At 10:16 PM 10/23/00, Soren Svensson wrote:
I'm seriously considering buying the Zero 2000 and I think there are some
people on this list that have and I would like to get some input from you.
Is the camera as good as it looks on the website?
If you're talking about it's appearance, yes, at least until you use it
enough. Mine no longer looks at all like that.
If you're talking about how it works, it does what it's supposed to do.
How about fit and finish?
There isn't much to discuss there, but the wind knob isn't geared and it's
not all that smooth, but that's not a big deal. The back fits reasonably
well for a wood-to-wood connection.
One thing that makes me crazy, and it's not the fault of the Zero 2000, is
the red window for frame number. I can't see the markings on Tri-X and end
up with about eight shots a roll. Afga film is much better marked, at
least if you're looking through the red window. (Agfa also mint flavors
the backing end you lick, yummy.)
Would you recommend it?
Absolutely.
Is it worth the price?
That depends on how you feel about the price. The manufacturer sells it
cheaper, but Pinhole Resource is here in the US and easy to talk to by
phone (plus they use one of my photos to promote it.)
But it's definitely a quality product, and it's easy to use. Some of the
lower price pinhole cameras don't have tripod sockets, a real problem with
those ten minute exposures. If you prefer roll film to sheet, it's a
pretty good choice.
I did find some strange data on the site. According to the specifications,
it has a focal length of 1" (25.4 mm) and that would give a 130 degree
diagonal angle of view.
This was followed by a lot of math. I don't really know about the data, it
seems fairly wide to me.
It gets quite a bit of flare in the daylight, which can be sort of
interesting, like in this photo -
http://www.spirer.com/images/sunflower.jpg. And just for fun, here's
another one I posted to the list a while ago -
http://www.spirer.com/images/shrine.jpg.
Cheers,
Jeff Spirer
Photos: http://www.spirer.com
One People: http://www.onepeople.com/
