Diana+

Back when I was just beginning to learn about photography, my fiance and I went to the art museum in Milwaukee. We stopped in the gift shop, and something caught my eye. A Diana+. For those of you who don't know, the Diana is based off of medium format toy cameras that were made overseas in the 1960s and were designed to be cheap and put cameras in the hands of more people. The entire camera is made out of plastic, including the lens. The cameras are known for producing "dreamy," saturated photos. Of course, I didn't know any of this when Devan bought it for me. It's also worth mentioning that many of the Instagram filters are made to make photos look like the results of a Diana or other toy camera.

I picked up my first roll of film, which I think was around $6 for a roll, which I get 16 photos from. Medium format film is larger than the standard 35mm, which equals more detail and higher image quality. I find it extremely ironic that a camera that produces photos that have qualities that photographers often try to avoid uses film that professionals tend to use to get huge amounts of detail and requires relatively expensive film.

But, I love my Diana+. It's the only film camera I use, and the "controls" are pretty limited. There are three different aperture settings, four if you include the "pinhole" setting, which are "sunny, partly cloudy, and cloudy."  The focal distances of the 75mm fixed focal length lens, which is about a 50mm lens in 35mm terms, are 1-2m, 2-4m, and 4m to infinity. The shutter speeds are either 1/60th of a second or a bulb setting. If I remember correctly, the aperture of the "cloudy" setting is f/8.

My first roll of film was color, which I took and got developed. Only one of those photos turned out, but I remained determined. I picked up all of the supplies I would need in order to develop the film by myself. I picked up a few more rolls, this time black and white film, and snapped away. I developed a roll in my bathroom, which was exposed to the light, and therefore, didn't turn out. I will admit this was my fault. I got frustrated and ended up turning the bathroom light on when I couldn't get the film onto the spool; 50 minutes sitting in a dark bathroom was too much.

Three or four rolls later, and I finally got some results. I did some research to find out some guidelines to use the Diana. At first, I would just set the aperture to the "sunny" setting and use the bulb setting, exposing manually and hoping for the best. It took a lot for me to finally just trust the camera and use the 1/60 shutter speed. For some reason, the idea of trusting the camera this much was hard to cope with. After I went out and just started shooting with the 1/60, I fell in love with the plastic camera.

I'm not sure what it is about the Diana. Maybe it's the simple operation compared to my dSLRs. Maybe it's the way the photos look. Maybe it's the lightweight of the plastic body that makes it so easy to carry around, Maybe it's developing process in my bathroom. Maybe it's the idea that I don't know what I'm getting, and won't know until the film is developed. More than likely, it's a combination of all of these that make me love my Diana so much.