MikeHawkey.com

The ‘Toy Camera’ is something I seem to drop in and out of over the years. A recent rummage in one of my local quirky second hand stores revealed a vintage Debonair Super-lens No.809. A replica of the original Diana 120 film plastic cameras. the Debonair (depending where you read) is probably the best clone of the bunch.

Dusty, dirty and not entirely 100% it looked more like a vintage display piece than a still working toy camera – but I saw some hope for it. It was complete!

The shutter was working fine in bulb mode, but sticking a little in normal. I gave the unit a clean over with a damp cloth and buds (dont use chemicals on plastic lenses!) and gave a single drop of machine oil on the shutter – that brought it back to life operating like new! yay!

Unlike the more modern Holga, the Debonair/Diana has three proper aperture options (depending on your modern Holga, you have 2 or 1 (even if the switch says 2). Handy for a camera with a single shutter speed. Focus was a little harder to make out, so I made a new focus sticker to save me squinting as I twist to zone focus.

For a first outing I confirmed that the camera all works as it should. Even at roughly 60 years old the camera had no light leaks of note and featured the familiar sharper centre than edge lens. Unlike the Holga, its square format is a little smaller at about 4cm X 4cm (Holga is 5.6 X2). This means smaller negatives, but more shots! – 16 in total.

I also rigged up a new home made scanning setup for it. Still needs some tweaking, but Im happy with the result. The Debonair has pulled me back to take some more Holga shots now. Im not sure which I like more – the vintage original or the ‘modern’ Holga.

More next time!