lens replaced with a Vivitar 50mm F/2. The adaptation involved a weekend spent modeling a plastic tube to hold the lens at the right distance from the sensor and muffling it with a dark cloth to prevent light leak.

The lens is absolutely fantastic. Very soft in nature with good bokeh or background blur. The plastic lens of the camera had a IR filter. I was unable to get an IR filter to fit the Vivitar lens - it probably wouldn't have been work the cost anyway. So the image has a slight red cast, which I thought adds to the retro effect.

After a while, the lens adapter promptly broke. One of these days I am planning to rip the Agfa completely and use the innards to build a hand-made one.

Cheers.