The $20 film camera challenge is something I came up with to dispel the myth that being creative requires the latest expensive modern digital camera gear.
The challenge is to buy a film camera for less than $20 and post some photos you take with it on Instagram. As of writing this, I searched eBay for “film cameras” under $20 and there are around 16,000 listings. So you have a lot to choose from. You get extra points if the camera is extra funky. Maybe a yogi bear camera? A Velveeta cheese camera? It just has to be under $20. There are even some really great quality old mechanical cameras from the golden age of film photography for under $20 like the Pentax Spotmatic F, or the Minolta SRT. These are awesome, well built, fully mechanical cameras with great optics. Go wild and be creative with your camera and post it on Instagram with the hashtag #20dollarcamerachallenge. With each photo you post, tag and challenge someone else to go discover their $20 camera and create their own photo masterpieces.
Tips on searching
Tips on finding a twenty-dollar camera. In searching on eBay use the search term “film camera” and you can select the price to be under $20. There are many “or best offer” listings that let you offer the seller your own price. Buying from a U.S. seller is a good idea unless you want to be patient. A package can take a month or more from some countries. But if you are willing to wait, there are some really interesting cameras in Russia and China for very little money. You can also search for things like “bakelite film camera” or “plastic film camera” to narrow things down. Or try your luck at garage sales, thrift stores, craigslist. It’s surprising how many old cameras are out there and most still work just fine. They all have their little quirks, but that adds to the experience and lots of character to your photos.
Tips on shooting
Here are a few shots from my first roll on the $20 camera challenge. It was interesting that by shooting with a point and shoot camera with very limited settings to worry about, I felt like I could just focus on being creative and not worrying about metering and all the details. It was a fun experiment.
A good idea is to pick a sunny day with good light. Most cheap cameras were made to have about a 1/100 of a second exposure at f11. Which is a good ballpark exposure for 100 ASA film on a nice day. On a cloudy day use 400 ASA and that should work pretty good with most cheap cameras. Don’t try to shoot indoors with most of these. It will be very underexposed.
Be creative and enjoy the limitations of the camera. A low quality or plastic lens can give you great flare and off colors. Embrace the funkiness of your camera. It may have light leaks and a fogged lens from its age. But that’s what the adventure of film photography is all about.
Film
It’s a good idea to buy a camera that the film is still being made and can be processed today. 35mm is a good choice for a beginner or 120 film is also widely available. If you’ve never shot film there are a ton of youtube videos on how to load film. You can “respool” 120 film onto 620 film reels. So a 620 camera works as well with a little more hassle. There are some places that cut film to fit on 127 spools so it is possible to shoot with a 127 camera but will cost more. There are adapters on using 35mm film in 120 cameras that are a fun way to expose the sprocket holes in your film as well. There is also the option of buying old expired film on eBay that isn’t made anymore and see what the results look like. There are a lot of creative options with old film cameras.
Go enjoy the $20 film challenge!
