Diana cameras (the original Holgas) can be really expensive. The results are awesome (and have personalties quite different from Holgas), but for someone who actually wants to make pictures rather than collect cameras, a hunnert bux or more for a piece of 40 year old plastic is simply bullshit. Fortunately, there are a ton of clones, made by the same company with the same warbly lenses, that cost a much saner $10-20. I don’t know about yours, but I’m pretty sure my film doesn’t care whether the camera says Diana or Windsor on the front.
Great! But how do you find the clones? Photographer and camera collector Allan Detrich has a large list of Diana clone names to watch out for. Dig it.
That is a great list. I found a Sarco-Flex Super Lens at an antique store a while back and had no idea exactly how it classified. Allan’s site was the only one that had any information about the camera!
My general rules for buying these sorts of cameras are: is it plastic? is it medium format (the diana’s take mf film even though the pictures aren’t a full 6cm x 6cm)?
Alan has definately put together a hell of a historical collection of Diana and clone cameras. What I find interesting, is that they most likely made a hell of alot more original Dianas than they did than any particular clone model. The original mold was for the Diana and most of the clones came form the same mold and received different badging( names ).If you use that logic, clones should be worth more due to the fact they were probally produced at lower numbers. I have a very rare clone called the Jaybee. This is one of my main shooters, and I love it over any of my other clones and 2 original Dianas! You hit the nail right on the head, alot of people are passing on the clones to get the Diana name, when they really dont need to do it :)