I think it’s fair to say there is at least one film camera we would all like to try. Me? There are several. One of them happened to be the Debonair aka the Plastic Fantastic. A medium format film camera from the FPP. It’s kind of like a Holga, but it’s not.
Recently my family and I took our vacation to the Carolina’s. Some places we’ve seen before, others places we have not. I had just purchased one of these Debonair’s from the FPP and felt this would be a great opportunity to run a couple of rolls through it.
Again, I am not a technical kind of guy when it comes to cameras but I’ll throw a couple of specs at you. This camera is a 6x6.45 MF camera with a 1/50th shutter speed on cloudy and 1/100th shutter speed on sunny. The lens is a 60mm f/8 piece of plastic. What’s cool is the frames are in portrait orientation. I like that. Another thing that’s cool is the shutter. It’s quick and snappy, unlike my Holga. It’s light and easy to load the film. I did find one thing that I am not a fan of…the viewfinder. It’s square and it being a 645 film camera, you have to guess the framing of the photo you’re taking. Why is it like that? I have no idea.
I believe I ended up shooting three rolls while on vacation and I just developed and scanned the first roll. When they say dreamy, you get dreamy. You may want that you may not. I didn’t expect “sharp” images so I am happy with the results. The compositions were better than expected so that’s a good start. I am definitely going to put some more film through it to work on the focus and composition. Maybe I can work out the focusing and composition.
Some of you may be wondering what I like better…the Holga or the Debonair. Well, the Holga. I have much more experience with the Holga and know what to expect. The Debonair? I’ve only put three rolls through it. Maybe I’ll still prefer the Holga a few months down the road maybe I’ll prefer the Debonair. Time will tell. Anyways…I tried to keep this blog short and simple. I’ve attached a few of the Debonair photos from the first roll. Let me know what you think. Are you a fan of the Plastic Fantastic? Do you prefer the Holga? What do you like and dislike about this camera?
FPP Debonair/TMax 100/Xtol-R
FPP Debonair/TMax 100/Xtol-R
FPP Debonair/TMax 100/Xtol-R
FPP Debonair/TMax 100/Xtol-R
FPP Debonair/TMax 100/Xtol-R
FPP Debonair/TMax 100/Xtol-R