Testing a new friend: Great Wall DF-3 camera
4 9This is a very funky camera. It is Chinese, a medium format single lens reflex camera and really lo-fi. Some sources say it was designed to have a decent medium format camera that was cheaper than the Seagull.
First I made a stupid mistake, I thought I was shooting 6×6 while there was a 4.5×6 frame inside. Yeah, all sources say that the 4.5×6 frames are hard to find. So I did not check and loaded the camera assuming I was shooting 6×6. Anyway.
Next funky thing: My version does not focus very well on infinity, only the center of the viewfinder is sharp. Not all Great Walls Have this problem, I have seen sharp pictures on da web.
This picture is taken at infinity at 1/125s. It is clearly not sharp. But I like it. I think I have enough sharp cameras. This one makes a perfect ‘lomo’ addition to my collection. It provides something new.
The camera has a multiple exposure button. Very handy, you don’t have to remember winding the film or not. If you have not wound it, you can’t take another pic, if you want to double exposures you have to hit the ‘MX’ switch.
And now comes the funniest of them all: It has a removable lens ! But there are no other lenses built for this camera. The lens is removable so you can use it on your enarger. Some sources say the original intentions were to build more lenses, which makes sense to me. It has a 39mm screw mount, yes the same as old Leicas and Zorkis and many more. So if you screw on a 50mm lens, you can make Macro shots ! Yippee ahey !
Greetz Wouter
written by gauthierdumonde on 2012-11-28
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