review : the diana mini
I’ll be honest; I really did want to like this camera. I wanted to give an honest review, as I am sure it will be a hit among Lomographers. I read and re-read all of the comments left in the previous threads about the pros and cons of what the Diana Mini could and couldn’t be. I spoke to several photographers, designers and laymen giving them a chance to hold, play with and give their thoughts on the camera. So here we go, the review of the Diana Mini.
April 13th, 2010 |
[...] Nic’s honest review on his great site Four Corners Dark , he was unjustly accused of being biased against LSI due to [...]
April 12th, 2010 |
Of all the reviewers that didn’t like the Diana Mini, I liked yours the best. Why? You didn’t swear repeatedly and you weren’t hideously biased, it was an honest review.
It’s interesting to read reviews like yours though, because it is quite unfortunate that you had difficulties with the little camera. But like any other product in the world, of course it’ll have its cons and nothing can ever please everyone.
Judging from bad experiences from other users, I think the Diana Mini is good for spontaneous, open-minded people – not accusing anyone of being narrow-minded of course, but it seems like they had an unlucky experience or they simply didn’t like the unpredictability of the Diana Mini.
For people considering whether to get this camera, definitely read about all cons possible – it’s what I did, but nevertheless I got the camera. I was excited to have bought it, but I didn’t expect anything amazing from it. I treated the camera like a learning device as it was my first go at analogue/film photography, and just shot spontaneously and enjoyed the cute little thing. I was so very pleasantly surprised when I got my first 3 rolls (yes, I was quite enthusiastic) back from the lab. I was expecting almost nothing on the rolls but the camera had produced the most beautiful, gorgeous shots.
There were of course a few cons about my particular Diana Mini that I learned about, however I didn’t let that discourage me and give up, instead I embraced it and accepted it as a characteristic and flaw of the camera. Everyone’s opinions are fair enough. Everyone’s different, everyone likes different things, etc. So I personally recommend the Diana Mini to people who like the idea of half-frame and square-frame shots in one camera and who don’t mind focus or lighting etc to be perfect all the time, and who can be happy with experimenting and learning about their particular camera. Oh, and for people who don’t mind splurging quite a bit – I definitely agree that it could be cheaper!
But as a very easy-going person who goes where the wind takes me, I absolutely love this camera and I’m looking forward to experimenting and learning from the dud shots!
Good luck to you all
February 24th, 2010 |
Thanx for the review. I have only recently stumbled on the ‘toy camera phenomenon’ and became infatuated with the Diana Mini. Because i’m new the whole camera scene, i’m reconcidering buying the Diana Mini, as i have no idea what to do, and thinking about the SuperHeadz Golden Half. Thanx again for helping the newbee :]
September 7th, 2009 |
[...] Now, all that is my opinion. I realize that a lot of people are quite happy with their Diana+, and that’s great. I had some hopes for the Diana Mini, but Nic from Four Corners Dark quickly dispelled them. [...]
September 3rd, 2009 |
ouch!! I’m sad that it’s not a good product. Part of me thinks well, its supposed to be crappy, that’s the whole point. but it has to be fun-crappy. this sounds like aw-fu*-I-just-spent-so-much-money-crappy. oh well. as someone pointed out, there are some great images on flickr so at least its working out for some people.
looks like I’ll be getting my friend a golden half for her birthday instead. The analog bug is rubbing off on her now that we live together and I was wondering which of the two to get her. she loves square format so i was leaning towards the mini but i know she’ll think half frame is just as awesome plus I know she’ll flip out about how pretty the golden half special edition is. I would hate to freak a toy cam newbie out by getting her something that comes back with only one good picture on the first roll. i could scar her for life!
thanks for shedding some light on the possible cons, I don’t think I could get an honest assessment elsewhere!
September 1st, 2009 |
I used the Mini yesterday. I can only judge the basic usage of the camera because I haven’t gotten my roll developed yet, but I did not encounter any of the problems you did. I do have tiny girly hands, so maybe that helps. The film loaded fine, rewound fine, focusing didn’t bother me and the back seems to fit like a glove. I personally was surprised by the heft of it, considering the size. It seems to weigh the same as a regular Diana.
The viewfinder is small, but I don’t usually use the viewfinder so I don’t really care. Just like I never have my negs cut or printed when I get them developed so I don’t expect problems in that area either.
I did not try to switch formats. Well, I did but I forgot that you have to release the shutter before switching so I couldn’t get it to move. Yes, I thought the camera was broke but I referred back to the manual and figured it out, but not until I was through with the roll.
The only problem I had was when I first loaded the film and went to advance, the film sprocket snapped. I can’t really blame that on the camera either. I didn’t really pull the film out far enough the first time.
Maybe my feelings will change once I get the film back, but right now I’m happy I bought it. Much like with my Diana, when problems occur it’s usually my fault, not her’s.
I bought the Mini in spite of the fact that I rarely use either of my two Dianas. Why? I don’t know. Probably because it’s cute. I had wanted to get a Golden Half for a year or so but never got around to it. We’ll see. If it works as well as it did yesterday, I’ll be using it a lot.
September 1st, 2009 |
Thanks for the review. Conceptually it does seem like a cool idea, but execution-wise, hmm… I think I’ll stick with my Golden Half.
September 1st, 2009 |
it’s a shame you didn’t have a good run with it. i’ve seen pretty cool photos taken from the camera on flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/dianamini/pool/ already so it’s definitely still on my shopping list. thanks for the review though as always =]
August 31st, 2009 |
[...] Nuff said, go check it out. [...]
August 31st, 2009 |
Thanks for a great review Nic. Image quality looks pretty good, unfortunate that they built it so poorly. Maybe a mini 2.0 will remedy things. Bummer. I’ll be passing on this one as well. Better off getting the 35mm insert for the regular model. Now I need to re-consider the golden half.
August 31st, 2009 |
Great review Nic! Sounds like you had a torrid time with it!
LSI are sending us one to review, but by the sounds of it I don’t think my giant hands will get on very with it at all!! Think will pass onto someone else to review!
August 31st, 2009 |
Thanks for the review. I want(ed) one of these but I’ll pass on it now. Was waiting for some feedback before ordering since my Lomo Diana is a POS in the worst way. I won’t shoot it anymore since almost every frame is screwed up in some way.
Thanks for saving me some money, no Lomo for me this this round.
August 31st, 2009 |
good review. you take up things I thought of as small inconveniences but stacked together and with that poor quality I think I know where my money will end up.
but you did get some pleasant vignetting out of it. I’ll give it that atleast
August 31st, 2009 |
“and the grey opaque guides broke on the very first roll. So now they are stuck in the ‘half frame’ position permanently”
I also see the opaque guides when I’m shooting squares. You mean they are supposed to ‘retract’ when you choose the square mode?
August 31st, 2009 |
Well shoot. I hope mine lasts a little bit longer than yours did. Oh well. Great review though!
August 30th, 2009 |
Good review. After a test roll … I am having mixed feelings about it. Agree about the focusing ‘dial’. Maybe it’s meant for those kiddos and girls with small hands/fingers. To make it worse .. the front ‘plate’ is black and I can hardly see the ‘arrow’ … so it’s really hard to see what focusing distance is set without some ’staring’ at the front.
August 30th, 2009 |
Thanks, Nic. Great review.
August 30th, 2009 |
thanks for the review Nic! When I first read about the Diana I was already pissed about it not having a hot-shoe. What a rip-off! I guess I am sort of biased towards Holgas though, but all my instructors at photo school who shot with toy cameras (nearly all of them, toy cam love!) preferred the Holga over the Diana. When I asked them why, they all thought they were made too cheaply.
August 30th, 2009 |
Hey Nic..thanks for doing this review..I wasn’t entirely interested in ths camera but your review does answer any lingering questions I may have had and I agree $60.00 is way to much money to spend on something this undependable..I will stick with my Holga’s and my brownie Hawkeye’s and cresta..at least they feel like they are made of more than $1.00 worth of plastic..I love toy cameras and will keep looking at what ever comes on the market but not going for this one!
August 30th, 2009 |
““The Diana Mini, the Yugo of Toy Cameras”” – I can see this becoming a marketing slogan some time in the future
August 30th, 2009 |
Anyhow, this little thing made me think about getting squares out of my 135BC, so it’s at least one point to LSI for giving me an idea.